On Saturday I watched the southern entrance of the Pine Tree sett without seeing any badgers. It looks as though there should be badgers in residence – there’s plenty of fresh spoil and well-used paths – so maybe it was just an odd coincidence that they came out late, or maybe I disturbed them somehow.
To make sure, I went back to this part of the sett on Tuesday. Once again, I saw no badgers. I’m coming to the conclusion that there are no badgers in this particular hole.
I’m trying to make sense of all this in terms of used and unused holes and the way a clan of badgers organises itself into main, outlying and subsidiary setts. I know that sows with cubs will take themselves off to an unused hole, and that boars new to an area will do the same. Perhaps these are outlying holes and there’s a main part of the sett here that I haven’t observed yet.
Sycamore tree with stripped bark
It was still a worthwhile outing, with plenty to see. I noticed that at the northern hole the badgers have stripped the bark off a young sycamore tree and eaten it. At least, I presume it was badgers – the tree is right next to the sett and it was stripped of bark up to 3 feet high, so I don’t think anything else could have done it.
Neal and Cheeseman mention that badgers will sometimes eat sycamore bark in early spring when the sap is rising. It is almost midsummer now, but perhaps the recent dry spell has made other food less available, so the badgers are having to expand their diet. I’ll keep an eye on this. I’d rather not feed them, but I don’t want them to go hungry either.
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 
Hi Badgerman
Could that be deer damage? I know they like a bit of bark.
You are right to be worried about the food supply though, dry weather makes things much tougher for our black & white friends.
Dry springs and summers are increase cub mortality significantly. The cubs I watched the other day seemed a bit thinner than normal. Whilst watching them the sow returned in a great rush ( thought I had been spotted) but she was just excited because she had some food. She was carrying what looked like half a road-kill rabbit – I have never seen them bring food back like this before!
The cubs just fluffed up with excitement when they saw this. They checked it out on the spoil heap for a short time and then mum carried it down into the sett – closely followed by the cubs.
Now I am toying with the idea of leaving some food if it does not rain soon – luckily it rained a little last night.
I dont like to feed as it interferes with their natural behaviour and tends to ruin a good badger watch. However if they are going hungry then I definitely would.
Brilliant Blog.
Josie.