Evening visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 1st August 2020

Date: 1st August 2020

Time: from 9:00 p.m.

Weather: dry, cloudy, dark, 22°C

I had 2 memorable encounters with the Badgers during the last week with 5 seen on 29th July 2020 and 3 seen on 30th July 2020.

I did not visit the site last night due to the threat of rain and thunderstorms.

My visit tonight again had the primary purpose of watching Badgers and Red Foxes although it proved to be a definite disappointment compared with my last 2 visits.

As I walked up Church Hill, I heard the “geckering” of Red Foxes away to the north, presumably in the cemetery of St. Nicholas Church.

After scattering the food for the Badgers at the usual location, I quickly saw my first Red Fox at 9:10 p.m. as it slowly walked across the grassy strip that runs parallel to Church Hill down to St. Nicholas Lane although it was difficult to deduce if it was an adult or a cub.

From 9:30 p.m., I sat in the same position as on my last 2 visits and watched and waited for the Badgers to emerge. I watched and waited for an hour …. but nothing …. apart from occasional sounds of “geckering” Red Foxes. This was very frustrating.

I do not know why this was a “no show”. It was windier than on my previous 2 visits although the wind was blowing from the Badger sett towards me so that shouldn’t have been an issue. However, I have read that sometimes Badgers are more nervous when it is windy since they can not hear so clearly what is going in their immediate environment.

I have also been reading about what food should be offered to Badgers. So far I have been scattering Chappie dog food and peanuts. Whilst there seems to be a general consensus that peanuts are appropriate, there are differing opinions as to whether or not dog or cat food should be offered. Badgers are omnivores and will eat almost anything including natural fruits and vegetables but also human processed foods, the latter generally considered to be not particularly good for them.

Therefore, on this visit the Badger “buffet” included the peanuts as usual but additionally chopped carrot and chopped apple. Badgers have a very good sense of smell so maybe the absence of strong smelling dog food this time explained the failure to encourage them to emerge from their usual point in the hedge.

Watching and waiting for the Badgers to emerge did, however, provide a close sighting of one of the Red Fox cubs which turned up at 10:20 p.m. to feed for a few minutes on the peanuts rather than the softer food judging by the crunching sound. Therefore, it was not a complete “no show”.

At 10:30 p.m., I gave up on waiting for the appearance of Badgers and walked down to the church car park to place some dog biscuits on the white concrete block for the Red Foxes.

I then moved to my watching location and very quickly saw a Red Fox, which I think was one of the cubs, walk across the near darkness of the car park to the partially lit up white concrete block. Unfortunately, it was immediately disturbed as a car came up Church Hill and its lights brightly lit up the area.

However, about 10 minutes later, a Red Fox cub returned to the area and walked around the white concrete block. It then jumped up on to it and noisily crunched its way through the dog biscuits in evident enjoyment of my offering but possibly not gratitude.

At one point, another Red Fox cub appeared and seemed to be foraging around the base of the white concrete block, presumably for biscuits that had dropped off it. This animal was much more nervous and almost continually looked in my direction so I think it was aware of my presence, unlike its sibling who was either oblivious to me or concluded that focusing on the feast in front of it was far more worthy of its attention than worrying about what I was doing.

I have been experimenting with the "night vision" setting on my camera which enables videos and photos in almost complete darkness, albeit in black and white and very grainy. Here is my first effort of the Red Foxes visiting the white concrete block. The second cub appears at about 3:25. This was taken with my 18-70mm lens so the next experiment is to see what results I get using my 150-500mm lens. They will still be black and white and grainy but I should get closer videos and photos.

With regard to birds, it was also very quiet with just alarm calling Robins heard.

Although there was a lot of cloud tonight, an almost full Moon, Jupiter and Saturn were all visible for much of the time in close conjunction.

Species recorded during this visit were as follows (heard only records in italics):

Red Fox

Robin

Site totals to date

Birds = 48

Mammals = 6

Butterflies = 20

Dragonflies and damselflies = 6

Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0

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Stay safe, stay well, stay strong, stay connected with nature