Well it’s that time of year again! The private wood where I have permission to photograph Badgers is starting to sprout new leaves & the nettles are already putting in an appearance. A scout about a while back did not reveal any recent digging, but signs are all around. Scrapes, the biggest patch of shed fur I have ever seen & latrines are all in evidence. A likely spot a little way from the sett was chosen & a bit of food was introduced. A follow up visit the next day revealed the extent of the badgers nocturnal foraging. The floor of the wood now looked like a plough field! A fallen log had been ripped apart & the nettles were flat.
You may ask what do you feed a badger? The answer is peanuts, raisins & sugarpuffs. The trick is to only put down enough for a treat. An appetizer before the main course of succulent worms. Over the next few weeks, I hope to gain their confidence & by the end of April be sitting amongst them during the feeding frenzy! An important factor in this is to get them to associate my scent & the noise I make when feeding, with food. If past experience is anything to go by, after a short while, they will not take a blind bit of notice of me or my flash guns. How many are present? Not a clue! Time will hopefully tell. Revisit the blog for regular updates.
No comments:
Post a Comment