Before I went to bed last night I turned on the outside light and pulled back the curtains over the patio door. There was a trail of footprints which I followed with my eyes until I came across a badger snuffling up the bird seed which I'd scattered during the day. I hadn't put out the peanuts I still leave every night but don't usually see the animal itself. Not good photos as I'm taking them through the glass, without flash and this one, above, is where it's only just coming into the range of the outside lights. But it's still a badger in February!
It was frightened away when I opened the patio door. I popped on my garden clogs and scattered some peanuts where it had made a clear space. Everything was gone this morning soit, or another one, returned later in the night. This photo has a strong shadow under the badger's head. Apologies for the fuzzy photos. This is the first badger I've seen in the winter though I've found footprints before.
4 comments:
How interesting that you showed a badger. I'm sure one visited our garden, when a heavy stone was pushed off an opened bag of compost. I wondered if he was looking for grubs.
I daren't put peanuts down, as if a badger doesn't eat them, Ellie will!
I saw it again last night but had put out peanuts in advance this time.
If you put peanuts in a container with a cover of some sort the badger should be able to just push it off. Try jacket potato skins, they like those- all sorts in, say, a washing up bowl.They have 'practical' noses; saw one once in the anti-pigeon cage over the bird seed tray then watched it just lift the cage and saunter away...
I too have trouble taking pictures through glass.
In the 'old days' of film cameras you could set the focus by distance to the subject(ie 8feet) and the glass would have little effect. My digital camera automatically focuses, sometimes on the distance to the glass window. I expect there is a way of doing things manually, but my instructions are somewhere deep on my hard drive.
(thanks for email)....B
I'm happy to see it/they are back....wish we had wild life in our garden...still not many birds and certainly no badgers or foxes..though Jonathan tells me they are here...but never seen any though not even as road kill..
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