I had been feeding them at the front of the house, but I wasn't happy with the photos that could get; there was a patch of tarmac in most images and I really wanted to get more shots at the badger's eye-level. One possibility was to move the feeding site to the "lawn" and then lie in the grass each evening until the badgers arrived. Moving the feeding site is easy - they will quickly find a new nearby site. But lying in the grass for up to two hours was not appealing because of arthritis and the very high likelihood of tick bites.
I eventually moved the feeding site to the back of the house where there is a steep bank topped by a flat area planted with a few trees. The top of the bank is approximately at eye-level when I'm standing at the back door.
The badgers found the new feeding site on the first night. After a week at the new site I also discovered that the badgers are not bothered by me standing in the wide open doorway with a dim outside light switched on. This discovery has really opened up new possibilities for photographing the badgers.
These images are all taken with flash at about 10:30pm. I used the outside light to help me get focus.
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| Badgers - sow and cub at right |
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| Badgers "greeting" - cub at right |
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| Badger cub |
