Confused Identities

Here's a pine marten that thinks it's a bird, trying to eat seed from a feeder. The agility of these animals is breathtaking, though this one doesn't look too pleased with what he's found once up there.

Dave Kime, who lives in Glenborrodale and who took these pictures, has set Diary readers a challenge: to design a bird feeder that is pine-marten-proof. So as not to cause confusion with the advanced designs The Diary creates, such as its chaffinch-proof peanut dispenser, Dave has designated the anti-marten feeder as Model 857c. It's quite a challenge.

And here's a moth that thinks it's a cat. This picture of an emperor moth was taken by Dave on Ben Laga a few weeks ago.

Many thanks to Dave for the pictures and ideas. To help with the design work, he's promised us some more photos, showing how the pine marten manages to get up a bare steel pole. We look forward to them.