OK. So far, I haven’t much success with the badgers at the Hawthorn Sett. I have yet to answer the fundamental question of how many badgers there are. If I can find this out, I can see how it changes over the year to come. It’s part of my overall master plan to understand more about the badgers in the area, and how the different setts relate to each other.
But first things first. I’d be happy at the moment just to see the badgers.
My last trip wasn’t very successful. I spent an uncomfortable evening in a tree without seeing the badgers emerge. I have an idea that the badgers are late to emerge here. I decided the best way to test this idea would be to lay siege to the sett – to sit and wait until the badgers finally came out.
This evening I came prepared. By 5.00pm I was sitting comfortably on an inflatable cushion (on the ground!), night vision scope ready on a tripod, flask of hot tea handy for morale purposes. I was nicely downwind of the sett and well camouflaged. It was textbook badger watching stuff.
Unfortunately, no badgers appeared. I had a fallow deer stag walk past, it’s broad antlers silhouetted against the sky. I see female fallow deer quite often, but stags only rarely. But this was the highlight of the evening. No badgers. I watched and waited until a little after 8.00pm. I had planned to stay later, but it was difficult to stay alert after watching and listening in the dark for three hours, straining eyes and ears for any signs of badgers, and the light and warmth of home were beckoning to me. Badger watching in the dark months of winter obviously needs more dedication than the summer sessions that I’m used to.
So I still don’t have an answer to my question, and I still don’t know when these badgers come out. But they should come out by 8.00pm, shouldn’t they? Neal & Cheeseman report an average emergence time of c.5.45pm for early November, so for no badgers to show by 8.00pm is odd. It’s obviously a badger sett (and I have seen a badger here before) otherwise I’d be doubting whether there are badgers at all. I’ll maybe give it another try this year, or I may put this sett on the back burner until spring. Perhaps in the meantime I’ll make a few trips in the daylight to get positive signs that the badgers are still in residence.
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 
just to say i see my urben badger every night in the garden..i leave nuts out for him ,and that stops him digging holes,we love watching him from the kitchen window.
Hi Brenda – thanks for writing in
Good to hear about the badger in your garden. They aren’t always welcome, but it sounds like you enjoy having yours around – and I’m sure he enjoys coming in for a snack.
I do envy you for being able to watch him from your kitchen window. Especially since I’ve been sitting out in the cold and dark for hours, and haven’t even seen any badgers to show for it!
All the best
BWM
How will you know if all the badgers are in or out of the sett? I must admit that it has never occurred to count the badgers in the setts around here. Are you putting peanuts down to tempt them out? Is there more that one entrance to the sett you are watching?
Very good questions Mike
No, I don’t feed badgers these days. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, but you don’t get to see them behaving naturally. I did feed them when I started watching, but I realised that all I saw was badgers eating peanuts, and that didn’t tell me much. So I do things the hard way these days.
Yes, there are certainly multiple exits to the sett, and it is difficult to find a spot where you can see all of them. It is perfectly possible that as I sat watching a couple of holes, the badgers slipped quietly out of another and I was none the wiser. I’m sure this happens more often than I realise. In the dark I was relying on hearing the badgers – most badgers will have a good scratch on leaving the sett, and this makes a distinctive noise. But they could have quietly nipped out.
And the eternal question – how do you count the badgers? I don’t know if anyone has cracked this one. I haven’t. The only method I have is to count the maximum number of badgers on a number of visits until you get a stable number and go with that. It isn’t exact, but it gives a rough idea. I’ve had great fun trying to count ten or so badgers at one time, very infuriating when a badger disappears down a hole and then reappears a moment later. Is it the same one or another?
I’ve heard of all sorts of fancy schemes to count badgers in a sett, ranging from harmless radio-isotopes (and then scanning latrine sites with a geiger counter) to hair traps followed by DNA analysis (a bit beyond my capability).
It all adds to the fun…!
I like to get an impression of how many badgers are born each year, but I use a remote camera to do this for me. I am not a great one for waiting about; I prefer to keep moving if possible.
I walked along the twin water pipe-lines that skirt the swamp, this morning. There had been quite a bit of badger digging in the soil between the pipes last night. The soil between the pipes is drier than that on either side of the pipes. I don’t see this badger digging in the gaps between the pipes very often, so I can’t help but ask myself why this should have occurred last night. As it happens, the water level on the marsh has risen substantially during the last week. I have a feeling that the badgers are beginning to find it difficult to locate sufficient worms on the marsh. I wouldn’t mind betting that they will increase their feeding activity in the drier Hoo Wood as a direct result of the increasing water level on the marsh.
What I find interesting is latching onto changes in the marsh animal behavior and then working out why the changes have occurred.
Mmmmm… looks like you’ll have to get a trailcam. My lot come out at 8:30pm BST and even last week came out on the dot (taking into consideration GMT) I reckon that there’s a bit of slippage for winter activity because of the warm weather. Other animals appear to be affected too.
Hi Pablo
That’s interesting about your badgers. Mind you, the badgers at the main sett I watch have been coming out around dusk, a lot earlier than 8.30. Of course, in these longer nights they have much more foraging time available, so there is no reason why they shouldn’t come out late. In June, there’s less than six hours of darkness so a badger would have to use all that time to get a decent feed. Now it’s the opposite, so I suppose they can take it a bit easier.
And you’re right, this situation definitely calls for a trailcam. Once again I’m kicking myself for not getting one for a bargain price when I was in the US a few years ago. Sooner or later I’ll have to put one on my shopping list.
All the best
BWM