Badger Update, plus a cute little rat and a fine stock dove

April 27, 2015 by Words | 2 Comments

I’m going to try to pack in a fair bit tonight as a way of catching up with myself. I’ll start with some badger news (old news for those who follow on Facebook). There are two badgers that visit regularly, one of which is a lactating sow. She’s considerably more shy than the male, but even a shy badger can’t avoid the trail camera. Here she is a few nights ago.

I’ve been working hard with the male badger to get some better poses and positions around the garden. We’re making mutual progress in terms of confidence, which opens up some good opportunities. This is a tiny selection taken over the past few days.

Badger

One of my favourite portrait shots of the male badger.

badger and fox

Here he is further down the garden, with a fox lurking in the background.

badger

Badger… black and white… makes sense to me!

badger

Badger in the long grass

Badger

Happy with peanuts

As for the rest of this post, the first is one of several shots I’ve taken recently of a stock dove. These look very similar to the more prevalent feral pigeon, but a slighter in build and can most easily be distinguished by the dark eye. Yes, this is an arty rendition but I did get some sharp shots too. I just like this sort of thing.

Stock dove

Stock dove (motion blur)

Finally a couple of my favourite little rats down at Falmer Pond today. They were out in force (five were running around at one point), but they do look cute when standing on hind legs.

rat

Brown rat peering over the undergrowth

rat

Brown rat on hind legs at Falmer Pond

Camera note: all badger photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF70-300mm 4.5-5.6 DO IS lens. Everything else is with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.

Posted in Badger, Birds, Foxes, rats, water birds Tagged , , , |

More Badgers, plus something to Google for

April 24, 2015 by Words | 6 Comments

More badgers tonight, but I’ll get to them in a minute. I’m going to start with an early morning shot from Falmer Pond of one of the local rodents.

Rats

The rats were very active today (sunshine brings them out), and so it seems were Google; or at least their Street View car which I encountered this afternoon outside the university’s conference centre at Varley Halls, on the outskirts of Brighton. The car cannot have missed me so I’ll now be checking Google Maps to see when they update the image.

Google Street View car

Meanwhile our garden goes on providing a haven for local wildlife. A fox popped its head up early evening (but was gone before I could even think about a photo). The newts don’t have such an easy escape and since I cleared it out a little at the weekend I can actually see them.

Smooth newt

I’ll get down to some serious macro work at some point, but at the moment my 200mm is glued to the camera at night all the better to photograph the badgers. Here’s a couple of portraits.

Badger

Badger

Camera note: newt and photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens. The rat and Google car taken with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.

Posted in Badger, Newt, rats Tagged , , , |

The Friendly Badger

April 22, 2015 by Words | 6 Comments

Our local badgers have always been very shy and difficult to photograph, but that may be changing. Last night one of the two badgers that visits regularly decided that maybe I wasn’t such a great threat. It was already in the garden when I went outside, and retreated briefly while I went to put down some peanuts. But it was back almost immediately after I had stepped away. And it stayed, even following me down the garden path. Here’s the badger returning to the garden.

Badger

There was some mutual wariness. I am much bigger than a badger, but badgers have spectacular claws and very large teeth. We both agreed to keep a sensible distance from each other. The photos are all taken with a 200mm lens which was set to a minimum focus distance of 3.5 metres. The closest we came was probably around 5 metres, but the real gain was in being able to get some shots in slightly more natural surroundings.

Badger

This next one is just a shot with the badger on the raised rear patio, but note the second badger loitering to the rear. It was noticeably more cautious and didn;t venture forward while I was there.

Badger

This is another shot of the shy badger.

Badger

After 15-20 minutes, the bolder of the pair plucked up courage to venture down the garden towards me. I plucked up ‘courage’ to retreat a little further.

Badger

Badger

And a cheery farewell from a very friendly badger.

Badger

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens.

Posted in Badger, Wildlife Tagged |