Well I found a feeding station on one of the fallen trees I’ve started to chop up, and so set up a cam:
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Looks like a wonderful Pine Marten to me… well done.
If I recall correctly Stone Martens are sleeker than the PM and certainly with a less bushy tail…
We were very surprised to capture it in broad daylight !
The other footage is of a pair of buzzards, what appears to be a male bringing food to woo his actual or future mate.
We watch the raptors swirling and performing… then lose them when they almost hit the ground as they dive for their prey… lucky you to be able to see them at that point.
Well, I’d been cutting the trunk and found matted hair from what appeared to be a small rodent spread around on parts of it, and was lucky enough to have a neighbouring tree to put the trailcam on.
The marten’s presence we’d suspected before, as I’d managed to step in some delightfully smelling excrement at the base of the fallen tree next to the one in shot, and put my hand in one of its scent marked patches !!!
Super videos !
Wham-Bam-Thank-You-Ma’am…! Chaffinch style……
How could she refuse that male plumage?
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Hope you don’t mind RicePudding, but I’ve made the 2 pictures of your bird of prey into a sort of .gif format with bird sounds in the background.
The branch appears to move under the weight of the bird. A weighty bird. What bird is it?
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It is a buzzard, the male in this case of a couple, or at least his attempts to be in a couple (I don’t know enough about buzzard pairing behaviour to be able to tell. I have video footage of them as well, for which I posted a link the other day.
The trunk, which does indeed bounce when they land and take off, is used as a perch for presenting food to the female. To the left of the left foot there is a dead animal, probably a rodent, e.g. a vole, by the size of it, but he has also brought small birds to the table.
His wannabe, or actual, mate, when she deigns to come and pick it up, shoos him away, or else he just moves out of the way so that she can pick it up, at which point she flies off with it somewhere else.
He is noticeably smaller than she is, but he is much darker coloured (dark brown wings and body) - she’s grey-brown and lighter all over.
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The cat presented me with this this morning:
I relocated it to the vineyard. First of the season for us.
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This is a short video of the buzzard couple, with the female taking food presented by the male. Still don’t know whether he is bringing food for her, or whether she is taking the food to a nest.
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I could watch that all day, it is very addictive. I see plenty of Buzzards round here, but never that close. Perhaps I should make better use of my Trail Camera which I have been meaning for several days to set up watching a hole in the earth between the rocks bearing the liner to my swimming pond. But that is a night time enterprise and somehow never get the urge to go out into the blackness last thing at night. 
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This little fella has just crawled out of the belladonna, I’m hoping that it’s not after my glass of beer!
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Not sure if my post qualifies for inclusion here, but why not…
It seems there’s more in our gardens, below ground, than I think any of us realises…! A revelation for me at least.
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Thanks for that…
Truly, it’s given me a “Ted Moult” moment… (anyone old enough to understand ???)
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My favourite - Percy Thrower. My first ever gardening book was one by him. Not a single picture in it and densely written text. I still have it!
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I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Mr Smith… I would watch his programmes with my little one beside me.
One day she very seriously said…
He’s not married you know…
I asked her why she said that (I’m thinking, what have I missed while I was outside…)
Because HE is doing the gardening !
OH roared with laughter when he got back from work… (he hates gardening and always leaves me to forage as best I can)
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The garden is my wife’s domain, although I cut the grass and help trim the rose arch as needed. You can’t have 2 people in charge with different ideas, and I’d prefer to leave her an area of unquestioned expertise and control.
True. But as the one in charge it’s nice to have “staff” from time to time. Unfortunately that’s always the moment OH decides there is something far more important that needs doing elsewhere. May have something to do with the fact that he got shouted at when we bought our first house together. The “garden” (size of pocket handkerchief with several fancy plants) needed weeding - unfortunately the plants went along with the weeds.
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