Last night I went for a walk around 11.00pm to see if I could spot the badgers foraging in the pasture field, although if I’m honest with myself this was just an excuse to get outside.
There is something truly magical about being outdoors on a summer night. It was a beautiful, clear, warm night with a nearly full moon – it was the perfect night to be out and about. Few people, I suppose, deliberately go out in the dark these days, but they’re missing out. Just to be out in the countryside on a night like this is special in a way that I simply cannot put into words.
By 11.30 I was sitting with my back to the great old stag-headed oak on the top of the hill in the pasture field. It seemed that I could look out over the whole of Bedfordshire – the woods and fields, houses and roads – stretching out before me in the moonlight. Once again the whole world was asleep while I was joyously awake and alive.
At 11.45 a badger came trotting up behind me. Poor thing. I was sitting facing the wood with the wind in my face because for some daft reason I expected the badgers to come out of the wood, even though they would have started foraging hours ago. This badger must have been out in the field already, and it must have come across my scent being blown behind me and decided to hurry past. Ah well, let it go. No point in disturbing it further.
On my way back home I came almost face to face with another badger in the cornfield at the bottom of the hill. I know they use this field and they feed here, but this was the first time I’ve caught one in the act.
I had my camera with me but I didn’t take any pictures. Taking pictures would have meant using the camera flash. To have suddenly lit up the scene with a harsh, artificial light seemed somehow crass and insensitive and sacrilegious, almost like shouting in a cathedral. I was content to sit and watch and to be a part of the night myself, to share the night with the creatures around me.
Perhaps the magic of a summer night can only be experienced first hand, and not captured and brought home.
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 
Just thought of your blog when I came across this story about a badger:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/2578675/Drunk-badger-disrupts-traffic
“Drunk Badger Disrupts Traffic
A badger in Germany got so drunk on over-ripe cherries it staggered into the middle of a road and refused to budge.
A motorist called police near the central town of Goslar to report a dead badger on a road – only for officers to turn up and discover the animal alive and well, but drunk.
Police discovered the nocturnal beast had eaten cherries from a nearby tree which had turned to alcohol and given the badger diarrhoea.
Having failed to scare the animal away, officers eventually chased it from the road with a broom.”
Cheers,
Mungo
Thanks Mungo – that’s a great story, and just the sort of thing I like. Well spotted!
Actually, I may put this into a post. It’s the sort of story that deserves to be publicised…
Hi again Badgerman,
A friend of mine runs a wildlife hospital and one night he recieved a call about an injured badger and fox lying in someones front garden, close to a road.
When he arrived he found the pair to be uninjured but blind drunk – both of them staggering around the place after gorging themselves on fermenting apples from a nearby orchard.
It was too unsafe to leave the drunk & disorderly pair so close to the road so they were gently guided into a cage with the aid of a walking stick.
By the time they arrived at the hospital the badger was snoring loudly.
The wildlife hospital provided them with bed and ‘breakfast’ and then they were released back on their home patch the following evening – after they had slept their hangovers off!
That was one little badger that had a brilliant “you will never guess what happened to me the other night” tale to tell his mates back at the sett!