With a fortnight of Easter holidays, the Wildlife Hide had its fair share of guests and wildlife visitors. Spring has finally sprung here in the Cairngorms with two weekends of sunshine and warmer temperatures. The birds are certainly singing, and the first daffodils have made an appearance.
Now that dusk is falling at our meeting time, it is giving us good views of Roding Woodcock, Tawny Owl flying over and even our first sighting of a Pipistrelle Bat coming out of hibernation. Our hide, with all round vision outside is a great place for guests to scan the environment, with one family watched a Tawny owl as it sat in the shadows of the branches and others seeing two Bank Voles and a Brown Hare.
Climbing Badger (Kate Mennie)
Our acrobatic climbing Badger showed off to our guests, climbing the two metres up the tree to feed on the hard to reach peanuts. Two females that were underneath the tree were getting any scraps that rolled down, with one even attempting to climb herself. With many different Badgers starting to appear at the hide after the Winter months, it’s not unusual for them to have family disputes with some showing slight wound marks. The weather has been mixed over the past two weeks and the Badgers have been coming in looking a bit scruffy and dusty.
Female Pine Marten (Kate Mennie)
With the lure of peanut butter and the occasional egg, the Pine Martens have been coming later in the evening. Our female Pine Marten, with a distinctive stripe marking on her bib, came in very quickly to inspect the table and tree branches. She missed out on the egg however one evening as the wind blew it off the table causing it to smash on the ground. Other delights were available though!
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