A Night in The Wood

There are days when you can set out in the hope of seeing an aspect of the natural world and you are blessed with seeing something magical. But having had two very good days of viewing birds, I set out in the hope of seeing and filming the Badger Cubs.

As Summer has arrived the woodland canopy has closed over and I knew I would need to use Infra-red even before the sun was fully set. Also I took two Cameras with me, one that I could leave running on a tripod the other I would have to hand hold, but it meant I could watch two entrances at once. With all the batteries fully charged I was carrying many more kilos extra weight and in the hot summer sun of the early evening and an up hill hike of a couple of miles, I found myself leaking profusely.

I had taken this possibility into account and I was there two hours before I needed to be. I used that time to look around the periphery of the sett and was delighted to see some prints of a very small Deer. While the assumption could be reasonably made that it was a fawn, as here in Britain we have Muntjac Deer spreading, it is more likely to have been this diminutive Deer than a Fawn.

I also went to explore a location where I had seen signs of a Roe Deer had been returning to, a sure sign that there was a Fawn there. But at that time there were a few dog walkers about and I wanted to avoid creating a scent trail to this young Deer. Especially as one of the dogs goes silly and comes chasing after me so she can slobber me silly. Therefore as she would follow wherever my scent lead it was best that I avoided leading predators to the fawn. Sometimes it is better to not try and film or photograph an animal if in doing so it will cause a disturbance.

While the fawn was no longer there, there was a clear depression in the herbaceous undergrowth where the young deer had been laying as well as a path that the mother had been using. It is possible that the Deer were very close still, but I also found tracks from an off road motorbike, so it is equally possible that the Deer have moved far from that disturbance.

I also found where someone had been “Rabbiting”. Trees had been cut down to access the warren. These trees were sycamore, and had been coppiced rather than killed, It is just that these disturbances can effect the Badgers too. Further it should be pointed out that there was no evidence that the rabbit hunter was acting unlawfully, as the person or persons may have the permission of the landowner.

When I set up at the sett, with twenty five minutes before I could expect the Badgers to start to emerge. Even though I had been sweating, the topography of the location of the sett meant that the breeze was taking my scent away from the sett. There was evidence of fresh digging too, in the last couple of days, so it was likely that I would see the Badgers. The question was would I see the cubs?

I will not drag this out I did not see the cubs nor the Badgers. I stayed there for hours until three thirty in the morning. I could hear Deer off to my right but not see them, and off to my left I could hear a dog fox, but out of my line of sight. I also had the delight of hearing a Wood warbler singing, and I switched on the video camera and filmed the sett entrance with the hope of recording the song. As I was nearing my time there, I could also hear a Barn Owl, and a Tawny Owl. I did consider trying to record them too, but they were to distant for the microphone to pick the sounds up clearly. I do sometimes use a parabolic microphone, but I did not have that with me. It is to bulky and fragile to carry all the time.

At about an hour before I left low clouds started to creep into and caress the wood. This had the effect of deadening sounds, and it makes the sounds seem much more alien too. While over the years I have begun to recognise sounds and let them paint a picture of the animal activity around me, in a mist the distortion makes the wood sound far more sinister. As this was a light mist there was still reasonable visibility. If working in the a dark misty wood can ever be that.

Picking my way back in the dark is less easy here than in my local wood, as the trees reach across the track more and are not straight. I could use a torch but as this could disturb the mammals, I prefer to avoid this if I can. As with the mist deadening sounds for me it can also aid me in getting closer to animals going about their lives too. It was the slowest two miles I have ever walked, and while I did hear other movements, I just could not see anything even with the IR on the camera to aid me. Out of the wood after the last bus, I had a further mile to walk and up hill too. I was exhausted very thirsty and glad that I had a pan of soup ready to reheat when I got home.

Now with a hot cup of tea, beside me and a day in bed, the lazy Wood Mouse that I am, I can relax and enjoy having heard the wildlife even if I did not seen much of it.