National Badger Day

Hopefully you all know that today is National Badger Day.

Back at the beginning of the summer I was approached while I was at one of the Badger marches, to see if I would be interested in taking part in a film for National Badger Day.

On the first day of the summer holidays I went down to Bristol with Elissa and Georgia to be filmed talking about our encounters with Badgers. I talked about this years cubs and how long I have been watching my local Badgers.

National Badger Day is a celebration of this wonderful creature which should be protected and celebrated not persecuted.

A few trailers have been released over the last couple of weeks but today is when the film came out. 
It has been a real privilage to be part of this as I am very passionate about Badgers and I hope this film shows everyone how brilliant Badgers are.

Here is the link 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=drcBAct42TQ&feature=youtu.be

There are lots of events going on today and over the next few days that you can join in with or you could support your local Badger group.

This was when filming had finished

Witney march for Badgers

Badger march in Oxford

These are some of the photos that I have taken this year of my local badgers. Although I go down to see them quite often it is always magical especially when they snuffle around our feet.

Back to school blues

Today is the last day of my summer holidays, it's back to school tomorrow.

This holiday has been full of exciting experiences.

Starting right at the first couple of days with going down to Bristol to take part in filming for National Badger Day (Don't forget 6th October), next a visit to BBC Wildlife magazine office.

The next few weeks included a Narrow boat trip and a couple of weeks in Devon and Cornwall.

Straight after that Birdfair, which was amazing, especially the chance to catch up with people and meeting Charlie Hamilton James.

Unfortunately the saddest news over the summer was the extension of the Badger cull in to Dorset.

Back on my local patch the Badgers have been quite active and out and about more in the fields so difficult to watch - although getting more predictable over the last few days.

More and more Hares seem to be appearing in the field and last night there was at least 10 hares.

Over the weekend I have spent sometime experimenting with all the different settings on my camera, just on the birds in the garden.

I put the trail camera down in part of the wood and got a nice film of a Roe deer and the Badger with a damaged eye. It has been suggested that this might be a cataract.
It was nice to see this Badger again as I haven't seen her since the Spring.

Last night Noah, another blogger who lives nearby came over and we went off to take photos of the Hares. I didn't get any really good photos as it was quite overcast and it got dark quickly.
There was also 4 Fallow deer and a couple of Roe deer in the field.

When it got too dark we headed back home passing the Badgers sett. There was 3 Badgers out, we watch one for 10 minutes before going home.
I am quite sure the Badger we watched was Cookie because he had a chunk missing from his ear and he was not bothered that I had someone new with me.

 This morning the Buzzards were using the thermals to climb higher and higher. I counted 10 altogether. They were higher than a passing plane.
While we were watching the Buzzards a Raven flew over, shouting at the Buzzards before flying off towards the river

 This is H3's mate. I was still mucking about with the settings on my camera but I quite like this photo.