I became aware of the cattle egret when we first went to Guadeloupe in 2017 - we were fascinated to see odd cows tethered around the countryside, each with upwards of 3 egrets wandering around them. I'm sure there must have been some here before then, but now we have hoards stalking the cows that we pass on the way to The Shack, and indeed on the country route home from visiting the Azay One. It is not uncommon to see groups of a dozen or so, but more recently we have become aware of groups of what looks like a hundred or so. This morning I tried to get a photo of them - difficult in the car, but as soon as we stopped and I opened a door, they moved so that there was at least 20 metres between us. Still, here is a view of lots of cattle egrets - they will soon disperse for the summer, so enjoy while we can!
More to the point, it would appear that the end of February is when major changes happen in Badger world. There is an entrance to a set in the middle of the Meadow, and over the winter it has been unused. Badger Towers, over on a bank about 2 fields away shows more activity, so we assume our set is summer quarters for young lovers. The trail camera picked up stills and video footage of two individuals (at least) passing through the orchard, but while I had looked at the set entrance earlier in the week, it was only today that I spotted activity. Specifically, spring cleaning.
There is no doubt that this old bedding has been cleaned out of the set as the surface of the set entrance has been scuffled up nicely.
So what did the trail camera pick up? It is set to take a photo when it spots movement, then take a 15 second video. For a fox passing through, I generally just get the photo, as the fox is long gone before the video recording takes place. As the camera is pointed at a badger path, 15 seconds is too long for a badger too, and I have reduced the time to 10 seconds for the next week. Badgers can clearly see the infrared spectrum a bit, as they can start and look straight at the camera, before carrying on, or running away!
Here are some nice stills.
Here is big badger (perhaps Daddy Badger?) passing on through.
Here is a smaller, perhaps younger or female badger, coming through, and spotting the camera too.
And here is a young badger spotting the camera and running away - and you can tell here that 15 seconds really is too long!
So we will see what next week brings on the camera, before I move it away from badger highway and on to another site where I can see different tracks in the mud. January and the first half of February were quiet and a bit dispiriting, but it was magnificent working my way through 34 files of activity yesterday (I only publish the best!).
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