Local knowledge is always the best and when I was sent a trailcam clip of a vixen with, what looked like 11 cubs, and told about a den site, I was keen to get my own trail cameras down there. Apparently, the clip of the large number of cubs was later followed by a badger coming out of the den site a few days later. I was keen to see the site and use my cameras to try to see what was happening.
There are two entrances to the den site and it does not look like a main sett… more of a satellite sett. The site is quiet and private, in a small copse. Being quite open, it had plenty of opportunities for a trail camera, so I initially set up two cameras; one on each entrance. I left the Bushnells there for a few days.
I had really hoped for lots of fox cubs, but the Bushnells captured a fox sniffing around the entrance but no cubs…
It was pretty obvious that this vixen had been ejected from this site by a female with 3 , rather lively cubs!
As I had headed down to the site, I saw the vixen out with one, possibly two cubs in a grassy area, full of buttercups. I returned and placed a camera in the area. It is much harder to predict where they might be, so I set it fairly far back, facing the area I had seen the vixen sitting.
I captured some nice cubs, but the grass and buttercups are pretty high and it was hard to see the cubs…
Before I headed to Maryland, I took a stake down to set the Bushnell at a different angle, to get some better shots of the sett entrance. I was delighted, upon my return, to see I had captured some daytime clips of this badger family, as well as the night clips.
This looks like it will a good site to monitor all year around so I will be returning with a Busnell after I get back from Shetland. #gallery-20461-18 { margin: auto; } #gallery-20461-18 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-20461-18 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-20461-18 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */
It is certainly an excellent place to monitor and , hopefully I will capture some good stuff there over the coming months. A big thank you to Jane, who shared this location with me.