I was delighted to see that the female badger and her cub had, once again, spent some considerable time in our artificial sett this week. This pair spent several nights in here, sometimes moving between the two chambers. On one occasion, they stayed until almost 1pm the following day! This is the longest they have ever spent in this sett and I am hopeful for next year’s usage as their visits have grown dramatically over the last year.
It is a complete privilege to be privy to such special moments between mother and cub; moments that are not seen deep inside a sett. Remember, these are WILD badgers that have chosen to use this space that I have created. ..
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Mum makes an excellent cushion and this little guy takes full advantage!…
At one point, the female got fed up with this young one’s fidgeting and antics and she headed off to the other chamber, leaving him in the chamber on his own… time to practise bed-making techniques….
With it getting light early and not getting dark until late, we are also capturing the badgers outside the sett in daylight… always a treat to see them during daylight hours…
Whilst looking through this week’s footage around this sett entrance, I also captured a beautiful Muntjac buck, in velvet. It looks really healthy….
I also have a regular rabbit visitor around here. It is very distinctive and I have nick-named it ‘snips’ due to the distinctive cuts in its ears. I’m not sure how these very neat and symmetrical cuts have occurred but it makes it easy to recognise this individual…
We have not had any kingfishers for the last week, but this week, they made a return.. with a youngsters in tow! I captured the male around, looking really healthy..
I then captured a very brief visit by a youngster. The young kingfishers have shorter beaks which are tipped with white. I did a couple of screen captures to show this…
The visit was very quick… but it will soon get the hang of using this post I hope!
Damselfly and demoiselle activity is increasing, with lots of the banded demoiselles now around. These stunning insects are almost a cross between and butterfly and a damselfly in the way they fly, with their large wings. A few were alighting on the foliage and I managed to snap a few shots. The females are green, without the banding, the males are vivid blue with distinctive spots on their wings….
I am hoping the dragonflies will start to make an appearance soon!