Badger Diary

19th November A filthy wet night with continuous rain for 8 hours. I switched the camera on the sett to photos only but ... no photos. It seems Roger was in and out too quickly for the camera, but his food disappeared alright. 20th November Another wet night, but not so

We had no visits to our end of the wood from wild badgers for several days (since the night of the dog on the loose). Naturally, whenever badgers don't visit one hopes it's just bad weather or random factors at work, not a cull or road deaths. I was glad

4th November The cameras showed that Roger was out at 5PM. A few days ago it seemed there was more time to prepare his food in the evening but the clocks changing and the shortening days seem to compress the time available. Overnight he at all of his food except.

I moved the cameras last night, having seen a few too many clips of a wet badger's fluffy rear end at one entrance. One badger on his own is unlikely to provide much interesting "footage" (like this), but it's good to be able to see a bit of what goes

It was raining hard last evening when Roger's dish was left out for him, so he was introduced to the idea of a board placed on his dish for the first time. As expected he knocked it off and ate the lot, including a generous handful of acorns of which

Fresh batteries in the cameras and a warmer night resulted in good collection of video clips overnight. Roger was out and about from 17:30 to 02:12. Naturally, one question for anyone keeping a social animal in, in effect, solitary confinement, is whether its behaviour is normal. Badgers can

Monday 28th Roger appeared at the rear entrance close to the fence at 6:25pm just as I was turning on the camera. The sudden appearance of black and white stripes in the corner of one's eye in the fading light always gives a jolt (not as much as the

Last night was the coldest yet this autumn. The temperature dropped to 0.7 C. Perhaps because of this, Roger didn't venture out for long. Just a brief foray to eat and then he disappeared underground again, taking the bundle of barley straw with him.

Roger is not just your average lucky badger – lucky to be found and handed in to an animal shelter. He was so sick when he arrived, late on a cold wet night, it didn't look like he'd live more than a few hours. He was fed via a stomach tube

This blog hasn't had an update for some time, mainly due to a lack of badgers. Our badger "supplier", the Kildare Animal Foundation, has successfully released many rehabilitated adult badgers back into the wild–mainly animals injured on the road. Invariably, and rightly, they are released back where they were

The bluebells of May have given way largely to the bracken of June. No badger has appeared in our bit of the wood for some time. We found one dead on the nearest main road not so far away, possibly one we've seen on camera just over the fence --

We've gone from having occasional visits once or twice a week to nightly visits in the last few days, and last night the first with two badgers in ages. The cameras are still on photo mode to save batteries. The image quality isn't great. The Night Vision shutter setting of

Many weeks have passed since a badger set foot in our end of the woods. Indeed, it's been long enough that I switched the cameras from video to photo to save wasting batteries on the comings and goings of feral cats and foxes as well as hedgehogs, deer, mice and

Which of the badgers visiting the latrine at the corner of our wood are alumni of our badger rehab establishment? One can't tell by looking at them. We haven't seen the female with the tied-around-the-middle look lately (a legacy of scarring from an illegal snare). It's weeks since the camera

When the leaves start dropping from the trees a badger's thoughts turn to preparing for the winter. Here's the mother of the cubs seen in the video of the 14th of August gathering in some bedding. It's been quiet here lately, with no sign of the cubs on camera. However,

For months I've wondered if our badgers were visiting our wood by coming under a nearby gate and crossing the road. I put a camera up a tree at two different locations to try to record them doing so but the the distance proved too great for night-time recording. Putting

We still have no idea where our badgers are living. Happily, they are still visiting regularly -- one or other uses the latrine in our wood about 2 or 3 times a week. Meanwhile, I have put a camera on some nearby setts I know to see, first if they

Our badgers didn't stay in the nearby sett. One was killed on the road about 2km away shortly after they were released (confirmed from his microchip). We may know where two of the survivors have gone: a sett on the edge of a wood a few fields away. Unfortunately, the

Nocturnal Visitor Uh oh! I said on hearing noises at the front door at 10PM last night. Not again. Having given two of them a fright a couple of times already in recent days (for their own good -- people are dangerous) and then somewhat regretted it, I went quietly

This blog is due for a catch-up. Our first two badgers, Róisín and Benji, are gone. Róisín left abruptly, apparently with a visiting male who began to venture into the sett when they were out. Benji moved out later but returned regularly for food for quite a long time (about

A wet night, cold but not freezing. No sign of any visitor in our neck of the woods. I tied the camera on Edgewood Road to a large fallen branch and left it, propped in the crook of two branches, pointed at the latrine. It was pointed off to one

No videos and just three photos at the sett overnight: one of the badgers near the dish of food (not finished) between 4:11 and 4:19. It was a windy night and quite cold. They may have stayed in much of the night. Two more overhead photos of the

Another disappointing night photographically: nothing at all at the sett. I put a camera over the latrine on Edgewood Road and got a single photo of our new neighbour using his new facility, or at least of the top of his head (it's likely to be male), at 2:37.

Yes, it seems our badgers have been discovered by a wild badger. Sometime in the last few days a badger motel on Edgewood Road, last used for a few weeks two winters ago, was reopened (it had become full of leaves, sticks and earth). Two of three entrances showed signs

The badgers were camera shy last night, or vice versa. However, I think the sett may have had a brief visit from another badger at 5:11 -- perhaps the same one who visited yesterday? Last night it looked more badgerlike and larger than Róisín or Benji. No videos however,