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Jul 2022
6:28pm, 4 Jul 2022
2,209 posts
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Heinzster
Roberto, could it have been a pine marten?
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Jul 2022
7:11pm, 4 Jul 2022
4,260 posts
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J2R
Apparently there are now a fair number of polecats living wild in Norfolk, which was news to me. On Saturday I went on a very interesting tour of Wild Ken Hill in north east Norfolk, where Springwatch has come from for the last couple of years. Didn't actually see an awful lot, but the guy was very informative and the whole project is so exciting, it's great to see it unfolding, even if it's only very early days yet. It took Knepp a good few years to turn things around but it's amazing what's happened there, and I'm hopeful the same will be true of WKH.
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Jul 2022
8:05pm, 4 Jul 2022
3,731 posts
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jacdaw
More likely an escaped or feral domestic ferret.
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Jul 2022
2:40pm, 5 Jul 2022
14,382 posts
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HowFar?
Pine martens have the little pale brown bib to help to identify them and they do tend to move in bounds rather than running. We have quite a few round here.
I finally managed to get a picture of what I think is a spotted flycatcher. Am I right? It was behaving in exactly the way that the rspb website said they do, sitting on a perch ( my washing line in this case, but it also sat on a branch and the wall), then leaping up to catch a fly before returning to its spot.
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Jul 2022
2:47pm, 5 Jul 2022
3,732 posts
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jacdaw
Yes; Spotted fly.
Lovely birds. That looping from a perch to catch a fly, then returning to the same spot is really diagnostic.
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Jul 2022
6:17pm, 5 Jul 2022
90,846 posts
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Hanneke
Yes, I was absolutely certain I saw a pine marten on a client's land a few years ago. I had seen them in Scotland, so unmistakable for me. They are rare here, so I contacted the Welsh entity that dealt with their re-intruduction to mid wales and they were very pleased to find they were spreading but to keep quiet about it...
My neighbour insists polecats steal chicken's eggs AND kill chickens but I have never seen one here. It is the magpies that steal eggs and foxes that kill chickens.
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Jul 2022
6:31pm, 5 Jul 2022
2,203 posts
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Roberto
I've been desperate to see a pine marten for years, and that was my initial thought, but looking at pictures online, it was polecat/ferret.
My stepdad and sister saw a pine marten near their home near cockermouth one evening but I wasn't aware they had them in the area while I lived there.
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Jul 2022
7:37pm, 5 Jul 2022
6,240 posts
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um
Saw goldfinches out 'in the wild' today (SWCP) - and heard the noise they make.
Unusual because I think of them as almost tame, as they feed in flocks on our feeders, and being indoors watching them, I rarely hear them.
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Jul 2022
10:20pm, 5 Jul 2022
90,853 posts
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Hanneke
Roberto, pine martens are super cute! And once you have seen them, the are quite distinctly different. Brown, rounder face, no facial markings.
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Jul 2022
8:43am, 6 Jul 2022
6,242 posts
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um
Not a pine marten, or a bird, but a weasel ran across the road in front of us yesterday. Surprised how thin it was. It didn't hang around to look at us, so never saw it's face.
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Bird song watch
Jul 2024