22 November 2013

The badgers emerged at 17:40 and were out and about until a couple of minutes after midnight. Their appetites recovered: they ate all of the food in their dishes and a couple of caches were found. One was under a board with a rock on it. The other was in a nose hole at the base of a tree where I'd stashed some food a few days ago and then covered it up. Finally it was found and exhumed with some vigour. In the past there have been signs in the woods of a possible passing badger now and then. Did a badger do that? Or could it have been a something else? This morning, the enthusiasm or just the power of the badger's nose and claws provided some unmistakeable clues to where they'd been overnight--no need to wonder who or what was responsible. They ranged at least 25m from the sett in two directions. The empty dishes were good to see too.

As usual the badgers ignored the food until they'd been out for some time. They spent most of their time exploring, which looks as if it involves making a map of the smell of every inch of the ground, and snapping up the odd slug, grub or other tasty snack. Keeping other creatures from the badgers's food is now a bit of a problem. The leftovers have drawn two cats, one of which visits after the badgers have gone underground and the other first thing in the morning.

Follow the leader. There used to be a fence here. The path into the rest of the woods starts here. Small vignettes of the same scene at different times.