I’ve spent the day shifting manure for the vegetable patch and buying hedging plants, so it’s been a real outdoors day. But even better than that, I’ve been out on my first proper badger watching trip of the year. The evenings are now light enough to get a chance of seeing badgers before it gets too dark.
By 7.50pm the sun had set and I was sitting in my favourite tree. To be honest, I’m a little rusty. I haven’t done this for a while. I moved to quickly in the wood. I was clumsy and noisy. I put up a small herd of fallow deer and a couple of muntjac on my way in. But hey, this is all part of the experience. It always takes a little while to get back into practice, to really tune in and learn to move at the slow pace of the wood, not the frantic city pace that I’ve grown accustomed to.
At 8.10 I could hear the unmistakable sound of a badger gathering bedding on the other side of the sett. A few minutes later a badger trotted into view. You know, this will be the fifth year that I’ve been watching badgers, and I still get a thrill when I see a stripey face in the twilight. The badger snuffled this way and that as it foraged in the dried leaves.
It was now too dark to see with the naked eye, but the badger was visible through binoculars. Binoculars are the poor man’s night vision. A good set of binoculars with a large objective lens will act as funnel, collecting and concentrating the available light.
Another few minutes later, a pair of badgers emerged from a hole in the middle of the sett and sat for a while grooming contentedly. As the light faded completely a pair of muntjacs began barking incessantly and it was time for me to go.
So far, so good. There are at least three badgers in the sett and they seem healthy and happy. I was a bit worried last year when they didn’t seem to be thriving, but there are plenty of signs of activity at the moment. Let’s hope they have a better year this year.
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 
hi BWM,
this is quite interesting, today I have been doing some remote monitoring using just a few nuts to determine a few things, namely which holes they emerge from and at what time, using this method I have narrowed it down to a full 5 – 30 minutes later than yours – maybe we can synchronize watches
I’ve added a link to to Tales from the Wood under the tab for ‘Related Blogs’ on Loose and Leafy
http://looseandleafy.blogspot.com/
Hope this is ok – and, if so, is there a picture or an image you would like put beside your name? (I’m in the process of constructing the page and want to make it more cheerful and interesting and informative than just a list.)
Lucy
Hi Spiney – good to hear from you
I’ve finally found time to watch your videos – very interesting! It looks like a useful technique for finding out which holes are active, and as you say, if you can keep an eye on them, what times the badgers are coming out.
Interesting too that your badgers are coming out later. Maybe it has something to do with people in the wood? My badgers get very little disturbance (I’ve never seen anyone else in the wood, so it isn’t visited very often at all) so they maybe more confident coming out earlier. Perhaps we need to do some sort of internet survey and see if there are any patterns across the country…
All the best – and mind that your dog doesn’t eat your nuts (!)
BWM
Hi Lucy – thank you very much, that’s very kind. I’m looking forward to reading through Loose and Leafy. It looks very interesting indeed. You’re in a beautiful part of the country.
The picture of myself that I use on here is slightly scary, so it may not give the best impression. Feel free to find a picture of a badger if you like. This is one of my favourites – not a great picture but it captures the mood
All the best
BWM
I think you meant to leave a link to a particular badger picture?
Lucy
Hi Lucy – sorry, I did mean to. I never was any good at this interweb thingy…
This was the picture I meant https://badgerwatcher.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/barrelful-of-badgers.jpg
Not sure if you can grab it off the site, but if not I’ll scale it down and send it on to you.
Thanks for being persistent!
BWM