One of my greatest pleasures is to walk near dusk somewhere quiet,pausing now and then to look around with the monoculars at an interesting creature but i,ve found the best results for seeing things come from getting to a vantage point,being careful not to be skylined,and sitting down still and not moving.That way any wildlife about will come to me if i let it,if it was passing that way.In woods it takes about 10 minutes for the birds to start up again from me disturbing them and sometimes a deer or fox will wander by if i wait long enough.A couple of nights ago though,i was on the downs amongst the gorse and thorn scrub looking across at the opposite hillside and had found a nice,comfortable grassy piece to sit on.I like to crouch here regularly when i pass as i,ve always fancied the spot for seeing a bigcat since finding a fox carcase eaten in a catlike way some years ago.The slope was sheltered from the wind,the clouds were racing each other above me and the pigeons were starting to come in to the hawthorn trees when i was alerted by the pig-like snuffling of a badger coming towards me.My dogs were watching and pointing with their bodies(they are trained to "mark"certain animals)the badger kept shuffling this way as if we weren,t there,it nuzzled my boot,i didn,t realise they were that short sighted,while i managed to get off a couple of pics with the compact camera.It certainly wasn,t stopping for noone until i realised i was sat on the badgers run!Well,getting up out of the way to give it room certainly made it realise it had company and it shot off along the run.Presumably it was hungry as i rarely see them in daylight,unless they,ve been run over,i have heard they put a lot of hours in feeding when it rains after a drought .....
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