Me and my house mate Cain were heading to a pond on private land in Geltsdale. We packed our hides in the car and set off on our way. The sun still hadn't come up when we got there and we put our hides up in the dark. I also attatched my camera trap to a tree on the oher side. The pond was surrounded by otter spraint and the frogs were croaking all morning. We sat in our hides silently (well, trying to be silent). Unfortunately there was no signs of any actual otters that morning but a buzzard was sat in a tree to the left of us for a while, a red squirrrel was rushing about reaching from branch to branch and two Herons were flying gracefully overhead. I could hear a pheasant every ten minutes which kept me from dozing off in the refreshing, early air.
We took a stroll to the other pond not so far away. As we got close I heard a splash and saw a large Heron fly off in to some distant trees. The ponds were full of frogspawn which made me smile with the thought of spring. Anyway, we packed up and wandered back to the car at about half 8 even though we hadn't spotted any otters. But we think it's because there was a lot more in store for us later that day!
At about half past 2 me and Cain made a trip down to a nearby woodland to put out my camera trap and to have a wander round the woods. We trekked through mud, peat and moss and followed an animal track through to a suitable tree where I could set up my trap.
After setting it up we continued roam, heading towards to car. Suddenly Cain stopped and, while staring through his binoculars, told me to have a look. I lifted the binoculars to my eyes and staring back at me was a white Roe deer. It stood inbetween two trees watching us from a distance. This sight was magical and it didn't feel real. I felt lucky to have locked eyes with such a beautiful creature. After a few minutes the animal walked off and we continued to the car.
Our next stop was another of our favourite nearby spots. But this was to see something different. It was a fresh, still evening as we wandered through the fields, over the fences and through the trees.
We came to our destination and creeped to a spot where we could sit down. As we were creeping we saw two black stripes poking out of a hole. We sat down silently and waited. There was a red squirrel nibbling in a tree above us and suddenly a badger came fully out of it's sett. I looked at Cain and couldn't help but laugh. The excitement of being so close to a badger plus the look on Cains face was unbearable and I got those giggles you get when you're not allowed to laugh.
Suddenly another badger popped out of their home, then another and 5 badgers were out. They didn't seem to mind us being there at all. We were 8 metres away at most. They wandered off along the fence, one behind the other. A few minutes later they all returned, running to safety and disappeared. We weren't sure what scared them but we saw this as a good opportunity to leave.
As we wandered back through the empty fields we discussed our day. We chattered about how amazing our experiences had been and I can not wait for another day like that.
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