Back to the Badger Sett

Even with long life batteries, there are times when even these run low on power. This was happening tonight, just when I really needed them to last in the video camera. To add to my concern was that I had less than five minutes or so of tape left.

Why all my pain, I was sitting, rather uncomfortably at the entrances to the badger setts and I had already seen the old Brock poke his head out. It was still daylight, so even though I had the IR light, it looked as though I would not need it. All I needed was a measure of luck.

I had made sure that I had had a bath earlier, so that I was as free as I could be from alien scent, well alien to the badgers and the Deer. I really needed to get out of the house, as I was reaching the point where I wanted to shout at the radio. Also I was getting really bored with making the back ups of my footage. An evil that I have to endure, but one that is a necessary one.

So I headed out still trying to break in the new hooves, when I was having a bath I noticed I am developing hard patches on slightly in slightly different place to where my old boot created them. I have still not had any blisters, now that’s tempting fate.

I had a couple of location that I wanted to visit, but my main destination was the badger Sett. First I wanted to see if the paw prints I was seeing were Otter. It turned out to be a domestic moggy, and talking to one of the people who live close to the location they told me that the young cat who has recently moved in to one of the houses near by has stopped the otters appearing as they did. They are still about but sightings of them are now rare. But even as I was talking I spotted a spirant point, with fresh soft droppings. Is it beneath me to make a joke about my life being full of S**T, well as long as it makes someone laugh.

I also wanted to look carefully at the water vole tunnels, while I saw no clear signs of activity, where there has been rain for the last two days and the river has risen, the pattern of entrances were now much clearer. As each burrow has multiple entrances, at different levels, thus the voles can use the tunnels no matter what the river level is. While this should have been obvious, sometimes it is only from direct observation can these details really be discovered.

I headed at quite a pace to the location where I had seen the Deer as well as signs of the Deer regularly using the space. However, my attention was constantly being distracted as I kept on seeing other wildlife. Rabbits then I heard a woodpecker, I stopped to look expecting to see a Lesser-spotted woodpecker and saw a Green-Woodpecker. I used the camera to scan for it hoping to film it but while I could see it through the binoculars it was flitting from tree to tree. I just could never get the camera focused and framed at the same time.

Through binoculars and from the songs I could see many small birds, Siskin, Yellowhammer, Long-tailed tits, Bullfinch, Greenfinch, I may even have seen a Hawfinch but I can not be totally sure.

I reached the location where the Deer congregate but there was a dog walker about with three dogs, so I did not stay as I had intended. However I kept the camera on and ready just in case I came across one of the Deer. I did not see any of them but I thought I heard them a couple of times. With the new spring growth had I tried to chase the sounds, I was more likely to disturb any Deer that are there.

When I got to the site of the Badger Sett, I genuinely did not think that I was likely to see anything. It was latter than I would have liked to arrive and while I had been able to approach quietly I had not been able to alter my direction of approach so that my odour would not reach them, although the air was really still.

I started off leaning against a tree so that my profile was masked and watched through binoculars. With the Camera sitting four metres in font of me, a Badger appeared and sniffed the air. I watched for a minute and the Badger retreated. If the camera had been in my hands I could have filmed this. So I moved to the camera and prepared to wait. I did not have to wait for that long as the old Male came out of one tunnel and into another. As for filming well you only have to watch the film below to see the battery lasted long enough and there was just enough tape left.