Badger watching

in our UK garden

Evidence of nocturnal digging in our garden led to me purchasing a domestic surveillance camera. This is fitted with infra red 'night vision' for me to try and view what I suspected was a badger making regular visits. The very first night proved successful in that these images were captured onto video tape. Unfortunately I didn't see "him" (?) the first night as I don't possess infra red vision!

To see enlarged pictures click on either of the "picture strips" below

Patience and regular feeding with peanuts, sultanas and dog food eventually paid off. The lights round our garden pond did not seem to frighten him so these were left on to try and catch a glimpse of this wonderful, but seldom seen animal. Although he now visits most nights we rarely see him "in the flesh" because the visiting times are erratic. Occasionally he arrives about midnight, but sometimes it's as late as 3.30 in the morning, as evidenced by the elapsed time on the video recorder. Every time I stop up late, he arrives even later, or not at all !

Badger and wildlife - spring update

Even though badgers don't hibernate, we didn't seem him at all during the winter, but by spring we had two badgers making regular visits. A young badger now arrives every night at about 8 p.m. followed by an older one at irregular times after we've all gone to bed. So that's two helpings of badger food to put out every night! The new camera includes a passive infra red motion detector device and a buzzer that sounds in the house when anything enters the field of view. Much easier than sitting outside a badger sett in the cold and rain in the hope of seeing these wonderful creatures.

Larger images captured this year - using a camera with infra red motion detector.
Each image below can be enlarged by clicking on the individual pictures.

A fox also makes regular visits, so I seem to spend most of the evening topping up the food dish! Late at night a field mouse also visits the dish to finish off any scraps! In summer a number of bats (they live under the fascia boards of a neighbour's house) spend humid summer evenings circling over the pond for flying insects.