After being left unobserved for a few months, a camera was placed back at site 2 at the badger sett on Fri 13th Sept. The main tasks of the first half of Rem L this week (Fri 2013.9.27) were to explore the 'main' sett, compare it with the path-side sett, and examine the week's worth of trail-cam footage from the monitored burrow. En-route to the main sett, observations were made at the path-side sett: further digging had taken place, and in the fresh soil depressions from footprints could be observed. An ad-hoc measuring attempt showed that the prints were about 3 x 10 pence coins in length. Click to enlarge the accompanying image. Filming at the main sett stopped at the start of July, both because activity there was dwindling, and after a camera there had been spotted by passers by (an occupational hazard). After some months' hiatus, and in a different season, it makes sense to begin monitoring the sett again, and site 2 is one of the most active burrows there. The Wildlife Log calendar details full records of badger activity at site 2 during the week, but the highlights can be found below, as summarised by Luka Joannou, Will Cook, Nabeel Choudhury and Shivum Gupta: "11: The badger is clearing out the hole in the sett and then another badger comes. 12: This badger is continuing to dig his hole, and you can see another badger in the corner." "18: This badger has been foraging and has returned with a muddy nose. He needs a clean!" "60: Two badgers are cleaning each other and grooming themselves!!" This was also the first time since trials at the sett began that a badger has been filmed in colour by the trail cameras (which default to infra-red, and therefore black and white, in low light); though a video of a 'badger's bum' as he walks off didn't seem to merit posting here! One final image: recent excavation at a new burrow on the top of the main sett. One to monitor in the coming weeks. Though the 'deer cam' at site 8 was also monitored during this outing, and did indeed record some muntjac presence, there is nothing worth noting here beyond the Log entries for the week; though that site did see some badger foraging, the presence of two foxes, and an upright squirrel! More on the YouTube channel if you are interested.
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