18/07/2024
🤫Black Isle wildlife at work. A wee project I've had on the go for 6weeks or so is proving to be a success! 🥳 After months of tracking wild animal p**p 💩 and trails 🐾 in one of the extensive forests🌲that run the length of the Black Isle, I set up a site nearly a mile away from the main (and very infrequently used track) deep into the dense forest. I found a nice spot where some animal tracks crossed over. It was very quiet, no birds or anything in this part so I was sceptical about how successful this would be. However, 6 weeks later and the spot is buzzing with birds, coal, blue and great tit, Crested Tit , Jays, great spotted woodpe**ers, siskins, tree creepers, dunnock, robin and chaffinch. I also have nightly visits from a big burley badger (who will often trash the bird feeders if he can reach them!) A few roe deer, small rodents but my most prized beastie and biggest reason for setting up the site - Pine Martens. A firm favourite of mine I've only had a tiny handful of special encounters where they've appeared and I've enjoyed a few moments of their company but a lot of the time its seeing them dash across the road. Their poo is fairly identifiable if your in the know so finding their poo on the trail next to an animal track that disappeared into the trees and bushes seemed like a good place to start. Many weeks passed with no pineys to show but the badger was a regular as were the noisy and delightfully intelligent jays. Then finally one night he appeared out of the darkness, very scittish for his first few visits, then gradually becoming braver, staying around for longer, then eventually this last week he's been visiting during daylight! The project continues but for now heres some of my forest friends! 🥰🐦🦡🌲🌲🦌🐾
