14 December 2013 The badgers emerged from the rear entrance just before midnight. The highlight of the overnight video clips was seeing the badgers chasing the fox away, twice. They're unlikely ever to catch him but seeing them behave territorially was nice. The fox, undoubtedly, has caught on to the fact
13 December 2013 A dry night again. However, very little badger activity was recorded on camera overnight, just a badger bringing in bedding at 5AM. A pulsating grey orb loomed out of the darkness and then, when it turned sideways it was revealed to be a badger with bedding under its chin. That
12 December 2013 A wet night with only a few video clips of some soggy-looking badgers. They were out from 22:22 to 4:42, when one looked in the rear entrance and carried on going. The only video recorded at the main entrance was of a badger leaving the edge of the
11 December 2013 The badgers were out from 23:49 to 5:35 (a new latest time). At first it didn't seem they had been up to anything interesting. However, a closer look at the video clips revealed that one was recorded passing the camera on Edgwood Road only 6 minutes
10 December 2013 I moved the sentinel dish--the one I've been moving progressively further away--further still, 150m or so from the sett, and this time put a camera on it. When I get around to naming all the paths I'll call the place I left it Edgewood Road--the path
9 December 2013 No action was recorded at all at the main entrance. A very stinky fox visited this end of the woods and left his calling cards in a prominent place on a path. We've seen fox cubs in the headlights, footprints in the snow, smelt him, but never seen
8 December 2013 Last night was quite a short night for the badgers, though the weather continues to be mild and dry. They were out at 22:25 and back underground at 1:57. One load of bedding was brought in (the biggest yet). One game of pat-you-on-the-head was attempted. One badger got
7 December 2013 Yet another warm, dry night -- surely this mild autumn can't last much longer. The badgers were out at 19:03 and had a busy night until 4:20 or so. This was apparent first thing this morning when a new series of holes appeared in the woodland
6 December 2013 A badger looked out of the set at 18:02 and again 5 minutes later (it might have been two badgers, of course) but they didn't emerge until 21:36 (and 21:38). It wasn't cold or wet or windy. I'm not sure if
5 December 2013 Yet another warm dry night. The badgers were out from 19:15 to 5:20 (new record). This time they found not just the peanuts on the trail to the field, but also the buried nuts. They also ripped some bark off a fallen log; something they also did to
4 December 2013 Enjoying the continuing mild and (still!) dry weather that will end shortly the badgers were above ground for quite a long time last night, about six hours or so (from 18:44 to 3:07), and once again in a slightly frolicsome mood. I moved a camera into the woods
3 December 2013 Another clement night -- still dry and not yet freezing. The badgers were out for 4 hours or so from 20:59 to 1:08. They found their dish on the path to the field, however they walked right over a few small stashes of buried peanuts -- unless they
2 December 2013 A clement night -- dry and about 8 degrees. The badgers were out at 19:47 for a very routine bit of plodding around, snuffling here and there, before retiring early at 1:18. There were no high jinks on video, though the microphone of the camera with sound picked
1 December 2013 The badgers have had a full calendar month in their new home. They had a quiet night again last night, just mooching around the woods and seemingly staying close to the sett -- they didn't go near the camera in the woods. There was no more digging or
30 November 2013 Our hairy friends, as they have been called, were out and about again last night on yet another warm, dry night. They came out at 17:48 and were last seen above ground at 4:08 -- a hard day's night again. There were fresh snootle marks overnight,
29 November 2013 The badgers stayed in last night, mostly. One worked on some underground renovations and appeared at the rear sett entrance periodically, reversing out some soil. A little digging in for the winter perhaps. The furthest dish, left untouched from the night before, was rotated with the near one so that
28 November 2013 The badgers were out for 5 hours last night, from 21:26 to 2:27, on a mild dry night. One dish was placed near the sett, to be sure they didn't go hungry, and the other in the wood to reward exploration. At least that was the
27 November 2013 The badgers have now been in their new home for 4 weeks. They appear to have had a quiet night, with first and last recordings made at 19:14 and 20:39. However, one of the cameras is playing up despite showing that the batteries are ok, so they might
26 November 2013 The first badger emerged last night at 19:49, later than they have done on comparably warm nights recently, and they stayed close to the sett for a couple of hours. They seemed quite wary and didn't relax for some time. They did eventually however, and went exploring
24 November 2013 A stray dog spent 7 hours at the sett last night, trying to get down the main entrance at one point. Fortunately he was too big (dachshunds or "badger hounds" are bred to go down badger setts). I was not happy this happened so soon after the fence
23 November 2013 The badgers emerged at 6PM and stayed out and about until 4:30AM, a much longer "day" than they've had lately. There wasn't any sign of them between 6PM and 8PM so they may have been back underground or may have wandered off somewhere
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
21 November 2013 Yesterday, for the first time, I threw away some soggy dried catfood that the badgers had left behind. Previously, when they'd left a bit and it hadn't rained, I just mixed in with the next night's rations, splitting it between the dishes. This time
20 November 2013 The badgers stayed below ground until 2:05 and were back underground again at 3:22. Both dishes were more or less cleaned up but food under a board was ignored again (or rather not found because they weren't out long enough--or hungry enough). It was too cold
