If you read my last post you’ll know that I’m being unfaithful to ‘my’ badgers and investigating the neighboring sett – the Pine Tree sett. This sett seems to have three main holes spread widely apart. Last night I watched the southernmost hole without a sign of any badgers. Tonight I decided to have a look at the northern hole.
This hole is at the bottom of short but steep bank, about 8′ high. Because of the wind direction I elected to lie in the grass on the top of the bank and peer over the edge, with the wind blowing directly up the bank towards me. To begin with this was quite a luxury – badger watching while lying in grass, instead of sitting on a thin tree branch or in a patch of nettles. After an hour of lying motionless though I had pins and needles in my legs and the blood was pooling uncomfortably in my head. And I do this for fun?
At 8.35pm the stripey head of a badger popped out of the hole. Success! So there are badgers here after all! A few seconds later it popped back down again.
I was sure it hadn’t scented me, as I’d been very careful to take the long way round when I walked in so the sett was always upwind. I was also pretty sure it hadn’t spotted me, partly because I was fully camouflaged and hidden behind the grass, but mostly because a badger that sees something suspicious will usually try and sniff the air to make sure, and this one just disappeared. There was nothing for it but to wait and see.
About 10 minutes later the badger reappeared, and to my horror it started climbing the bank towards me. Another few feet, I thought to myself, and you’re going to get a surprise! Luckily the badger wasn’t climbing to the top of the bank. It was gathering grass for bedding, pulling it out with its mouth and shuffling back to the sett once it had got a reasonable load. I always enjoy watching badgers doing this, there’s something strangely endearing about it.
Here’s a brief video of the badger:
The badger made three bedding trips in all and then stayed underground, no doubt arranging things in its chamber. I decided not to push my luck and sneaked off. It had been a great close-up view, but I didn’t want to spoil things on my first visit to the sett.
As ever, questions remain. I only saw one badger. Are there more in this part of the sett? Is it just a solitary bachelor in residence? Why are the holes in this sett so far apart? How do the badgers from each hole interact? The paths between the holes suggest that they do, but the behaviour seems very different from the communal get-togethers I’ve observed at the other sett.
I shall do what I always do – go back to the textbooks and keep watching!
I’ve tried to make a point of watching one group of badgers rather than flitting around here, there and everywhere, the idea being that I should be able to learn more by getting to know one group very well.
OK. Today I changed my mind slightly, and decided to go and have a look at the neighbouring badger sett.
Regular readers may remember that I found this sett a little while ago (see Fieldnotes 7th September). I hadn’t forgetton it.
In fact, this sett has been central in my efforts to understand ‘my’ group of badgers. I was able to predict its position by mapping latrine sites, badger latrines being sited on the boundaries of their territories. When I followed the badger tracks in the snow in January I was able to see how badgers from both of these setts interacted on the boundary between them.
A great deal of badger behaviour is related to establishing and maintaining a territory, so understanding the relationship between neighboring clans is important. For instance, last year I wondered what happened to the ‘excess’ badgers at the sett, since as a group they seemed to reproducing faster than they were dying. After reading Hans Kruuk’s The Social Badger I now know that the non-dominant males leave and typically mate with females from another sett, but only ever with those from a neighbouring sett. They don’t seem to travel any further. The females almost always stay in their home territory.
(Interestingly, this happened to me too. I grew up in the north of England, but I left there and married my wife. My wife is from Bedfordshire, where we now live, so I migrated away from my clan whilst she stayed in her home territory. Perhaps the principle works for humans as well…)
Anyway, I digress. Today, I decided I fancied a bit of a change so I went to see the other sett. It needs a name to distinguish it from the main sett I watch, and since there are pine trees around the entrance let’s call it the Pine Tree sett.
The Pine Tree sett is not as big as the main one. Like the main sett it adjoins
The Pine Tree sett
the pasture field, so the badgers have access to the main food resources (hence the territorial boundary that divides the pasture field between them). There are three entrances spread out over a hundred yards or so, with a well-used path between them. The entrances are the classic sideways D shape, with large spoil heaps and used bedding outside. Nearby were fresh dung pits. In short, it was as badgery a place as you could ever wish for.
The only problem was that although I watched it for three hours, I didn’t see any badgers. Very frustrating.
The holes are quite far apart and not intervisible, so it is only possible to see one of them at a time. I chose to watch at the hole with the largest and freshest spoil heap, but perhaps the badgers were at another one.
It’s a mystery. It is obviously a badger sett, and obviously in use, so the badgers must be somewhere. I was at the sett from 6.30pm to 9.30pm, so I imagine the badgers would have come out during that time. In the other sett half a mile away they’re coming out consistently between 8.00pm and 8.30pm.
I think I need to put in a few more trips to this sett and try watching the other holes. Hopefully that will clear up the mystery.
Things have been busier than usual at work and around the house lately, hence I’m late in writing up my notes. It’s been a gloriously hot bank holiday weekend, and I’ve been taking the opportunity to thrash the garden into shape. Where there was a jungle there are now neat rows of vegetables and trimmed hedges – what a difference a few days can make.
And by the way, this blog is now a year old, so happy birthday to me! The main reason for writing it is to keep a diary so that I can check back on things and compare my experiences over the years. It’s working already. I can see from my records that this time last year was cold and wintry, so I’m starting to build up an archive of what has happened. Besides, keeping a diary online is much more fun than doing it on paper.
So without further ado, here’s the compressed diary entries for the weekend.
Saturday 23rd May
Being busy in the garden, I only had time for a quick trip up to the woods. I set myself up at the western side of the sett, mostly because it is clearer here and the view is better.
At 8.00pm exactly a badger left the eastern side of the sett and ambled over the western entrances. Five minutes later it wandered back again. A social visit, I presume. The eastern end of the sett is where I’ve seen the only cub of the season so far, so I’ve been keeping an eye on it to try and see some more.
The vixen and the fox cubs came out at 8.20. There are five of them. They suckled their mother for a few minutes before she suddenly ran off across the wood, five little cubs in tow. For a moment there were fox cubs everywhere, but they soon sorted themselves out. Perhaps she is starting to teach them to hunt, or just encouraging them to be more independent.
I could hear badgers at the eastern end of the sett at 8.35, but the undergrowth hid them from me. I still want to find out if there are any more cubs, so it looks like a trip to this end of the sett is called for.
Sunday 24th May
The eastern end of the sett presents a challenge, as there are no easily climbable trees nearby so you have to sit on the ground. It is also on a slight rise, so to get any sort of view you need to be pretty close. It was time for some extreme stealth badger watching!
Getting close to truly wild badgers is difficult because they are very nervous. I did everything I could to prepare. I brought my full camouflage outfit – my new camo shirt, gloves and two face veils. I even made sure that the shoes I wore had dark soles! The face veils are very important, as your face really does stand out. In particular it is useful to cover your eyes. Animals (and birds) seem to have an uncanny knack of knowing when you’re looking at them, and I think a lot of this comes from seeing your eyes. The ability to recognise eyes is built into almost all animals – a human baby will smile at two dots on a piece of paper if they are the same size as its mother’s eyes. One company in the US even makes camouflage sunglasses; these may seem like a gimmick but I’m convinced they are useful because they disguise your most noticeable feature.
Here’s what I look like in full camo gear – needless to say I don’t pop into the pub dressed like this.
The BWM in full camouflage
All my badger watching clothes are washed in hot water without soap, and to make sure I get rid of any possible washing powder scent I soak them in the rainwater butt overnight and then let them dry outside. I myself took a shower in hot water without soap, but I’m afraid I didn’t jump in the rainwater afterwards. I draw the line at some things. Never mind, I was as scent-free as I could possibly make myself.
All this camouflage may seem excessive, but I think it does help. It certainly gives me confidence to get close to the badgers.
Taking note of the wind direction I crept slowly up to the sett and sat with my back to a tree to hide my silhouette. I sat absolutely still, like a statue or a piece of wood. The local mosquitoes came out in force and bit my hands and ankles (the only vulnerable places) but I kept still.
At 8.00pm or so two badgers emerged – an adult and a cub. I was sitting in full view no more than 12 feet or so away. What a fantastic sight! I felt I could almost reach over and touch them. No chance of any pictures, of course. If I’d have moved even an inch they would have been scared off.
They sat and groomed and scratched for ten minutes or so as I sat and watched, hardly daring to breathe. When they ambled off I crept away as quietly as I could.
It was a great experience. Apart from the sheer boyish pleasure of dressing up and creeping around in a wood I had one of the best views of the badgers ever.
Still only the one cub though. Could it be that there is only one this year?
Monday 25th May
Back again at the western end of the sett. Two badgers came over from the eastern side at 8.25pm, and were joined by others from the western entrances. At 8.35 the mother and cub came over from the eastern sett. This was the first time I’ve seen the cub joining the adults over here.
The badgers were all very busy. At least three of them were engaged in some energetic digging in two separate entrances. Interestingly, one of these was a badger from the eastern side. It seems that it was living in a separate part of the sett yet it was still helping to excavate over here. Very community-spirited! You could tell the badgers that had been digging because they were a muddy red colour from the soil rather than the usual grey and black.
Other than that it was a typical relaxed badger evening. All the badgers sat around grooming contentedly, and the air was filled with scratching noises. Occasionally one badger would musk another, or help out with some mutual grooming. In short, it was a happy scene of a badger clan at ease.
Here’s a short video to give you a flavour of the evening:
And what about the cubs? Well, there was only the one. It played alongside the adults, but it was very much an only child. I’m coming to the conclusion that there is only this one cub this year. Is this because of the hard weather we had at the start of the year? Is it because we had a lot of cubs last year? Let’s see if an answer presents itself. In the meantime, it’s good to be out in the woods on a warm evening in the company of badgers.
I still haven’t managed to get a good look at any badger cubs this year, so once again I climbed the hill to the woods.
The badgers had obviously been busy around the western part of the sett, so I set myself up there and waited. The wait was made easier by a great-spotted woodpecker that worked its way up the trees in the area. I’ve been hearing woodpeckers for weeks, but this is the first time I’ve managed to see one.
At 8.14pm a pair of badgers came out of one of the eastern entrances, followed quickly by a third. Frustratingly, this part of the sett is hidden in undergrowth, so although I could get glimpses of black and white faces, I couldn’t tell if any of them were cubs.
For the next half hour or so I sat and listened to the badgers happily playing and whickering just out of sight. Then my attention was diverted elsewhere.
Remember the fox I mentioned a few posts ago that was living in one outlying
The fox cubs (damn that autofocus!)
hole of the sett? Well, it seems that ‘he’ is a ‘she’, because at 8.40 two adorable fox cubs appeared outside the hole. These little chaps were very cute indeed! Difficult to photograph, but still very cute. Sod the badgers, I thought. If they’re going to play hard to get then I’ll watch the foxes instead.
As if in answer, two badgers ambled over to the western sett entrance and in quick succession another six emerged from the hole. In no time there were eight badgers grooming and playing in front of me.
A few things stand out from the evening. Firstly, there were no cubs. All the badgers seemed adult size with adult behaviours, so unless this year’s cubs are very quick to mature then these are all last years. The main reason for keeping this diary is so that I can compare notes, and looking at the pictures from the end of May last year there is no way the cubs would be so grown up. The cubs (I’ve only seen one) must still be out of sight.
The badgers were in a playful mood – running, play-fighting and climbing trees. There is a tree at the sett that grows at an angle of 45 degrees, and I’ve seen the badgers climb up it a few times. The end of the tree is about 12 feet off the ground yet they don’t seem bothered. I walked up it once and it scared the hell out of me.
There was a lot of social behaviour going on. I noticed that as each new badger emerged from the sett it would musk (scent mark) the others, which implies that musking is a group behaviour and not just done by dominant individuals. I took some video, but the evening was a little too dark for it. Nevertheless, I’ve uploaded some because there’s a good example of musking going on. Watch how the badger coming in from the right lifts his tail when he rubs against the others. He (or she) is marking them with scent from the sub-caudal gland.
Talking of dominant individuals, I was treated to another fine display of badger sex. I really should stop watching things like this, but since the badgers in question were surrounded by six of their fellows and didn’t seem embarrassed, then neither should I be. The mating was interesting, because it was the first time I’ve ever been sure of the gender of individual badgers. It also implied that the badgers doing the mating were dominant in the clan, so these are obviously badgers of importance to watch out for in the future. I tried to see any distinguishing features so I could recognise them again, but they looked the same as any other badgers, dammit!
Ernest Neal distinguishes between short- and long-duration mating in badgers, where the long variety is a more serious attempt to breed. My pair were at it for 10 minutes, which seemed quite long, although Neal records instances of up to 90 minutes. Badger mating seems to involve a certain roughness, with the male biting the neck of the female to stop her running away, and she in turn trying to bite him when he gets too agressive.
Another thing of note was that a number of badgers rolled on the ground in exactly the same spot. This seemed like more than just coincidence. Do badgers scent-mark the soil, and then other badgers pick it up? Another thing to look out for in the future.
After an hour or so the badgers wandered off to begin the night’s foraging. By 9.45pm the sett was quiet again and I gracelessly climbed down from my tree. It was a fine evening, and the playfulness and the complexity of the social behaviour reminded my why I enjoy watching these remarkable creatures.
After taking some pride in my fieldcraft a couple of weeks ago, tonight was a lesson on what not do when badger watching.
The wind was blowing briskly from the south west today, so I approached the sett from the north east to keep myself downwind. There’s a climbable hornbeam tree at this end of the sett and this was my objective.
I say that it’s climbable. It is, but it’s difficult. I’d say it’s a Grade IV or Grade V on my tree climbing scale, with a tricky crux halfway up. Unfortunately, when I got up to a branch I could sit on, I found that the wind was eddying round and blowing from me to the sett. Back down I went.
I crept around the sett with a view to sitting with my back to a tree. The wind was wrong here too.
By 7.40pm I’d covered a wide circle 180 degrees around the sett, yet wherever I sat it seemed the wind was blowing in the wrong direction. As I’ve said, the wind does funny things in a wooded valley. I’d been careful to avoid going to near the sett entrances, or even the main paths, but even so I’m sure I must have caused all sorts of disturbance.
On reflection I should have just gone home when I first realised what the conditions were like, but ‘badger fever’ had gripped hold of me. There were signs of serious badger activity all around – fresh digging, tracks and trails where they’d gathered bedding – and I still haven’t seen this year’s cubs properly.
The highlight of the evening was a young fallow deer buck that wandered through the wood. Perhaps I wasn’t making as much disturbance as I thought, as the fallow deer here are very shy. They have sensitive noses and unlike badgers they can see very well. This buck was perfectly at ease as he stood among the bluebells, the first stage velvet antlers showing on his head.
Nevertheless, I walked home in frustration, not having seen any of the badgers. May the Protector of All Small Beasts give me at least one day with a decent steady wind so I can get back to some serious badger watching soon.
It’s been a day of firsts. I heard my first cuckoo of the year today and I also saw my first swallow. I know that one swallow doesn’t make a summer, but it’s been a glorious day. Everything is green and growing, and the air has that beautiful, lush foliage smell of early summer.
I went up to the wood in the evening, but the badgers were in a jittery mood. The wind plays funny tricks on warm days, often changing direction around dusk. The sett is on a hillside, and on warm, still days there tends to be a slight breeze uphill as the warm air rises. As the sun goes down the colder air starts to sink and the wind direction reverses. I think this happened tonight and the badgers picked up my scent.
One of the adults came out of the west entrance a few minutes before 8.00pm and gathered bedding, but it did not hang around. At 8.15 another pair came out of the eastern entrance and gathered more bedding. The undergrowth in the wood is getting quite lush, and the badgers are taking advantage of it. It is thought by some people that badgers deliberately gather green bedding as this ‘ferments’ in the sett and gives off warmth.
The badgers were on edge though. They would pause every now and then and sniff the air. I called it a night at 8.30, not wanting to cause them any disturbance. It is still a bit dark at this time for decent photographs, but I snapped a quick shot anyway.
I’ll be back soon, and hopefully the cubs will be out too.
I’ve been busy laying a new floor this weekend, but I took a couple of hours off this evening to see what the badgers were up to. In particular, I was keen to see if the cub (or maybe cubs) made another appearance.
A good breeze was blowing so I made for my usual tree. At 8.05pm the fox wandered past. It seems very regular in its habits, this fox.
By 8.25 it was getting dark and there were no badgers to be seen. At this time last week there were at least five of them out and about, but for some reason tonight they were having a lie-in. I don’t think it was my presence. I’d arrived carefully and early, so I don’t think they could be aware of me.
Just before 8.30 a badger came out of the western entrance, stopped, scratched a couple of times and then went back underground. I waited for a good while but it didn’t reappear.
I can take a hint. This was obviously not going to be a great night of badger watching, so I climbed down the tree and headed for home. Just as I touched the ground, however, the badger popped its head out of the sett again. I was standing in full view not 30 feet away. I was caught in the act!
But there were four things acting in my favour, and it was a good reminder how important they all are.
Firstly, and most importantly, the wind was in the right direction. I was in exactly the right place to observe this sett, with the wind blowing from the badger to me. My scent was therefore carried away behind me and not towards the badger. Since smell is the most important sense for badgers I was effectively ‘off the radar’, so to speak.
Secondly, I stayed absolutely still. Badgers do not have brilliant eyesight but they see movement pretty well. By immediately freezing I reduced the chances of being seen significantly.
Thirdly, I was wearing dark, drab clothing (including my super high-tech camouflage jacket, wide-brimmed hat and camouflage gloves) so there was nothing to catch the badger’s attention. Covering up the face and hands is so important but often overlooked. Your hands in particular are very visible, especially as they are usually the part of you that moves the most as you lift up your binoculars or camera. Dark gloves are essential, even on warm summer evenings.
Fourthly, I was standing with my back to the tree, so my silhouette was hidden. In my dark clothes I blended into the background instead of standing out against it.
Because of all these factors I was able to stand there in full view of the badger yet remain effectively invisible (although it did feel horribly exposed to be on the ground – I’m like a fish out of water when I’m out of my tree!)
After a minute of two the badger was joined by another, and they sat there scratching merrily. I crept away as slowly and as quietly as I could so as not to disturb them, and when I looked back they were still blissfully unaware of me. I had got away with it.
At times I do feel that I get a little obsessive about not disturbing the badgers, but I really do believe that it is these little details that mean the difference between success and failure when watching wildlife.
Having been out at the sett the other night I’ve got a rough idea of the time when the badgers come out. This made it easy this evening to pop down for a quick look just at the time of dusk. Of course, it is always a good idea when badger watching to arrive early. It gives you a chance to arrive and get settled without disturbing the badgers, and if you arrive too late there’s always the danger of bumping into an early riser.
This evening was perfect, and the badgers emerged on cue at 8.15pm. Three badgers came out of the tangle of bushes in the middle of the sett area and disappeared into a hole at the west end. This hole has been enlarged in the last two days, and now has a very impressive spoil heap outside. Busy badgers!
Then another badger appeared in the central area, followed quickly by another. The second badger was undoubtedly a cub on one of its first trips outside.
I assume it was with its mother (I tend to regard all fairly slim badgers as female, on the flimsiest of evidence – nevertheless this one acted like a parent). The cub was small, but not as small as some I’ve seen, and it was still unsteady on its feet. It stayed very close to the sett entrance, with the mother keeping a close watch until she too wandered over to the other sett entrance, leaving the cub alone. Thanks mum! The cub took the hint and disappeared underground.
With all the badgers out of sight I took my chance and left. I had no desire tonight to spend hours up a tree, nor to thrash my way home through a pitch-dark wood. Not tonight, anyway.
So there we are. The first cub of the year. It is out quite early – last year I saw the first cub on April 21st. I wonder how many brothers and sisters it has? I wonder too what is happening at the sett, with at least two holes in very active use? There’s only one way to find out…keep watching!
Damp, still nights aren’t the best for badger watching. The moist air carries your scent further, and since badgers rely heavily on their sense of smell there’s a greater chance of them detecting you. Nevertheless, 7.30pm found me in my favourite tree.
It was good to be back again, to put on the camouflage jacket and assume my secret identity. There’s something liberating about it. I was the Badger Watching Man once more. I imagine that Superman must feel the same way when he casts away Clark Kent and becomes himself again.
At 7.58pm a fox appeared from one of the holes in the middle area of the sett. This is an interesting development. I wonder if he’s taken up residence permanently? I’ll see if this is a regular occurrence.
At 8.20pm the first badgers appeared. Two adults ambled across from the eastern end of the sett, joined almost immediately by three others from what looks like a very active entrance on the west.
I am pleased to say that I still get a thrill from seeing badgers. This is my fourth year of badger watching, but the sight of these big, bold beasts still impresses me. The idea that such animals can exist almost under our noses is amazing.
In no time at all there were at least seven adult badgers outside the sett (badgers are notoriously difficult to count). There were at least ten badgers last year, including cubs, so I’m curious to see how the number has changed. This time of year is when the male badgers tend to leave the sett, so I’ll see if I can get a better idea of numbers and try and work out if this has happened. I’ve got a better understanding of how badgers leave and join other setts since reading Hans Kruuk’s The Social Badger, so when I get a chance I’ll put a brief summary on here.
As well as the usual scratching and rolling round, I was treated to a view of badger sex. At the risk of being labelled as some sort of wildlife peeping tom, I watched this with interest. Badgers have a complex reproductive life, but the females are fertile very soon after cubs are born, and badgers can mate at any time of year.
Badger under my tree
By now it was getting dark, and I had badgers all around me. It was still just possible to see them using binoculars (binoculars gather more light than the naked eye, hence you can often see more with them when the light is failing). I took my first ever picture of a badger using the flash on my camera. I’ve never done this before for fear of spooking them, but after taking a few flash pictures in the pasture field in November without any serious impact on the badger, I decided to give it a go. Luckily, the badger didn’t seem bothered.
The badgers were still snuffling around me quite happily, which put me in a dilemma. My number one rule of badger watching is ‘don’t disturb the badgers’. Unfortunately, if you’re up a tree with badgers all around, this means that you’re pretty much stuck there. To climb down and appear in the middle of them would be very bad style.
By the time the snuffling and scuffling sounds had moved away it was pretty much dark. If you’ve ever been in a rural wood on a dark and misty April night then you can imagine just how dark it gets. Of course, it is just these occasions that make it a good idea to take a torch when badger watching. I had one with me, but out of a perverse desire to avoid disturbance I didn’t use it. Climbing down the tree by feel wasn’t elegant, but I got down in one piece. Luckily I know these woods very well, but even so there were a few Blair Witch Project moments as I crept out, using my tracking stick in front of me like a blind man.
But that’s the joy of the whole thing. To be out in a wood at night, with the deer barking and the tawny owls crying – I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
Tales from the Wood - The Diary of a Badger Watching Man 