Is it a buzzard saga or a badger saga??...

Apologies to those of you who may have already read this post on the RSPB Community site. It is due to popular demand that I post up a few 'old' adventures of mine, which got great responses when first posted....

(Is it a buzzard saga or a badger saga??... was first posted on 25th August 2011)

Hello All,

Some of you will have read my sagas over the last few months where I inevitably go out with a challenge to photograph a specific species only to come home with everything but!!!....

My last big saga was getting some decent buzzard shots, which I have to confess I have been pursuing (obsessing) for quite sometime with very little success! Having spent so much time on the Buzzard quest I thought that this week I would take a break from them and visit an old badgers set which I used to walk past when out with my dog a few years ago. I wanted to see if it was still active and ripe for photographic opportunity.

A successful recce on Monday evening (apart from the dog nearly falling into it!!) showed that the set was indeed active and had grown in size since I had last seen it! I was itching to get back down there with the camera as soon as possible......

Today sprung a rare window of opportunity to get down there and start my new quest for the perfect Badger picture….then the heavens opened, typical!!!..... Luckily by about 7pm the rain had stopped and the sun was out but low in the sky so I grabbed the camera, stuck on my wellies and dashed out ready to photograph those lovely badgers that had been running around inside my head all day!

Now I imagine you've guessed what comes next.....Oh yes in true Higgy fashion there wasn't a single flipping badger to be found within a ten mile radius of yours truly!....LOL

Not to be completely defeated I did my usual thing and snapped at anything that moved (or didn't move!) and came back with some pictures of this little chap....

Not a badger and certainly not a Buzzard but a pretty little bird that is so often overlooked….

And then.....

If being in the middle of a badger saga wasn't enough that damn buzzard decided to fly over.......what a dilemma......do I sit it out hidden in the hedgerow for the badgers??....but the buzzard flies over again squealing as he goes this time! I am really sure that he watches my every move and then flies over and has a right old laugh at my expense!…

I just couldn't resist it and like a scene out of Rambo I was out of that hedgerow brambles trailing attached to the seat of my camouflaged pants (ouch!!!) camera at the ready........Then I'm shooting.....shutter held down all thoughts of cute badgers long gone.....I must get that buzzard!!.....he's not getting away this time!!.... 

Still not the greatest pictures as shot in very low light and heavily cropped, but at least now I had got some sort of picture! This was probably a very good thing as I had made so much noise in the process of extracting myself from my make shift 'hedge' hide that any badgers who may have been present had most certainly now left the country for sure!!......LOL


Incidentally, whilst sat in the hedge trying to avoid being scratched by the brambles and eaten alive by the local mosquitoes! I did get to enjoy the huge variety of Tits, Finches and other small birds who inhabit this particular wooded area. I snapped this little Chiffchaff as an ID picture thinking it to be a Warbler of some form at the time....again not a great picture but reference to the large variety of species found here. I will often write about some of our more 'vibrant' characters but my passion is for all wildlife so a small bird worthy of note and not overlooked despite my excitement towards others on here!!...

As always at the end of one of my adventures I must leave you with the last shot of the day, which is of course.... 'The end of the day!'....

Original thread complete with replies and comments can be viewed here:- 
http://www.rspb.org.uk/community/wildlife/f/13609/p/53842/365177.aspx#365177

Thanks for reading


Higgy