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Mar 2, 2020
1 min

Mating badgers

In mid-February, I collected in my trail cameras to see what animal activity had been occurring and to my amazement found one camera had captured badgers mating. It started off smack-bang in front of the camera but moved to the edge of the camera's field of view. The mating appears to have occurred for 47 minutes. Enjoy this rare spectacle. #badger #mating #cameratrap #video

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No more fox cubs for a month

Jun 16, 2019
1 min

No more fox cubs for a month

Unfortunately, I'm having an enforced break from the extended Cambridge fox family, as my day job takes me abroad for the next 4 weeks. The last week has provided further insight into the makeup of the extended fox family. I've finally witnessed Auntie nursing a cub, proving our idea that she is the mother of two cubs, while the other six belong to White Eye. I haven't seen another male around, so I've no idea who the father of Auntie's cubs is. What is clear is that the t

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Tensions begin to show in the fox family

Jun 9, 2019
2 min

Tensions begin to show in the fox family

The cubs are becoming more and more active. Their behaviour is changing as well. They are becoming less naive and more skittish, much more like their paraents. Their play, while being incredibly entertaining to the viewer, is often resulting in fractious scuffles. Mum, White Eye, continues to hunt and provide for them, and was witnessed this week bringing a rabbit back. We've also seen her hunt squirrels a few times without success. She is also still allowing them to n

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More fox cubs and fascinating behaviour

Jun 2, 2019
2 min

More fox cubs and fascinating behaviour

The more you observe, the more you discover. Throughout May we've witnessed the close family bonds of our local fox family. The doting father, Impostor, watching over the cubs. White Eye, the hard-working mother, invariably out hunting but remarkably patient when she returns to nurse the cubs despite their present size. Now we have a third adult in the family, a fairly large vixen with a distinctive large white tip to her tail. She's clearly accepted within the family both

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My guide to building a DSLR housing

Autumn Badger

Nov 23, 2018
1 min

Autumn Badger

For the couple of weeks I've had the absolute pleasure of watching badgers out of the window where I work. It started when I noticed the appearance of a badger at approx. 5:30pm on my trail camera. I hadn't appreciated that the badgers were moving along the side of the building while the lights were still on and people were moving about. I decided to place a few peanuts in the top of a rotten tree stump in the hope that the badger would return and hang around. It did the

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Ynystawe foxes, September 2018

Sep 20, 2018
1 min

Ynystawe foxes, September 2018

Finally had the chance to spend a few days back in Wales, where I have access to some private woodland. The foxes here provided some amazing camera trap images back in May, so I've been trying again. It must be said that the weather has not been too kind with storms Ali and Bronagh bringing wet and windy conditions which seems to have a detrimental effect on fox behaviour. There appear to be a least two foxes visiting the site. A bold fox with a slight white tip to its tai

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More badgers

Badger

Jul 15, 2018
1 min

Badger

Almost two hundred so, so camera trap images of badgers, mostly nose in the dirt, then one showing some new behaviour. This female was caught having a good scratch. These badgers are extremely relaxed with the flashes. I always run a consumer video trail camera at the DSLR setup to see the behaviour of the animals as well as to work out what may or may not have gone well. This badger clan show no reaction at all to the camera flashes at all. #badgers #cameratrap

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Who's the boss? A fox or a badger

Jul 8, 2018
1 min

Who's the boss? A fox or a badger

Every so often the consumer camtraps I use turn up something fascinating. In this case it was the interaction between a badger and a fox. This video was captured near where I work, where I've been photographing and viewing the local badgers, foxes and deer for quite a while. Normally, I sprinkle some peanuts around this area in the evening to attract the badgers for viewing from the portable hide seen in the background. In this instance I'd suspended a simple timer feeder

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Cambridge wildlife

Jun 14, 2018
1 min

Cambridge wildlife

While I'm still sorting my images from India, I've been deploying my Camera Trap for Cambridge's wonderful wildlife. I'd hoped to catch the fox cubs but only managed one image which wasn't great as one of the flashes failed (loose connection between trigger and flash). However, I was delighted to catch the male fox during the day, so that you can see it's beautiful amber eyes. The local pheasant did some modelling as well, which is OK with me as he's a magnificent creature.

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Welsh fox

May 5, 2018
2 min

Welsh fox

Just had a few days at my family home in South Wales which gave me the chance to set my camera trap up for Red Foxes who live in the woods at the back of mum's house. There are 2 or 3 foxes currently resident, a vixen who's clearly nursing cubs and one, possibly two, males. The first couple of night's efforts were plagued by issues associated with my rustiness at attempting to photograph foxes. Their behaviour around camera traps is very different from badgers and requires sl

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When a failure equals success

Apr 6, 2018
1 min

When a failure equals success

During the recent cold weather I'd set up to hopefully capture badgers in the snow. I don't know whether it was the cold temperatures but one of my ST-28 flashes failed to fire, leaving the images illuminated from one side only with deep shadows across the scene. Most of the images were spoiled but the one below captured the character of this badger perfectly as it marched directly toward the camera. #badger #cameratrap

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DSLR Camera traps

Mar 18, 2018
4 min

DSLR Camera traps

This blog is certainly not intended to be a 'how to build a DSLR setup' as there are plenty of great resources on the internet covering that, www.camtrappers.com being one of them. Instead, this post is intended to highlight some things that you don't obviously think about at the beginning of your build, as well as bits of kit that work well. The case. While all components in the system are important, in my opinion the case is central. Get this wrong and the whole build cou

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A fabulous sighting of Muntjac deer

Mar 13, 2018
1 min

A fabulous sighting of Muntjac deer

I had the best Muntjac Deer sighting ever this afternoon, with a pair of deer in the field for probably over half an hour. Normally they are skittish and pass through the field quickly but today the female sat down against the hedge and almost fell asleep in the spring sunshine. All the time a Muntjac stag wondered calmly around the field, disappearing into and behind the hedge occasionally. It was just charming to watch such flighty animals. My DSLR cam trapping is improvi

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Tough times for our wildlife

Feb 28, 2018
1 min

Tough times for our wildlife

The 'Beast from the East' is not just making it inconvenient for people, it's putting our wildlife under real stress. All those unusual birds visiting your feeders are there because they are desperate for food. Our mammals will also be struggling during this prolonged cold snap. I've been putting some food out near my regular badger sett (peanuts and dog biscuits) and there have been some very willing recipients. This badger was photographed using my DSLR camera trap setup

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Foxes squabbling over peanuts

Jan 22, 2018
1 min

Foxes squabbling over peanuts

Absolutely thrilled when I checked the trail camera this morning. On Friday I'd seen this pair of foxes hanging about in a field near work. At the end of the day I buried some peanuts in front of the trail camera expecting to see some badgers. Some badgers were captured but I was pretty stunned to see the following fox behaviour, as the loving couple squabbled gymnastically over the nuts. In total the dog fox was in front of the camera for half an hour. #RedFox #cameratrap

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More badgers

Nos da Foxy

Apr 16, 2017
2 min

Nos da Foxy

I had a flying visit to see my parents in Wales on Good Friday, with a tip off that a couple of foxes had been seen in the woods behind my mum's house. So I brought along my DSLR camera trap. A survey of the scene didn't offer too many opportunities for a good composition other than the trunk of a fallen tree, so as rain started to fall I quickly set up. Too quickly, unfortunately, with the result I got the depth of field wrong as I'm not used to setting up quite so close.

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Badgers

Apr 11, 2017
1 min

Badgers

Oh, I'm so happy with the most recent badger selfies. The full resolution images of these beautiful animals are fabulous. Again, five badgers appeared at the camera trap and a couple of them provided the most charming and intimate pose. Edit: On closer inspection of the image with two badgers I noticed that the left eye of the badger on the right has what I think is a cataract. Over the last 18 months my trail camera has been catching images of a badger with only a single ey

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