Badger watching

A couple of nights ago, I thought I'd have a go at filming the Fox Cubs, with the camcorder, but the wind, though not strong, was swirling, which would've made it difficult for me to remain undetected. As I'm not easily put off, I decided to see if any badgers would appear from a nearby Sett, which is fairly sheltered from the wind.
After getting comfortable, I sat and waited, and after seeing several Rabbits emerge from the Sett, a larger, stripey head appeared in the mouth of one of the holes. I readied the camera, and when the badger (a Sow) eventually emerged, she ambled steadily up the bank and away, meaning I managed only about 15 seconds of video.
It's been obvious from many of the trail camera videos I've got from near this Sett, that the Sow is suckling a litter of Cubs (her teats are clearly visible), and didn't want to hang around for long, prefering to get out and forage to replace some of the many calories she'll be using up feeding them.
I hung around for a while, in the hope that another Badger would emerge, and as it got too dark to use the camcorder, I switched to the night vision. About 10 minutes after it got totally dark, the Boar appeared, and I managed to get a few minutes footage. As you can see, it came very close to me, without detecting that I was there, and after it wandered off, I headed home content with what I'd seen.

First Fox Cubs

I've been waiting patiently (though not too patiently!) for a litter of Fox Cubs to emerge above ground, in order to get some footage. Now that they've eventually obliged, I'm having to change the memory card in the camera every day, as there's that much activity going on!
It's obvious from the clip, that these Cubs are being well fed, and several of the videos have shown them playing with dead Ducklings-no coinicidence that a Mallard on a nearby pond hatched 16 Eggs on Sunday, and by Monday all of the Ducklings had dissappeared, very easy pickings for the Vixen!
More of the videos can be seen on the wildplaces youtube page.

Badger

I've been asked a lot lately whether animals can see the infra red light from our cameras, or whether they're are disturbed by them.
I'm certain that most of the animals we film, are aware of the light from most models of camera, but very few seem to be actually bothered by it. This clip of a Badger sniffing at the camera is fairly typical of the reaction of most animals , and I've recently got footage of several species including Otter, Roe, and even a Stoat checking out the cameras in this way (check the youtube page for some more clips).