Badgers

At the end of June I spent three days in Oxfordshire with my friend Rich photographing Badgers. I have never properly attempted flash photography before and was a little apprehensive, not knowing what the results would turn out like. The first night was a real test with pouring rain. In actual fact this was probably a good thing as the Badgers were very active, probably due to the worms that had come to the surface. Other advantages were that the noise of the rain drowned out any sounds that we were likely to make in our pop-up tent hides as they were at times within 6ft of us. Presumably the rain was also keeping our scent down. I was pleased with the first nights results and liked the fact that the Badgers were so wet.

The second night went fairly well, they all came out at the same time. Some of the larger ones fur was covered in mud from going in and out of the wet sett entrances, it was a nice contrast to the first night. The third night was a bit of a disaster for me. Rich and I had swapped places that we had been in for the first two nights and I was lower down in a bit of a bowl. There was absolutely no wind at all and I think they could smell my scent. They wouldn't come close at all and after 7 hours I had managed only 14 shots. Frustratingly I could see Rich's flashes going off as I sat in my hide, there must have been a little bit of air flow in the right direction where he was situated. None the less it was a great few days and I was very pleased with the results.