Thursday 27th August - A good show for two

Tonight my wife, Juliet, has decided to come over with me. A quick chat with Vince and as it's almost dark, we make our way down to the hide. Dogfood and peanuts deployed, we get into the hide to wait and see what will happen. We've only been in the hide for about ten minutes when the first badger appears. He is not far into the feeding area when he turns and trots off. Juliet is sat in behind the netting over the door and it's one of those nights when we are getting a lot of reflection of light off the low cloud. Although quite orange, the ambient light levels are quite high and I wonder if the badger could see Juliet? He was too far away for the light to put onto him, so that wouldn't have obscurred his view at all. We wait maybe fifteen minutes before a reappearance of anything. This could be the same badger, but this time he is happier and works his way towards the hide. This one is joined by a second badger who comes over and is feeding with the first animal about three meters out.

This is where I tend to put the bulk of the food, although after the last couple of nights, I'm also putting some food much closer to the hide as they don't seem to mind being that close to the hide. Having said that, when it's a bit breezy, the netting covering the hide does tend to flap a little bit which can make the badgers (and foxes) uneasy, even making them retreat from time to time, although they return pretty quickly.

Anyway, the badgers are now getting quite close to the hide and I decide to try some more video. As I open the screen on the camcorder, it makes a small noise and the badgers spook and retreat several meters. I put the camera away and decide it is probably not a good idea to do this when I have visitors as the additional commotion could scare the badgers off. Within a minute, or so, the badgers are back and feeding right outside the door. From Juliet's feet, the badgers are no more than a foot away on the outside of the hide, obviously. With the light on them we get fantastic views of the animals sniffing out and eating the free offerings. With the breeze in our faces, we can smell the animals quite strongly. If you've ever driven by a dead badger, one of the many unfortunate ones to be hit by a car, and you get a smell come into the car a bit like gone off meat, but maybe not so bad, that is what living badgers smell like! It's not overly unpleasant, but before watching them at such close quarters, I assumed it was due to the dead animal beginning to rot. It turns out this is what they smell like.

As the food runs out they start sniffing around madly looking for any missed items. I manage to get a few more nuts near the hide unoticed and they are back eating these extra offerings with relish. Eventually these are all eaten and we watch them have a final search for food before wandering off, noses constantly sniffing.

Another nice show of the animals tonight plus we see another on the way back up to the centre. A cup of coffee, a bit of IT stuff to do, and a very pleasant way to end the day.

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