The urban fox is a well-known raider of garbage bins or dust bins. Stray cats or dogs may scratch at bags containing household food rejects and overs, but squirrels, badgers and other fauna are not often mentioned. Now a reader from the West puts forward another candidate. Last July and August, writes Ruth Houston from Terryduff, Bofeenaun, Ballina, Mayo, that the bin at her back door had been rummaged occasionally and bits of bread and scraps pulled out of bags and around the bin. "We suspected that a cat or dog was responsible, so put a large stone on the lid. Next morning we heard a thud and looking through a convenient window saw that the culprit was a large pine marten. It seemed to be pouring itself rapidly in a continuous liquid movement in and out of the bin, pulling out tit-bits. The colouring of its coat was as you describe, but I'm afraid he must have seen us watching for he came no more. Our house is surrounded by rough grassland and there is an oak wood and pine wood about 500 yards away."
Our correspondent then refers to information about martens in a book quoted more than once here: The Fowler in Ireland by Sir Ralph Payne-Gallwey, Bart. He was writing in the late 19th century of the marten when "its chief enemies have been game preservers and their keepers". Nevertheless he gave a list of many places where the martens were holding their own, especially where portions of ancient forests still remained: Ballykyne, near Cong, County Mayo; Kylemore, County Galway and goes on to give perhaps a score of places in addition where the marten was to be found, including recording "quite a plague" on the Tomgraney estate where they were preserved by their owner, an Englishman who had recently purchased the property. He noted that in 1870 "Mr Glennon, the taxidermist of Dublin, received no less than 13 martens from different parts of Ireland for preservation. Not one of these had the white breast which is characteristic of the Beech Marten." The pine marten has, according to Collins's Field Guide to Mammals, a throat bib of creamy yellow.
Our correspondent says that they have seen the animal from time to time over 30 years "but more so in the past 10 years." Drumin Wood near Foxford has martens "as last year two small kits met us gambolling along the road like small monkeys". She is hoping for the return of her earlier visitor. Y