Badgers again, but different.

I always like to try and get out at this time of year and see how the Badgers are getting on. This time though, I decided to watch another sett we have on the estate. This one is in the middle of a wood in a large pit and has only been occupied for just over a year. The pit is farly large with good high banks so you can sit up high enough so as not to be scented and also, so as not to disturb the sett.

The only trouble with this sett however, was the tree canopy above. It was quite enclosed so it was going to be very difficult to have enough light to get any pictures. I certainly did not want to use flash and disturb them, so my only option was to use as high a ISO speed as possible and hope that they came out early while there was enough light to get get through the canopy. I was however, guaranteed good views if they came out, as the bottom of the pit was quite open.

As is my habit, I arrived nice and early to let everything in the wood settle down. Things settled down quickly, and while I waited for the first Badger to appear, I was able to watch a Great Spotted Woodpecker nest in a nearby Oak Tree. The young were well grown and  every so often, one would poke its head out of the hole calling for food. It was quite amazing how often the parents were coming back with food, so they were obviously feeding very well. I could also hear the chatter of a family of Jackdaws that were in a hollow in a Beech Tree. Although I could not see the opening from where I was sitting, I soon knew when the parents were coming in by the cacophony of noise from the young.

I didn't have long to wait for the first Badger to appear. It was just early enough with just enough light to photograph it and to take some video too. It had a bit of a scratch and a clean and then started to root around after grubs and I actually see it catch and eat a Worm! Then to my suprise, it decided to wander off and went away with purpose into the wood. In doing so, it came right up the bank past me about fifteen feet away. A short while later, a slight sound behind me made me turn around slowly to see a Fox slipping through the wood. Then the other Badgers started to come out of the sett.

Over the next hour or so, I was able to watch two or three at a time foraging, playing and also one gathering fresh bedding and shuffling backwards with it down into the sett. The Badgers though were not the only things in the wood this evening. A movement to my left caught my eye and I looked to see a Fox coming down the bank into the pit. This one was very obviously a different one to the one I had already seen, being a shade darker, slighter build and lacking the white tip on the brush that was so evident on the other Fox.

I had thrown a few peanuts into the pit when I first arrived and the Fox was quite happy to spend the next twenty minutes or so eating what it could find while at the same time, keeping a wary eye on the Badgers that were rootoing around. By this time the light had really faded under the tree canopy, but I was able to get one or two pictures of the Fox on top of a tree trunk. Though the pictures were grainy, they were the best I could hope for and I was happy enough with them. They will never win prizes, but was a good documentation of what was happening right there at that moment in time, which is important to me and a huge amount of the reason I take pictures in the first place. My pictures are always in their natural state and not taken at some wildlife park or sanctuary. That I am afraid is not for me and is no challenge at all.

There was also more movement in the wood behind me while I was photoraphing and videoing the Fox. That turned out to be three Red Deer stags with their antlers in velvet. I could not get any shots of them then, but when I slipped away frome the Badgers, I guessed that there was a good chance of the deer being on the field  outside the wood. And sure enough they were. The field had recently been planted with potatoes and the deer were happily digging them up with their hooves and eating them!

The light was still just good enough outside the wood to get some pictures, albeit on my highest ISO setting. Again, I spent about ten minutes or so getting a few shots and some video. One of the stags slowly wandered up to within about forty yards of me. Eventually they wandered off of the field and so ended a really rewarding and eventful evening with not just a different clan of Badgers, but also some of the other wildlife that inhabit the woods.