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Badger spotting

By Keith Broomfield

If you want to catch a glimpse of the notoriously shy badger, be prepared for a waiting game
The problem with watching badgers is that the longer you stare at one of the entrance holes to a sett in the fading light of dusk, the more your mind starts to play tricks and surrounding rocks and clumps of grass suddenly take on the form of an emerging badger. I had been fighting off such phantoms for almost an hour from my vantage point on a grassy knoll above the sett and with darkness nearly complete, it was time to call it a day.

This was a bit disappointing as I had been tipped off about the location of this sett in the shadow of the Ochils by a local landowner and when I had visited it the previous week for an initial reconnaissance, the ample diggings and spoil heaps indicated that it was an active site that held plenty of promise.

The following week I tried again, this time hiding myself behind a broom bush close to a separate group of holes from my first futile attempt. Despite being only 20ft away from the sett, the cool steady wind blowing into my face provided the ideal conditions as it meant there was little chance of an emerging badger picking up my scent.

As the dusk began to gently gather in, "roding" woodcocks with fluttering owl-like wings started to course along the tops of nearby conifers making their strange, croaking call followed by a screech. And then suddenly, like a popping champagne cork, a badger appeared out of one of the holes. A badger normally emerges with a degree of caution, carefully sniffing the air for danger, but because this sett is in a remote location and is rarely disturbed, it seemed a much quicker approach to exiting had been adopted.

After a couple of minutes, the badger ambled directly away from me along a well-worn path towards a nearby sheep pasture. I waited for a further 20 minutes but no more animals appeared. The view was tantalisingly brief but immensely satisfying, for the badger is a shy and secretive animal that is seldom seen.

The real giveaway of the presence of badgers in any given locality is their home or sett, which is an elaborate labyrinth of tunnels with several large exit holes. The sett can be a huge affair, lived in by generations who have gradually expanded it over the years. There is nearly always a large mound of excavated earth outside the main entrance with several well-trodden paths radiating away to favoured feeding areas.

Badgers are social animals and each group comprises a number of adult boars and sows, along with cubs in the spring. The size of the group normally consists of about five or six adults, although this number can fluctuate greatly from year to year. Larger social groups often split up and utilise different setts within the territory.

Badgers love earthworms and prime habitat occurs in areas where woodland lies adjacent to rich pasture, allowing the snuffling animals to snap up emerging worms in the fields during damp nights. However, the badger is an omnivore and consumes a wide range of foodstuffs, including insects, small mammals, carrion, cereals and fruit. They also take birds, frogs, snails, slugs, berries and fungi.

Badgers are widely distributed in Scotland, generally preferring lower lying areas of the country. A recent survey in Scotland found that they occur in the most unusual places; setts were found in coastal sand dunes close to Aberdeen and in remote open hillside situations in the western Highlands. They also live within our cities and my first encounter with the animals was on a hill in Edinburgh.

With the appetite whetted following my most recent encounter, I am now determined to get to know my local badgers better. If there is a sett near your home, then try too and make the effort to watch them during the long summer evenings.

• This article was first published in The Scotsman on 19 June

Ok, see? That's the difference between you and most of the other writers on this site. Other writers would have written this story exactly as you did; however, at the end, we'd wind up reading about how, after waiting hours and hours to catch a glimpse of the badger, there you'd be with a shotgun. bang. end of story.

so glad you are you.

Charpa

Ah country living.

I live in the countryside now, I love it, 3 weeks now, fresh air, no traffic noise, it's great.

The cat loves it too, the body count is massively impressive,

4 mice.
1 bat.
1 sparrow.

All delivered to the kitchen door, that's only the ones we know about, she's out there now terrifying the local wildlife, stalking them while they sleep.

This evening I saw her take a lovely little yellow bird from the sky, it made the mistake of flying too low, close to the pile of of blocklaying sand she survey's from.

I watched her play with the poor thing for about half an hour before she finally killed it.

Unbelievably cruel animals cat's.

See Doc? Told ya so.

It wasn't me FFS!!!

It was the friggin cat!!!!!!!!!

I thought I would flush an Irish Builder from it's manor with that article.

The dog's on point.

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Quote: victor nicholas

I thought I would flush an Irish Builder from it's manor with that article.

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Ah yes, it brings back the memories:

Irish Builder memory

Any excuse, I have to admit.

Ferg, what do you think about the possibility that Capello will go?

For taking Heskey to the World Cup he should be hung.

But... having said that, I don't believe anyone can get those spoiled , overpaid pricks to play decent football, except maybe Harry Redknapp.

He's about the only one I'd have any faith in.




I'm definitely going to write a poem.... tomorrow.

Tomorrow

by Fergus McCarthy

I like it Vic.

It has a ring to it.



Procrastinate now!!!!

Fergus

Do you think you could modify a set of bagpipes to work with vuvuzelas?

I'll give anything a go if the price is right.


I'll do it tomorrow.

It might spark Team England.

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Quote: Fergus McCarthy

I'll give anything a go if the price is right.


I'll do it tomorrow.

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....check that, tomorrow (today) you must celebrate US Open Victory by
Graeme McDowell.....now there's a fooking winner!

Cool customer that one with a very nice stroke...liked his hat too..
looked like an Irish Mason's hat....

Congrats to Ireland!

Morse

VC, are their Polar Badgers in Canada?

Yup, here they are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmG7mEXqdcA&feature=related

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Quote: Morse

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Quote: Fergus McCarthy

I'll give anything a go if the price is right.


I'll do it tomorrow.

---

....check that, tomorrow (today) you must celebrate US Open Victory by
Graeme McDowell.....now there's a fooking winner!

Cool customer that one with a very nice stroke...liked his hat too..
looked like an Irish Mason's hat....

Congrats to Ireland!

Morse

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Cheers Morse,

Not quite the World Cup but it'll do for now.

How about Ghana.

Suprising no?