MOST evenings I visit a badger sett close to my gallery in Thixendale to watch badgers for my paintings.

Over the years they have accepted me as one of the clan and in return I have painted most of their portraits.

This month I had one of the most engaging evenings with them. As I walked towards the sett, I heard foxes calling from the field above.

Through the red filter on my head torch I saw two barn owls fly into the darkness. A kestrel was roosting on my tree-top hide and tightened its feathers as I shone the torch at him.

I climbed over a stile at the approach to the sett and three pairs of badger eyes shone back at me. One of the badgers came to greet me. It was ‘Humbug’: my favourite badger, the friendliest of the clan.

I threw a few dog biscuits down to her. Then I set about putting some mice on a fence post. I had brought them for a pair of barn owls that I feed over the winter.

I walked to my usual spot at the edge of the sett and sat down. I have a hide in the tree overlooking the sett, but I actually prefer being on the ground with the badgers - it seems more real.

Humbug finished off the last of her biscuits and trotted over to me. I held my hand out with more dog biscuits on my palm. Just then a barn owl screeched eerily and I looked away, so that it was her wet nose that I felt first on my hand.

She hoovered up the biscuits delicately, taking just one at a time. She has better manners than most pet dogs.

I drew my hand gently away and she placed her front paws on my legs, searching for more biscuits with her nose.

I stroked her back and she turned her head at my touch, but I gave her another handful of biscuits and while she was distracted I scratched her.

There were small bits of matted fur in her undercoat and scabs on her side and front – a clear sign that she had been fighting. This was surprising because Humbug is only a year old. Already she has had to fight for a position in the clan.

It explained why she had been a little wary over the last month. Any unrest in the clan can make badgers afraid of their own shadow.

Another badger then appeared, its nose poking tentatively out of the hole. It was Humbug’s sister and the two greeted each other warmly and then began to groom one another.

They stood side by side nibbling each others backs and necks. I was relieved to notice that there was no reaction from this sibling to my scent on Humbug.

Humbug began foraging for worms.

She pushed her nose into the ground, pushing it in so far her eyes were below ground.

Then a barn owl flitted across the starlit sky. I watched as it hovered over the post with the mice on – just three metres away from where I was sitting.

As it picked up the mouse, I felt a real privilege that I have been accepted into the secret nocturnal world of these wild animals.