Thief in the Night.

Following our evening out at our neighbour's house on Saturday with the added entertainment of 3 badgers in the garden, we have been keeping an eye open for them in our garden.

A few weeks ago a complete hanging bird feeder disappeared from the tree and there were other tell tale signs of bigger than usual visitors but had only managed to catch sight of the badger once a apparently passing through.

Last night Chris said he could hear one eating next door and I could see it through the fence and from the landing window. I left it at that as neither were good places to get a photo. Our son arrived home in the earlier hours ( about 1.00 am) and could hear a racket below his window at our bird feeding tree. It was frantically trying to get peanuts from the bird feeders (sunflower and niger seeds were rejected!)

As you can see it had three of the feeders down and somehow managed to make off with one of them again as their was no sign of it this morning. Luckily Alex's camera was handy so using it we were able to get some shots through the open window.
The act of opening it and the flash didn't seem to put it off at all! Whether it was the same one as in next door's garden earlier or a late comer who thought he had missed out, I don't know. We have so far only seen a single one in here.

I'm absolutely amazed that they can take a whole feeder away with them!

I wouldn't have heard it as we sleep at the front so lucky that Alex was awake to alert us. He was the one who photographed a similar episode last summer.

I shall be keeping a look out again but it is costing us quite a lot in bird food and feeders!