Tonight I have to go into work after ten to work on a server that can't be offline during the day. Luckily, I should have time to go over to the badgers before I go. I leave home at about 20:00 and am at the Barn Owl Centre shortly after. A quick chat and I'm off down to the hide on my own. Food out and settle in for the wait. I don't wait long and my first badger of the evening appears from the main path. He meanders over towards the hide and is soon joined by a second. They are eating quite happily a metre, or so, from the hide. I've brought my dad's Samsung over tonight and manage to get a couple of shots. A third badger appears from the path to the right, but doesn't stay long, not even coming into the feeding area. Shortly after this, a fox appears, and although he doesn't come within three or four metres of the hide, I get some good views of him as I've brought some additional lighting along this evening.
As you may be aware, I use a handheld 24 LED torch to watch and film the badgers. This has worked well, but it fairly labour intensive holding it and keeping it on the animals. Due to the distance we are away from a mains supply, rechargeable power is our only option. LEDs offer the best performance for battery life and don't give that intense beam of light like a halogen torch gives. There are some LED floodlights on the market, but they are really pricey, so I've been looking for an alternative. In B&Q today for non-badger related items, I checked their torch range out and found a small 24 LED magnetic/hanging light for a fiver! I bought a couple to see what they would be like. Well, they are really good! They light up the feeding area quite well and although there is a concentrated beam, the light outside of the beam also gives good coverage. Being magnetic, they can be put onto the metal mesh of the hide which means they can be switched on a and off through the mesh. The on/off button noise is a little harsh, but I switched the one I had brought down on as soon as I saw a badger, so he was a little distance away. I'd like to figure out how to run these off a small 12v battery as they currently run off three AAAs which isn't very environmentally friendly. Any ideas on lighting if you do a similar thing, please let me know.
Back to the badgers.They are now very close to the hide and I've began to feed them additional nuts using the whistle and chuck method. They are both getting quite competitive in trying to eat the nuts before the other. This leads a good spell of their pushing routine, which I thorougly enjoy. They are not at all malicious to each other, just grunting and putting the shoulder in. Unfortunately, the battery in the Samsung has gone flat, so no more pictures as it is a proprietory battery rather than AAs, or similar. I put the camera away and just enjoy the badgers less than two feet from me. At one point, one of the badgers puts his head through the gap in the net and has a good sniff. I'd like to have got that on camera. Maybe another night.
Eventually I stop feeding the two badgers any more and they leave the area, having checked it thoroughly for any they may have missed. I wait a minute or two and begin packing up. The last thing I do is roll up the netting over the door and I'm just collecting my bits and pieces when another badger comes sniffing along the front of the hide. I think this is a different animal, but as usual, I'm not sure. Anyway, I'm stood almost in the doorway when the badger arrives so I quietly move to one side and kneel down again. I whistle and throw some more nuts outside and he turns and eats them immediately. The next few minutes are really great as there is nothing between the badger and myself, apart from the doorstep into the hide. Several times the badger looks directly at me and continues sniffing for nuts right outside the hide. I'm really pleased he stays for a little while and feed him until I've run out of food. He continues sniffing around in ever increasing circles until he disappears into the night.
Tonight was a really good night; four badgers and a fox seen, three of the badgers incredibly close and highly entertaining. I see another two badgers on my way back up, but they don't hang around as I approach and I don't get too close. Now the downside, off to work for a couple of hours....
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