Badger up close

With the shorter nights the badgers are increasingly appearing at dusk and when there is enough light to see them by naked eye, which is nice. They remain wary.... which is how I think they should be. 

Here two are taking advantage of some kitchen scraps and come very close to the camera. There is evidence of cubs but they have not yet been seen in the garden.

Springtime Somerset

I am very fortunate that I live on the northern edge of the Somerset countryside and through my short daily walks during the pandemic I have been discovering the local fields, hedgerows and thickets. This is a landscape of steep slopes, small woodlands and horses - quite a lot of horses!

Spring is now quickening here and bumble bees and butterflies are increasingly joining my walks and there is also a growing richness in the plants growing under the trees, as first the blue bells appear and then the golden archangels start to form a carpet of yellow.

Here are a few of the best images that I have collected over these last few weeks, which I hope may bring some pleasure especially to those who cannot get out or access the countryside so easily.  

A little magic in the evening air - a distant white horse caught in the sunlight.

The local farmer planting cereal.

The bare earth outside this large hole - marks a busy badger's set

Again - the evening light add magic as it picks out
the last of the hazel catkins.

The first violets

A woodpigeon looks out over the escarpment toward the south and the open Somerset countryside.

A chaffinch

Blossom on the blackthorn

Another view through the trees and out to the open countryside.

The hawthorn starts to burst its leaf buds.

Blossom on the wild cherry

Blackthorn blossom in clumps

A woodpigeon - he knows it is Spring

Looking up the hill to the small woodland with blackthorn blossoming and the moon high overhead.

A beutiful Peacock Butterfly

Horses and hay.

The wild garlic - its scent already heavy in the air - shows its first bloom.

Local hill with some of those horses.

An orange-tip butterfly enjoys an early dandelion flower.

A handsome male pheasant in the same field shown above being sown - just one week later.

A patch of golden archangel or yellow deadnettle

Bluebell

An Arum Lily or Cuckoopint.

Carder bee - a species of bumble bee which appears early in the year - enjoying the flowers of the golden archangel

The shy and illusive chiffchaff caught here in the blackthorn.

And, of course, some crocuses. 

Badgers at Eastertime

Badger here playing with an egg-shaped stone 

The playful badger seems to be a youngster, maybe one of last year's cubs.

I doubt that he thought that the egg was real (I am sure it did not smell like an egg and badgers are guided by their noses more than their eyes) but he clearly did think it was interesting and showed great desterity in how he was manipulating it. 

Badger Spring visits

The daffodils are starting to fade already but other flowers are coming into bloom. Meanwhile, under the moonlight, the badgers coming visiting looking for some snacks and a drink. 

Here comes badger - can you see her coming out of the hedgerow with shining eyes?

Badger has a little sit-down whilst removimg food from under the old plant saucer which stops the cats getting it. 

In the next video, boy badger marks his territtory with a sudden sit down!

And finally - a short videa showing two badgers together from a few nights back. 

What a startled badger looks like.

Just Pheasants