Badger Watching

I have been seriously neglecting this blog during the last few weeks. The reason this time is because I have been out virtually each evening watching badgers. I happened to wander through the woods just over our garden fence one evening and spotted a whole family by their sett. They are absolutely mesmerising to watch.

Badgers are protected in this country and it is an offense to disturb them at their sett. However, I don't really see the logic in this when they are planning to allow farmers to shoot them on sight in an effort to control bovine TB.

Anyway, because of this I don't have any photos to show. I just stand and watch them each evening just as it is getting dark. They are real little characters. Firstly, when they emerge, they have a good scratch - a seriously good scratch, even scratching each other. I guess if you had been holed up underground all day, you would want to scratch, too!

I just stand and watch in full view of them (but preferably downwind). Their eyesight must be very bad because they don't seem to see me. However, they do know I am there because they can catch my scent.

I have been sprinkling peanuts around the sett, which they love. They are so intent on getting the nuts that sometimes they come to within a metre of where I am standing. There is a baby one which is not quite so streetwise as its parents. This comes within 6 inches (15cms) of my boots!

It is quite magical.



Now back to the garden - it is very busy at the minute. The birds seem to have had lots of success with their families. A little wren has just finished feeding her babies in a tiny nest hidden in the cotoneaster growing around our living room window.

The photo above is a baby Jay, out without its parents but it was with another sibling. Its brown feathers are still very fluffy and patchy, but the blue feathers have grown in nicely. The Jays are very shy, so photos are difficult.

The next photo is a juvenile Green Woodpecker. It looks very grown up but the speckled feathers show it is a youngster. There have been a lot of them around this year.



Finally, the baby Roe Deer that I mentioned a few weeks ago has turned out to be twins! I have still not managed a decent photo because the grass in the field out front has still not been cut. You can still only see their ears above the long grass.

Hopefully I will get a photo of them before too long.

Badger and Hare

I found a dead badger (meles meles) in the garden today - not the one in the photograph. It must have been dead for a while because the scavengers had been at it and there was only fur and a few bones left. I would be interested to know what killed it.

Badgers have few predators in this country and it is badger cubs that are most at risk from predators. Adult badgers can fight back fairly aggressively if attacked and they have a nasty bite. They also use their black and white striped face to warn off attackers.

Badgers are getting a fairly bad press at the moment in the UK, accused of spreading Bovine TB. I hope that no local farmers are taking it into their own hands and poisoning them. They are such beautiful creatures.

I also surprised a brown hare (Lepus capensis). It was just a few metres away so I got a good look at it before it ran off. I have seen hares in the garden before but only from a distance. I was surprised by its light colouring and, of course, it had the black tips on its ears. I wish I could get a photo.

Determined Badgers

I went back to have another look at the wasp nest mentioned last week. The badgers have been at it again and the hole is now much bigger.




I suspect the wasps have been fighting back but the nest is now much more exposed.

Because badgers have such thick fur they have a lot of protection against wasps stings. I would guess only their noses are susceptible. It will be interesting to see who wins this battle.

Raided Wasp Nest

There is not much happening in the garden at the moment and not really any colour. We cannot plant any of the usual pretty flowers in an English Country Garden because most things we plant are eaten by the deer. Although there is a riot of colour in the spring, by late summer very little is flowering and the garden is mostly shades of green.

If anyone has any suggestions about late-flowering plants that are not eaten by deer, I would be very interested to hear about them.

I had a walk around the garden today and there are still plenty of butterflies - mostly whites and speckled woods. However, the most interesting find today was the wasp nest which I mentioned a couple of weeks ago. When I first found it, it was a small hole about 3 cms diameter. This weekend I found that it has been raided. Quite a big hole has been dug in an effort to reach the nest, but I don't think the marauder was successful because of the tree roots in the way. If you click on this image to enlarge it you will see that there are still plenty of wasps making their way in and out.

I would guess that the culprit is a badger. I believe that badgers eat wasp larvae and sometimes wasps, too. This wasp nest is right next to the badger latrine, which was probably not a very sensible place to build the nest!