I attended a meeting of the Bedfordshire Badger Network last night, and very interesting it was too, hearing about badger activity around the county. The discussion on badgers being observed swimming was particularly fascinating – more on that later…
We talked a little about badger road casualties. I was quite smug when I said that I hadn’t come across any road accident victims for some months. I should have kept my mouth shut. When I drove to work this morning I came across not one but two dead badgers. The first was in the usual spot – in the wood on the outskirts of the village. This is the same spot where we had the last casualty (or at least the last that I found) back in April. I try to get basic information on road victims – size, sex, approximate age etc – for the records, but I was in my best suit and on the way to a business meeting. Not the best dress for handling roadkill. When I came home the corpse had been moved off the road, so at least that’s something.
The other badger was in Toddington, which is out of my patch, but it was still a trifle depressing to have two casualties on the same day.
In case anyone thinks I’m being a little morbid focusing on dead badgers, I merely want to keep a record. This blog is primarily my diary, and sometimes I have to make notes on the unpleasant things as well as the pleasant. So it goes.
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 
Hi
still love reading your blog. Can you not post some more pics of badgers in your area or it is too late for checking them ie too cold for you? 😉
I just cannot get enough of their cute faces.
thanks
Hi Eszter
Thanks for your support. I agree – I need more pictures of badgers. The truth is that I haven’t been able to spend as much time badger watching this year as in previous years. The demands of work and a small daughter mean that I don’t have much time for anything else (not that I’m complaining – I love spending time with Scarlett). Now Mrs BWM is back at work a lot of my evenings are spent looking after my daughter.
It’s not too cold for badger watching now, but it is too dark for good photographs. All my pictures are taken in summer when they come out in the evening before it gets dark. At this time of year the badgers will be coming out about an hour after the sun has set. The only way to photograph badgers in winter is with flash photography, and I’ve not done that because I don’t want to disturb the badgers. I want to keep them as wild as possible so that I can observe natural behaviour.
But you’re right. I need to get out to the badgers again. I’ll find the time to go out with the night vision scope soon and see what’s happening.
All the best
BWM
Hi
of course I understand your reasoning – your cute daughter is number 1.
Just wanted to let you know I still read your blog, enjoying the pics you take and missed the badgers. It is highly appreciated that you keep them as “wild” as possible.
Eszter