Another mainly badger post this weekend, but if I have time I’ll slip in some daytime wildlife as well. I’m going to start with a short clip taken by trail camera a few nights ago. It’s a sequence which shows some behavioural traits as two badgers meet in the garden.
Cute, eh?
Now for a few photos… This is the bolder of the pair. We spotted him at the rear of the garden. He backed off when I went out to lay out some peanuts for him, but soon returned. Their sense of smell is acute. He stood at the rear of the garden sniffing for while, and hten headed down the path straight to the small supply of food. I was 10-15 feet further down the garden with the camera.
Ok, some daytime stuff from last week. The current pick of the birds at Falmer are the house martins, swifts and swallows. Mostly they are sweeping the skies overhead for insects, but they also skim the pond (though getting decents shots of that is even trickier than following hteir erratic flight paths against the sky. Hence, sky shots.
More next week, but probably not daily for a while. You can follow me on Twitter or Facebook, or subscribe via email if you want to keep up to date.
Camera note: all badger photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 200mm f/2.8L II USM lens. Birds and rats with the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM lens.
Adele
31 May 2015Interesting – haven’t seen that behaviour before. You’re doing better with the summer migrant birds than I am. Not many at all in Surrey this year.
Words
4 Jun 2015Adele, it was a new one on me as well. The two badgers are together quite often. For everything else it’s a case of whatever is around (mainly house martins), but I did spot a peregrine this morning (always a good way to start the day).
Darko
3 Jun 2015Yes, as Adele said, very interesting. Are they related or this is just a friendly gesture?
Words
4 Jun 2015Darko, probably both (friendly and related). Badgers tend to live in family units so I’m sure these two are from the same sett.