“I made a new friend. He’s furry, he is black, white and grey and he makes such wonderful sniffing sounds.”
A European badger (Meles meles) in the twilight of its woods.
There is this big thing in the photography community: INSPIRATION. I can’t quite suffer it any longer. “Thank you Stephen McDougle Media House Photography Production, you inspired me to finally clean my fridge. Let me post some images of it as a part of the #instagramcleanfridgechallenge.”
Well, that was my cynical me. In fact, two fellow wildlife photographers really inspired me with their badger images. The wonderful Morten Hilmer shared a video of himself roaming his local forest and searching for badger dens. And Kevin Winterhoff had a short educational piece about how to identify it. I really like both photographers, because they show what wonderful experiences you can make in your own backyard and just around the corner. It’s easy to fall in love with wildlife photography in Svalbard, Patagonia or the Amur region, but if you can do it on a cold, rainy night in Stoke, this is quite a feat.
I did not actively head out to find a den later-on. But it somehow resonated with me. Then, under the Corona-lockdown in Germany, I decided to skip the overcrowded parts of my local forests and to discover some terra incognita in the nearby forests. I thought, I knew the woods around my hometown really well, but I was absolutely surprised what it had in store for me, once I left my well-trodden paths. And then I stumbled right across a badger den. I literally walked into it. It thrilled me and I decided to pay the den some visits and see if I’d see its inhabitant.
My first ever badger image.
I did. Right at my first outing, two badgers showed their noses. I did not even have to wait long. I came with the last light of day and as soon as the sun had gone down, the badger came up. One – the bigger individual, I guess the male – was quite curious, whereas the smaller only had a short sniff of fresh air.
Apropos sniff. My badger announces itself with a very cute sniffing-sound, right before it leaves its den. The first time out, I was so excited, I screwed up the photography. I missed focus a lot and the light level was so low, my images turned out soft and noisy. So, I came back. The last time I visited the den, the male badger – like clockword – came out, when the sun set, had a little walk around his den and went off for a hunt. No. 2 did not show off. In my mind, an image arose. An image of Ms. badger lying hidden in the den with a litter of baby-badgers around. I will definitely come back.
