Badger, Badger, Badger Part 2

After my succesful visit to the badger sett I was keen to head back and see if I could get some pictures of the badger cubs. There are three at the sett this year, two are regularly seen on the trail cameras with mum and the other seems to have been adopted by a nanny badger, one of last years cubs, although all three regularly get together for a scrap!

The second evening I went back was freezing and after about an hour I headed home shivering. I later checked the camera footage and the badgers had stayed in that night until it was dark, perhaps they were chilly too.

On my third visit I hadn't been sat down long when I saw movement behind one of my cameras and one of the adults popped its head up. It had a good sniff and then disappeared back into the sett. Badgers have relatively poor eyesight, especially in daylight, and where I was sat and in my camoflage, I'm sure they wouldn't have seen me. Their eyesight is adapted for a largely nocturnal and subterranean lifestyle, so they rely much more on their highly developed senses of smell and hearing.

It looked like this badger had just been checking the area as very soon after one of the cubs appeared and began looking for the peanuts I'd put out for them.

It didn't take long to find them and for the next ten minutes I happily watched this young badger tuck in to its treats. After awhile it disappeared back to the sett but it wasn't long before it brought back a sibling to join it at the buffet.

I stopped taking photographs at one point just so I could watch these beautiful animals in the wild. I have only ever seen badgers at this sett so I appreciate what a privilege it is to be able to sit and watch them in daylight. They have been persecuted for centuries and the recent governments ill thought out and scientifically unproven cull has killed over 250,000 badgers, a species supposedly protected by law! The policy was the largest destruction of a protected species in English history. Thankfully this has now ended and hopefully overtime some of the silent setts around the country will be re-populated.

The two cubs were finally joined by two of the adults and I was privileged to sit and watch four of the family of six at this sett, out feeding together.

By now it was getting quite dark under the trees so I waited for a suitable opportunity to sneak away without disturbing them.

Since this visit the weather has been pretty poor and so far I haven't been back for another evening visit, but with the weather forecast looking better I'll be heading back soon.