The snow has finally melted. Today has been a balmy 7 degrees and beautifully sunny. It may not sound very warm, but compared to the past weeks when the temperature didn’t rise above freezing for days on end it feels positively spring-like. I took advantage and headed out for a stroll in the (slightly soggy) countryside.
I had no particular aim in mind, but with a vague idea of looking at the birds I headed over to the lake. I don’t go there very often, but there is always the chance of visiting waterfowl. As it happened the lake was still iced over with not a bird in sight, but the hedges were alive with blue tits, great tits, chaffinches and sparrows. My personal favourites were a flock of long-tailed tits working their way through the trees. These are delightful birds but absolutely impossible to photograph. They are always on the move, flitting about from branch to branch as they forage, never staying in one place for long. One of these days I’ll be in the right place and get a picture as they travel past.
Talking of ambitions, there is one animal that I’ve been quietly trying to photograph for a while now, and that is the black squirrel. The black squirrel is the melanistic (black) version of the common grey squirrel. There are populations of black squirrels in a number of places around the country, and some experts believe that the black coat is genetically dominant and will eventually replace the ordinary grey colour. This hasn’t happened yet, or shown any signs of doing so, so black squirrels are still fairly uncommon.
There is a known population of black squirrels centred on Woburn in Bedfordshire. I’ve only seen one once before, and it was very striking – a squirrel, but with a black coat. Ever since then I’ve wanted to get a picture of one. Today, I got my chance.
The almost legendary Black Squirrel of Woburn
Unfortunately the squirrel was quite distant so it was at the very limit of my camera zoom, but it is unmistakeably a black squirrel. I feel a little bit like those people who photograph Bigfoot, only to get home and find the picture only shows a dark blur in the distance, but at least I know it was there.
NOT a Bigfoot, but a black squirrel...
I walked home along the brook. Halfway down I came across a clear animal path running from an old, disused little quarry into the fields. Now, this looked to me like a classic badger path. The old quarry was a perfect spot for a badger sett – they love places like this where they can dig sideways into the side of a bank, and the soil is usually dry and well-drained. There were signs of digging and spoil heaps in the quarry, so something was burrowing there. In short, it looked exactly like a badger path, except it ran across a 6″ deep fast-flowing brook.
The brook crossed by a badger(?) path
Could this really be a badger path? Would the badgers really wade across the brook every night to get to the fields? There were no really conclusive tracks so it is difficult to be sure either way. Something had made the path, but I don’t know what. Since the brook is close to my house it looks like an ideal place to make a track trap – to spread some sand and see what tracks I can get. If it is a badger path then I’ll be back in the summer to see if I can stake it out and get a picture of an aquatic badger. Remember, you heard it here first!
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 
Lovely photograph of the black squirrel. Quite made my Monday! How very exciting.
Great sighting indeed. I have seen Black [Fox] Squirrels in Minnesota but never in this country. Good luck in your quest for a closer shot. Those Badger Nuts may come in handy :]
With regards to your Path discovery. The path could well cross the brook, which I imagine at the moment is swollen with all the snow melt. In the summer it could prove to be just a trickle and no barrier to a ranging brock. Thats just a theory. As far as I know, Badgers have no problem negotiating small bodies of water if they want to. It would be exciting this Spring if the quarry Sett proved to be active.
Good to hear you are getting out and about.
Thanks Hedgehog fan, thanks Ghillie – it was good to be able to get out and about in slightly warmer weather.
Regarding the U.S. black squirrel connection, the rumour is that one of the Dukes of Bedford brought some black squirrels back from America and released them into Woburn Abbey, where – predictably – they escaped and became established in the wild.
It sounds plausible. I am seriously thinking of writing a book about all the animals the Dukes of Bedford (the 11th Duke seems to be the worst culprit) brought to the UK and then allowed to escape, from Muntjac and Chinese Water Deer to Lady Amherst’s Pheasants and the Wels catfish. The Dukes make interesting neighbours and they’ve certainly enriched the wildlife around here, but they must rank as some of the least responsible and most careless animal keepers ever.
Not sure about the aquatic badger (bizzarre vision of a water-skiing badger). Only a trap will provide evidence but I suspect it a something (badger) both sides of the river getting something to drink.
Hi Pablo
Yeah, I know what you’re thinking. Why would a badger cross a stream? Or any other animal for that matter? It sounds odd to me too. But I’m sure that there is a path going from one bank of the brook, reappearing on the other side and continuing into a field.
I tried a track trap over the weekend, putting out some sand on Saturday evening and checking it on Sunday morning, but there were no tracks at all. I’m going to keep an eye on the spot though, and see if I can make some sense of it all.