A deer fawn wanted to get acquainted with a badger.
During dinner last night, a badger scurried through the yard. I quickly grabbed my camera to attempt some photos, but the badger was moving through tall grass and I could barely see it. I thought it was going to continue running out of range. I was wrong.
The badger must have found a ground squirrel hunkered down in a hole in the next lot over. It started digging and digging, disappearing below the ground in a matter of minutes only to resurface a few times with a spray of fresh dirt being thrown behind it. The process continued for quite some time with the badger staying underground for several minutes at a time.
Meanwhile, a Red Tail Hawk was also looking for dinner and perched a few times in the trees. At one point, I was not sure whether to point the camera at the badger hole or the Red Tail Hawk! I was lucky to capture some of my best hawk pictures yet.
During another period of time when the first badger was underground, a second badger wandered by and sniffed around. It must have known not to tangle with the first badger and ran off before any confrontation.
The first badger stayed underground for quite some time while all of the other action was occurring. It reappeared just in time for a quick glance of some deer passing by. Then, it disappeared below ground again.
The deer went up the hill a little ways and I thought nothing much of it. I thought they would continue to stay up the hill. Nope! Next thing I knew, the deer were heading almost straight for the badger hole, with a fawn in trail!
It was a great opportunity to switch over to video to see what would happen. The deer walked right over the badger hole leaving the badger perplexed about who just walked over. The real confrontation began when the deer fawn noticed this unusual creature stirring by the dirt mound. Of course, it was curious and had to go check things out! Oh boy! I thought, this cannot be good for the deer fawn. It circled around the mound of dirt walking closer and closer. The badger squared up and followed the fawn with its eyes. The deer fawn inched closer, sniffing and eyeing the badger. There were occasional lunges by the badger toward the fawn, which would jump back quickly.
Eventually, all three deer were having a look at the badger which started acting rather frantic and defensive. It rolled in the dirt and lunged. The deer held their own and even had the badger running backwards!
What a treat to see! I was thankful to capture some good photos and I am currently in the process of figuring out how to edit the long video that I shot. The worst part about the video was that it was getting dark. The autofocus was not able to pick up enough contrast within the scene so I was manually zooming and focusing. This leaves me with some cutting and splicing before the final video is ready for viewing. Hopefully, once the video is up, it will be as entertaining as when I actually saw Bambi and the badger!
JUST PhotographIN' 