New drinking pool for the wildlife with my first visitor.
With the Badgers coming in each evening and foxes too, I decide with all the hot weather I would build another small pond, near to where I have been feeding them.
Last Monday the 17th I began by marking out an area that can be easily seen from the hide so hopefully, in the future, there’s a possibility to photograph animals coming to drink.
I have built several ponds, over the last few weeks so to create more standing water for all the wildlife as this year has been very dry and probably will be the norm now with global warming.
Anyhow, I took photos as I dug so you can see how I got on.
You can see the shape-forming and the hide in the background.
I used some old lino and cardboard to protect the pond liner from stones etc and gathered water in anticipation of filling it.
You can see it is starting to take shape.
It’s now Thursday, I have added a couple of stumps and raised just behind the pond by several feet with logs and covered in woodchip to blend in, I can now see what’s happening and hopefully, the Badgers will come in to investigate their new area.
Not bad for three days work with people in the hides to check on and move around so quite pleased it all went well.
In time it will get tweaked a little as things develop and the vegetation grows, but the best news is I am staying over to see if anything visits.
It’s now 3.30 pm everyone has gone home but me.
I put some ferns in to guide the badgers to the center of the pond but they are obscuring my log a bit so they might get moved again, all I can do is see what happens, if anything tonight, and take it from there.
If you remember last time I tried off-camera flash, something I’m not used to but learning fast and I wanted to try and reduce the harshness of the flash so this time I’ve added two small softboxes to see if it softens the light, and on top of all that for a bit of fun I am trying out my new camera, Nikon Z6 which came yesterday and I bought because A it’s mirrorless and B it’s very quiet compared to my D5.
The Badgers have poor eyesight but their sense of smell and hearing are excellent so less noise from the camera will help.
I pottered around until 7ish then started setting up the camera and flash gear and by 8 pm I was already in the hide sitting quietly observing the wood.
By now the wind had got up as forecasted and as darkness fell it was buffering the softboxes around, something I had not predicted but hey its a learning curve.
The stands held them well and only falling over in the early morning and by then I had had enough, collected everything in, and went to sleep.
But I forgot to tell you, I had a visitor, I must admit it was quite slow with I think only one badger venturing out but it came close enough for a shot.
A few days later I found out my neighbor and his wife stayed over on their plot with their dog so it might have been why it seemed quiet, apart from me digging a big hole moving tonnes of soil and logs and putting my scent everywhere.
It now has time to settle down and I will have another go soon.
Here are some I have taken from that evening session.
I,d like to just add the Badgers do not seem scared by the flash as long as you take your time and pick your shots if at any time they looked disturbed then I would stop until they relaxed and carried on feeding.
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john