Did I just see what I think I saw...?

[SimpleSimon]

A bit of an odd one. I was out with the dogs this morning in one of my usual haunts just having a wander, when I saw a muntjac sulking around near the path. I stopped and crouched down to have a look and snap a couple of quick photos on the phone, slightly miffed that I'd left my binoculars in the car because I was only having a quick walk and hadn't really expected to see anything very interesting...

Anyway, when I stood up to carry on, another animal came out of the cover nearby and crossed the path in front of me. My very first reactive thought was "cat" because of its size, but I very quickly realised it definitely wasn't a cat. Neither was it a dog, a fox, a badger, or anything else like that.

I think it might have been a pine marten...?

Being truthful, it was the wrong colour in my mind. Too dark. But I thought it was too big for a mink... It had no visible chest bib, but it was quartering away so I don't think I'd have seen it, if it did have one. The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to say mink, but I really did think it was too big.

A woman who'd been walking towards me in the distance asked me if I'd just seen something. She asked if I knew what it was, and said it wasn't anything she recognised (not that she seemed especially clued-up...)

I know there have been a few sightings of martens in England. This is the Severn Valley area of Worcestershire/Shropshire.

Has anyone else seen a pine marten outside of its expected range?

 

[Jelen]

A bit of an odd one. I was out with the dogs this morning in one of my usual haunts just having a wander, when I saw a muntjac sulking around near the path. I stopped and crouched down to have a look and snap a couple of quick photos on the phone, slightly miffed that I'd left my binoculars in the car because I was only having a quick walk and hadn't really expected to see anything very interesting...

Anyway, when I stood up to carry on, another animal came out of the cover nearby and crossed the path in front of me. My very first reactive thought was "cat" because of its size, but I very quickly realised it definitely wasn't a cat. Neither was it a dog, a fox, a badger, or anything else like that.

I think it might have been a pine marten...?

Being truthful, it was the wrong colour in my mind. Too dark. But I thought it was too big for a mink... It had no visible chest bib, but it was quartering away so I don't think I'd have seen it, if it did have one. The more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to say mink, but I really did think it was too big.

A woman who'd been walking towards me in the distance asked me if I'd just seen something. She asked if I knew what it was, and said it wasn't anything she recognised (not that she seemed especially clued-up...)

I know there have been a few sightings of martens in England. This is the Severn Valley area of Worcestershire/Shropshire.

Has anyone else seen a pine marten outside of its expected range?

Anywhere near water? Possibly an Otter as they can travel quite a distance.

 

[User00056]

My guess would be otter, too

 

[SimpleSimon]

Anywhere near water? Possibly an Otter as they can travel quite a distance.

There is water around but it would have been quite some distance from the nearest...

 

[finnbear270]

They can get a fair patter on, saw an adult with three cubs in tow once, fair traveling along.
nearest lake around two miles away, River Weaver way a ways.

 

[SimpleSimon]

They can get a fair patter on, saw an adult with three cubs in tow once, fair traveling along.
nearest lake around two miles away, River Weaver way a ways.

Interesting... This would have been maybe half a mile from the nearest small brook, and perhaps the best part of a mile (up a steep hill) from the Severn itself.

 

[sich1]

if it had longer legs than you would expect on an otter it could have been a martin.

 

[Bo Diddley]

Otters will travel miles away from a decent watercourse by following ditches & dykes. Bloody things are everywhere.

 

[sauer]

Pine Martins are dark

 

[paulst]

You clearly know what you are talking about so would almost certainly have recognised an otter. If you thought it was a pine marten, and they are known locally then your first call is usually correct. Failing that then mink would be my guess.

 

[gixer1]

Interesting... This would have been maybe half a mile from the nearest small brook, and perhaps the best part of a mile (up a steep hill) from the Severn itself.

No problem for an otter. I had one walk past me in a highseat on a nice sunny evening, it continued up the hill into a rabbit warren…and not long after came out with a rabbit! And that was way more than a half mile from the nearest water - there were photographs I took on here somewhere.

 

[Stuart Mitchell]

I thought you were going to say a puddy cat

 

[si_b1979]

Pine Martins apparently have a presence in Shropshire: Shropshire pine martens | Shropshire Wildlife Trust

We really don't need any more apex predators introduced taking game birds etc. If they are there, they certainly aren't making a dent in the grey squirrel population!

 

[Tony Morgan]

Polecat?

 

[SimpleSimon]

Polecat?

Too big/wrong colour...

I feel like I'd have recognised an otter, so at the moment I'm calling it a big mink. I just don't think there would be pine martens there that nobody had seen before

 

[TURNBOLT]

Pine Martins are darker than I ever thought and going across open ground from cover to cover they run at a fair old lick.I decided they were trying to evade aerial predators.

 

[Goingback]

We have had polecats turn up in numbers and now pine martens have been filmed locally. I think that there is a fair chance that it was one as the same 'hero's' that are spreading beaver around are also releasing the predators.

 

[MarinePMI]

Pine Martins apparently have a presence in Shropshire: Shropshire pine martens | Shropshire Wildlife Trust

We really don't need any more apex predators introduced taking game birds etc. If they are there, they certainly aren't making a dent in the grey squirrel population!

Well, you could always hunt the grey squirrels....

 

[Dunwaters]

If what you saw had a rectangular outline and was about the size of a small cat, it was almost certainly a marten. Theres a lot more of them about and they’re more widely distributed than the wildlife protectors are willing to admit.
Don’t believe that nonsense about them only killing grey squirrels either, they’re an Eurasian species that only has access to greys in the UK and Ireland.
What squirrels do you think they catch everywhere else?

 

[SimpleSimon]

I emailed the local forestry commission office last night, as it was their ground I saw saw it on. I've had a reply from the wildlife ranger, if it was a pine marten I saw then it's the first/only report. I don't imagine I'll ever see it again, whatever it was