14 August 2016

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 are occupied, and if so if the badgers had cubs this year. No luck at the first couple. I tried another a few kilometres away a couple of days ago.

Here's what the camera revealed

It would be better with sound -- badger cubs yikking at each other while acting the maggot is a joyful sound -- but it's droll enough, as badger cubs always are.

This evening I visited the sett to watch from the vantage of a nearby tree. One gets such a different perspective -- colour (for a while) sound, and, in some cases, a view of more than one entrance.

A badger emerged at one entrance at 8:45PM and after a few minutes of scratching and even, at one point, rolling on his back, he retreated underground.

15 minutes later a badger appeared at another entrance, where I had no camera, and spent some time cautiously sniffing the air but didn't emerge. 10 minutes later as the light was fading fast it re-emerged at the first entrance and had another scratch before heading off out of the wood into the overcast moonlit night. By then I could hear more than I could see thanks to the canopy of leaves blocking the light. At 9:50PM I slipped down the tree, quietly, and out of the wood.

Will we ever get to see a family of badgers in our wood?