Loveable rogues
COUNTRY MOUSE thinks it’s a ‘rare gift’ to see a pine marten and it was a good week for the creatures in Wales (June 21). Some years ago, we had a den of them in a birch wood not far from our house. No fence will keep pine martens out and the kits were soon in the kitchen garden. One afternoon, I went out to pick raspberries and they ran away screaming with glee, having got there first. They also like honey. Being short of hives, I’d put a swarm of bees into a travelling box. The following morning, it had been torn open, but the honeycombs were untouched—the bees had seen the intruders off, no doubt badly stung. The adults are mainly nocturnal, but the youngsters would even come to the back door, looking for the crumbs put out for birds. Thank you for producing such an interesting magazine—as one of your older readers at 93, it keeps me in touch with the outside world. Lucinda Bangor-jones, Sutherland