Back to Badgers

The depressing news about extending Badger culls beyond the county of Gloustershire is a sad state of affairs indeed! The constant call to “cull” is in the media with saddening regularity and conservationists need to speak out and actively oppose this nonsensical culling. 

The illogical issue of Badger culls gives much, "Food for thought.”  There is so much to read, digest and consider. This makes a decent starting point. CLICK HERE

All this talk of Badgers has made me think about the welfare of my own local Badger setts. There is one sett in particular I often check out to see everything is as it should be. This is the sett whose occupants I have often watched and at times been close enough to certain individuals, especially the large boar,  to hear them breathing. 

I have seen one of the sows a couple of times recently, just before the crops were taken in, she would often leave the sett early evening while there was still enough daylight to get decent views, and walk a path along the crop boundary, eventually disappearing into the corn.

There is another sett I have been keeping tabs on over the summer, the occupants here have been keeping very busy, almost doubling the size of the sett. There are definitely more Badgers here than in the aforementioned smaller colony, which I think only comprises of three adult badgers. 

Now, I have yet another sett I am keeping an eye on. This one was discovered by Pete, and it is a cracker. It is the biggest of four setts that I'm now aware of on patches I regularly walk by a considerable amount. I have no idea how many "denizens of the dark" reside here, but by the large amounts of digs and other signs of activity, I feel this could be an impressive group of badgers.

So, this weekend I set myself the task of trying to get some pictures of the inhabitants of this newly discovered sett. I headed out on Friday evening armed with my trail camera and a small bag of peanuts to bait a few areas up. let's see what the weekend brings?

On a misty Saturday morning, I tried to take a picture of shards of sunlight streaming through the trees. I was also pleased to discover that Friday evening had been a success with three different badgers being caught on camera. 

 I relocated the camera on Saturday evening to cover a trail that Pete felt the Badgers were using. He was right, and on Sunday morning I was pleased to see more badger activity captured on camera. 

I am very pleased with the results of a successful weekend.