Evening visit to St. Nicholas Church and surrounding areas – 15th September 2020

Date: 15th September 2020

Time: from 7:15 p.m.

Weather: dry, clear/cloudy, dark, 22°C

After an excellent visit to the site this morning this morning, I had a further visit this evening to hopefully add Badger to my list of sightings for the day. I had already seen 2 Red Foxes during my morning visit.

As I arrived at the top of Church Hill, I again noticed Jupiter shining brightly in the southern sky with Saturn in close proximity but much less conspicuous.

When I arrived at the site, I scattered some chopped apple, peanuts and dog biscuits at the usual location where the Badgers emerge.

Before settling down to wait for the Badgers, I found a location where I could watch the grassy strip that runs parallel to Church Hill down to St. Nicholas Lane, a normally reliable area to see Red Foxes. 

Between 7:25 p.m. and 7:50 p.m., I had 5 sightings of either a single or 2 Red Foxes, all of which I think were well grown cubs.

At 7:55 p.m., I moved to my location to wait for a Badger to emerge. On my last evening visit on 10th September 2020 , I waited for 1.5 hours and failed to see a Badger.

Tonight proved to be much more successful with the first Badger emerging almost immediately after I had sat down and it was closely followed by another just a few minutes later. For the next 25 minutes, I was able to watch either a single or 2 Badgers together as they fed on the buffet that I had prepared for them. Given that they had emerged at the earliest time since I have been watching them, there was a little more light to watch them by or certainly during the first 5 to 10 minutes.

Whilst watching the Badgers, there was some noisy and excitable “geckering” of Red Fox cubs which I assumed were in the vicinity of the church car park or in the cemetery. The Badgers were not at all perturbed by this or indeed any of the other noise such as passing cars on Church Hill or distant barking dogs or shouting/screaming human beings. However, I was very aware that the slightest sound or movement from me would have sent them scampering back in to the sett.

With regard to birds, I heard several Robins both singing and alarm calling and saw both a small group of flyover Carrion Crows and a single Woodpigeon.

As I walked home, I had a quick scan of the playing field opposite Laindon Park School with my torch and picked up another Red Fox.

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

Badger

Red Fox

Robin
Carrion Crow
Woodpigeon

Site totals to date: 

Birds = 49
Mammals = 6
Butterflies = 21
Dragonflies and damselflies = 7
Reptiles = 1
Amphibians = 0

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