Flowers and Deer

It's a big day! Huge! The first journey way from the immediate vicinity of my home for over 100 days.

The National Trust has kindly opened the grounds of Dyrham Park to the north of Bath and here there is lots of room, with a little care, to maintain sensible social distance. The grounds include a formal garden, an orchard come meadow area and extensive pasture and mature trees which host a herd of fallow dear. The day, as the photos show was somewhat dull but the rains held off until it was almost time to leave. 

The grand house at the centre of Dyrham.

Poppies in the orchard.

Crab apples. 

The chapel and view of the great mansion from the back.

And now some of the deer of Dyrham.

Nice 'velvet' on his new antlers.

And this is what deer do in the rain.... they hunker down in the long grass!

Badgers large and small.

It is difficult to tell badgers apart. However, the long days and well-lit visits of early summer have given a change to get a better look at them. 

Here are two young adults. They often seem to visit together and the first one pictured has a distinctive nick out of his/or her (another tricky judgement) right ear.

His friend is very similar. Both (despite May's drought) seem to be well-fed and in good shape. 

Here is 'friend' badger - very similar but lacking the nick and the scar on the first badger's nose.

And a couple of days later - here are both feeding together. 

Here is another badger - distinctive because of his 'big' face. He seems to be older and has been foraging with another mature animal - both looking rather boney during the drought. (This photos was a few weeks back,)

Now, young badgers out in the countryside are even more difficult to get good pictures of. Not only are they nervous (which is a good thing) but they are low in the grass, nose down.... looking for food, and you are probably looking at them as dusk, a challenge to any photographer. 

So many images look like this:

But if you try hard (and are very lucky) you may get this:

The badger cubs (probably born in February) are smaller than the adults - I think they are a different shape too - less lithe and more pudgy - and, as clear in the images here, lighter grey and rather fluffy! 

Here are the cubs again - a few days on from my last set of images and they look more like badgers with each passing day (rather than big grey guinea pigs with black and white faces).

This is not a great photo but I have added it here because it shows three of the four pups foraging together.

And here is one drinking from the bowl of water I provided. (The drought has now ended with bursts of heavy rain, which will have opened up the soil for them again to find their usual diet which is mainly earth worms.)

Finally, this photo shows that they are foraging with a young adult.... is this mum?

Badgerlands at twilight.

And finally here is a young lady badger foraging out in the countryside near where the cubs live. I wonder if this is their mum.

Meeting Young Badger Cubs

Sometimes natures comes to you!

So, I am minding my own business walking back towards my home after ranging out one evening and I pause because there is a unusual rusting behind me. I stay very still and then one, two, three badger cubs come towards me across the grass. The photos are not great as this is at dusk.

They notice me and speed across the path into the safety of the dense vegetation opposite, Then a minute or two later a fourth one - a brother or sister - also hurries by along the same route.

These little guys were about half the size of an adult (maybe the size of a small cat) and would probably have been born in February. There were no adults in sight and they are now semi-independent.

But this is not the end of the story.

I continue to stand still and a little badger head comes back out of the vegetation. He or she looks towards me and then slowly approaches until he or she is at my feet looking at me (as you can see in the last photo).

The cub stands there for a while and then, using my special animal voice (you know the one that we all have), I ask him or her what they want and note that I'm not their mum. The pup seems a little cross at this and bristles before turning around and quickly making an exit back into the vegetation bordering the path.

What was going on? Well it may be that my grey trousers and brown jacket made me look like an adult badger (or maybe I smell like an old badger) or perhaps the little one was just curious.

I guess I will never know but it was a special moment. 

Just some wonderful roe deer

Regrettably this one spotted me and he is barking an alarm,

 presumably to warn invisible others as he moves well away.

Two bucks seemingly just running for joy.

Deeper into the Somerset Springtime

As Spring progresses during the great human lock-down of 2020 here in SW England, so new flowers appear during our walks and fledglings leave their nests.

My friend the crow - see how he is keeping his feet warm.

Robin and son (or daughter)

This green woodpecker really loves this telegraph pole. 

Young blackbird with a magnolia blossom background.

And finally just one more young robin nicely framed in the bird feeder.

Badgers in daylight

The short nights have lured the badgers out into  the daylight allowing a better look at them. 

Above a young badger enjoys a snack and is startled by the stone falling off the 'food cover'. Then he finds something so delicious that he has to run off into the safety of the hedgerow,

Above the different personalities of these two badgers show through .... one is bold and one is rather more cautious.