{"id":23310,"date":"2015-04-22T22:54:32","date_gmt":"2015-04-22T21:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/?p=23310"},"modified":"2015-04-22T22:54:32","modified_gmt":"2015-04-22T21:54:32","slug":"the-friendly-badger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.permuted.org.uk\/photography\/the-friendly-badger\/","title":{"rendered":"The Friendly Badger"},"content":{"rendered":"

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.<\/p>\n

\"Badger\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Badger\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Badger\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is another shot of the shy badger.<\/p>\n

\"Badger\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Badger\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Badger\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And a cheery farewell from a very friendly badger. <\/p>\n

\"Badger\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 200mm f\/2.8L II USM lens.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[994,3],"tags":[160],"class_list":["post-23310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-badger-wildlife","category-wildlife","tag-badger-2","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t