I wanted to get images of martens in their rich winter coats and as daylight sightings would be unlikely at this time of year camera traps were the way to go. This left the days free to photograph red squirrels, a subject I have never really tried to do in earnest. In the past I have had a day here and there on them in both England and Ireland with not much to show for it. So I was very pleased indeed to get a nice set of images and plan to go back for more in the future. I found them tremendous fun and thanks to James' hard work on the site, I had 5 or 6 squirrels coming and going each morning. As I was just starting out with this species I stuck to fairly standard portrait and environmental type shots but as James develops the site further there will be opportunities for leaping squirrels and reflections.
James' plan is to develop the site as much for pine martens as squirrels, not necessarily in the same part of the forest, but at the moment both species use the same area at different times. The idea is to try and get martens visiting an area during daylight, last and first light probably, and then to run hide rental/workshops for this rare and normally elusive animal alongside his current squirrel operation.
You can get in touch with James for more information about squirrel and pine marten photography through his website.

















