Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

Solved – The Great Peanut Mystery

by admin - 19:51 on 10 June 2012

For some time, the peanut feeder on the apple tree has emptied three times quicker than the one near the living room window. I'd put this down to an avian desire for privacy until this afternoon when I saw a woodpecker extract a nut through the feeder's mesh and fly away with his booty.

Then a great tit did the same thing. Clearly, the latest batch of peanuts were defective.

Intrigued, I went outside to the compare mesh size of the two feeders, in case under-sized nuts were able to slip through. What I found was a hole in the apple tree feeder where a wire was broken and others pushed out of place.

This might have been caused by a marten but the most likely cause is over-attention by woodpeckers. I've seen three in the garden at the same time so the chances are that many more make use of our generosity. They're welcome to it.

There's a lot of it about. Last night the pine martens arrived mob-handed, although too late for snappery. A larger individual hoovered up the Nutella on the gate then loped into the wilderness at the bottom of the garden just seconds before a smaller marten took its place, looked disappointed by the lack of chocolate, then tucked into the peanut butter left behind by its fussy predecessor.

Fortunately there was Nutella to be found on The Stump a minute later.

Marten mums and offspring should have parted last year, so it may just be coincidence that they were around at the same time, but I like to think that Mrs Marten is still lending a paw to Young Marten.

The Bushnell showed a marten on The Stump at five this morning. A committed wildlife snapper would be up bright and early, and in his hide, to make the best of these opportunities. One day.

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