Thursday 6 April 2017

Badgers

 

Badger eating peanuts at bird feeder station


I've been taking pictures of badgers for the past few months.

We've had badgers at the top  of the hill for many years, sometimes seen running across the road at night and roadkill once or twice in 25 years.

I spotted a badger in the car headlights on the house drive in autumn last year. I got an impression of the tail end before It disappeared. It happened so quickly that I wasn't 100% sure of what I'd seen. Then a few weeks later I saw it again, definitely a badger.

Badger (infrared)


In January I set up a trail camera (approx £70 "Crenova" from Amazon) and was soon taking night time infrared photos of a badger in all parts of the garden. 


On the drying green 


There are at least two badgers visiting, possibly three, with least one just about every night. The trail camera gives a faint red flash when taking a picture. The badgers aren't too perturbed, but they did investigate the camera when it was first set up - I've got a few over-exposed super-close-ups of badger whiskers.
 
The badgers eat any left-over bird food under the bird feeders. In the evening I scatter extra peanuts on the ground under one of the feeders about 3m from the living room windows. These peanuts get eaten overnight.

A puzzle: the badgers spend long periods under the ivy at the front of the house, sometimes only their backends are visible, and other times they go fully underneath. The badgers are more-or-less motionless for perhaps half an hour at a time before moving on. I have a mental picture of their mouths open waiting for a mouse to run across the mousetrap. Badgers have serious teeth.  What are they really doing in the ivy? 


 Badger emerging from ivy


The badgers tolerate noises from general household clattering and living room lights. Last night I opened an upstairs window and took a few pictures of a badger eating peanuts - telephoto with flash. 
 
 

Eating peanuts - telephoto and flash from upstairs window


 

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