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Critter report: a tiny predatory visitor
Nov. 22nd, 2024 10:19 pm(People on FB have already seen some of these pictures, but there are more here.)
A pine marten (American marten) climbed all over the house yesterday in pursuit of our insulation squirrels. I haven't posted about the Squirrel Problem but it's been going on since last summer, when squirrels started stealing insulation one squirrel-sized chunk at a time, and have literally emptied some parts of our walls, the little jerks.
Anyway, yesterday Orion said, "There's something jumping around in the yard!"
I ran over and looked. Martens are basically large ferrets, and for a while we just watched it bounding around in the snow. I ran to get my camera eventually, but only got one picture because it was just so fast-moving and usually appeared in a bounce in between vanishing into the snow.
We also watched it climb a tree - straight up the bark - and then it was just hanging around on the tree, occasionally swishing its tail around excitedly like cats do.
But THEN it climbed up on the house and got right in the window and I got some great pictures.
I can't get over the giant feet; they're like big mittens, so oversized compared to the rest of it!
It zipped around on the deck a lot but moved way too fast for me to get any pictures of it (I'd usually have the camera pointed at where it was half a second ago) except when it got interested in the second level of the deck, probably because of squirrels, and stood up on its back legs. Orion calls this picture "nanobear."
It zipped up the ladder at supersonic speed and I lost sight of it.
I heard some rustling up there for a while afterwards, but never was quite sure where it went after that, or when it left.
I wish it good hunting.
A pine marten (American marten) climbed all over the house yesterday in pursuit of our insulation squirrels. I haven't posted about the Squirrel Problem but it's been going on since last summer, when squirrels started stealing insulation one squirrel-sized chunk at a time, and have literally emptied some parts of our walls, the little jerks.
Anyway, yesterday Orion said, "There's something jumping around in the yard!"
I ran over and looked. Martens are basically large ferrets, and for a while we just watched it bounding around in the snow. I ran to get my camera eventually, but only got one picture because it was just so fast-moving and usually appeared in a bounce in between vanishing into the snow.
We also watched it climb a tree - straight up the bark - and then it was just hanging around on the tree, occasionally swishing its tail around excitedly like cats do.
But THEN it climbed up on the house and got right in the window and I got some great pictures.
I can't get over the giant feet; they're like big mittens, so oversized compared to the rest of it!
It zipped around on the deck a lot but moved way too fast for me to get any pictures of it (I'd usually have the camera pointed at where it was half a second ago) except when it got interested in the second level of the deck, probably because of squirrels, and stood up on its back legs. Orion calls this picture "nanobear."
It zipped up the ladder at supersonic speed and I lost sight of it.
I heard some rustling up there for a while afterwards, but never was quite sure where it went after that, or when it left.
I wish it good hunting.