Mar 22nd, 2014

Author: marionmccune

Badger Thrill

Last night I had just put the nuts out for the wildlife when I happened to look out of the window. There was one of our badgers munching away. Luckily R’s sister who is an excellent photographer (her photo included below) was here – so we very quietly went outside to see if we could get a photo of him. Much to our surprise – he seemed pretty unconcerned about our presence. He looked up at the flash a few times, but although he knew we were there he was more interested in the nuts than us.

I’ve never actually seen a badger in the flesh before, and I wasn’t expecting to be able to get so close. He was slightly smaller than I expected, had very impressive teeth (for something that largely lives off earthworms), and his thick heavily ticked coat was glistening with moisture.

 

While we were watching him, one of the cats came up behind us but didn’t seem very concerned which did surprise me because I had thought the awful noises they sometimes make in the middle of the night were related to having spotted some wildlife they didn’t like.

After a few minutes, he looked up, seemed to register our presence for the first time and made off. I was a little concerned we had frightened him – but not to worry – when we looked out of the window five minutes later he was back on his nuts again.

Such a thrill – I can’t understand why some people regard badgers as pests….