Day 122 - Brock On

badger pride

Well, we didn't manage a repeat performance of the Fantastic Mr Fox, but we did get a bit of badgery action.

We are a little concerned that there only seem to be 2 badgers up there...and also aware that there have been many local badger deaths on the road lately.  At this time of year (or over the last couple of months), last years young males are turned out of their home sett, and set off across the countryside in search of females and new territory.  

Unfortunately, this takes them across roads, and being young enough to have pretty much no road sense whatsoever, many lose their lives.  The dead badger by the roadside is becoming ubiquitous, sadly. 

Anyway we got a couple of nice clips, but it would be good to get a bit closer to the action!

We've now reset the camera to take photo's (rather than video), and moved it onto a path that they clearly use...we might get some good face-on pics - especially as we think that badger, fox and deer all use this path.

Here's a clip of a bit of industrious hole digging.




He seems enthusiastic enough, at least...and yes, I'm sure - he is excavating, not whatever it was you thought he was doing!

And here's the other short clip of a slightly podgy badger, bimbling on by...



It saddens me to think that we have a government in power who believes that wholesale slaughter of a significant species is a reasonable solution to our failure to manage our domestic livestock sensibly.   

Even putting aside for a moment the sound scientific arguments opposing a cull of these creatures in order to (try to) control TB amongst cattle, surely wholesale slaughter of any species is morally suspect (other than in the direst of circumstance)?  Not to mention rash and irrational - we risk unbalancing the very ecosystems we rely on, with virtually no understanding of the consequences of our actions. 

And yet the government tries to forge ahead with its selfish, destructive plans...it's only badgers, isn't it?

Grrrrrrrrr

I could go on...all sorts of possible tangents present themselves from here...but I'll resist...

You're welcome...

:-/

Day 121 - Fantastic Mr Fox

handsome chap

Check out the fantastic Mr Fox!

Our trailcam up by the badger sett didn't catch as much activity as we expected...but it did catch a single, perfect shot of this handsome chap.  It's supposed to take 3 pictures, 10 seconds apart...however, often, photo's are missing or corrupt, or 0 bytes in size... 

But in this case, we got this single shot at 2.30 this afternoon...

The slightly chunkier look, dark boots and ears, and the clear, creamy white underside mark him out as a big, healthy country fox - much better looking than his suburban cousins.

The photo is a little dark I suppose - another little bug in the camera software I think...no other daytime photo's are this under-exposed. 

The night time photo's are quite dark, obviously.  There is an infrared light on the camera which illuminates the field of view.  

Unfortunately, the badgers managed to stay out of the centre of the shot, passing through the background instead, where the infrared doesn't reach so well.  

Here's a badger passing by...the photo is grainy due to high sensitivity, and blurry due to long exposure time, so the quality is poor.

brock and roll

There were several shots of badgers passing along the same sort of path as this one...tomorrow, we'll move the camera onto this route, and see if we can get a bit more up close and personal.   We might adjust the sensitivity settings, see if there's anything we can do to improve quality...

Overnight tonight, we've set it up to take a minute of video, with sound, whenever it's triggered...I'm quite excited to see what it's going to capture!

I will of course post anything interesting here.

We've not tried the video function before, so we'll find out how the video quality compares to the photo's.   Most of the daytime photo's are pretty good, but you really need lots of light for the best images.

By way of demonstration, here is Mr Woodpigeon again...he seems to be sneaking into my blog with mildly disturbing regularity.

photobomb

In other news, I'm really sore after all that climbing yesterday!  My ankle is stiff and swollen...my hip seems to be suffering from the impact too...and as the day wears on, the DOMS is setting in everywhere...lats, pecs, abs, biceps and triceps...

And my fingers are a bit stiff...

And my feet...

Otherwise, I feel fine - it was totally worth it!

B-) 

Day 119 - Veni, Vidi, Verde

hole lotta diggin'

I could tell you where I took this photo, but then I'd have to kill you.

Or something...actually I'm really not sure on the specifics of that...my knowledge in this area is fuzzy and second hand.  But as I understand it, you're not allowed to publish the location of a badger's sett - which is what this is an entrance to. 

We used to walk up in the woods over the road all the time.  There is a seasonal pond up there, which the dogs traditionally loved to splash about in, and the woods are quiet and atmospheric.   A small herd of roe deer live up there, and we would often see them on our walks. 

Now we just have Jazz, and he's (quite literally) on his last good leg.  He loves it over there, and is clearly stimulated and engaged by it...but the ground underfoot is soft and uneven, and he does struggle now.  

It's an ongoing challenge to balance the need to encourage him to remain active, to provide the sensory and psychological stimulation, against his obvious discomfort walking any distance (or sometimes just walking at all).

We want him to be happy and have fun, but of course we don't him to suffer for it. 

As the day was still and dry (if not warm), we decided to have a wander up there and see how Jazz got on.

Whilst up there, we went to check on this badger sett tucked away in a corner of the wood.  There was clear sign of very recent activity, everywhere.  This particular hole was being excavated, or at least improved last night...or more likely early this morning.  You can see scratch marks in the soil where the badgers have dug away with their front claws.  

It's a lovely setting, and the light was gorgeous when the sun came out for us.

green green grass of (badgers) home

Recent photo's are making me realise how green my world is at the moment!  And it's all that lovely bright green that shouts "new growth!", that we'll only see for the next month or two before it fades into summer.

Back to the plot (there actually is one, sort of)...we are planning to take the wildlife trailcam up there, hopefully tomorrow, and strap it to a tree overlooking this scene.   With so much current activity here, and this being the main sett for this family of badgers (we believe), it's almost guaranteed that we'll get some good badgery action. 

To further demonstrate current green-ness, here's Jazz and I, fully immersed in it...

verdant vista

I think it has a soothing effect on the human psyche.

It signifies that Winter is passed for another year, that the days are getting warmer, that new life is bursting out of hibernation and enthusiastically embracing the brighter times to come.

Optimism is the strongest undertone of this shade of green, I think. 

Try this experiment:

Make your browser as big as it will go, and then click on the last two pictures to get them more or less full screen.  

Then spend a moment gazing with soft eyes at the colour-scape, basking in the lovely light for a minute or two...seriously, do it - it'll make you feel a bit better...

If you're on a mobile phone, there won't be enough light for this to work - in this case I recommend abandoning the digital and going out in The Real World to find some Real Woods.

Whichever you choose - enjoy!

:-)