The Bigg Bird Forum

[Jo13]

After not having anything nesting in my boxes since I put them up two years ago, I moved my outside camera to behind my shed and last night captured footage of a Badger! I was really excited as I did'nt think we would have badgers in our garden, although it is a mature garden with oak trees, we are still not in the country! We have a large hole/tunnel under our shed which has been there for about five years, could this be a badger sett? If anyone else has them in their garden, do they normal stay in the same area or do they tend to move around?
Sorry, tried to attach a photo without success.
Jo

[Jo13]

Its not just the birds that love peanuts, the badger does too!!
thirsty work though eating all those peanuts
Excuse the quality of the photo's

Badger eating peanuts
Poster: Jo13, viewed 48 Time(s)

Thirsty badger
Poster: Jo13, viewed 37 Time(s)

Badger 27th June 13
Poster: Jo13, viewed 39 Time(s)

[blueeyedchick]

Hi Jo13

What great pictures of Mr Brock and family. Yes they love Peanuts and Jam sandwiches! They also look in very good condition.
The sett you talk about under the shed is probably and old one as I believe Badgers live in these for several generations, unless of course it is an old fox den where they have taken up recent residence. They could have been there for some time and you just haven't be around when they come out.
Could you fix your camera to focus on the shed so that you could see them emerge, this would prove whether or not they are coming from the garden or from further a field. If you are putting out food they will be turning up regularly with their bibs on most nights so watch out!!
Keep us posted
Kathy

[Jo13]

Hi Kathy,
I have established since my first post that the tunnel under the shed is not being used now as a shelter, although the badger does spend sometimes half an hour under it, I assume looking for food as I have seen mice peering out of the hole.
I did think he/she looked in good condition, hope so anyway!
He visits most nights, have had two sometimes....absolute joy to watch, so relaxed, even lays down by the bowl and eats! thats if the foxes have not eaten all the food first!!
Do you know if this is an adult? can you tell if it is male or female?
Saw the badger chase the fox round the garden one night...really funny, sometimes they eat quite close to one another.
Look forward to any info you may have

[blueeyedchick]

Hi Jo13

I don't know if you can tell male from female without turning them over! but I have been told that the female is a little lighter in colour. I would assume that the male would be larger than the female but I cannot be certain of this. Could these be cubs, its hard to get a sense of size from the photo. Have you any idea where their sett might be and how far they have walked to get to your garden? It must be lovely to have these nightly visitors.
We used to regularly get a Vixen visiting our garden around cub time as we have fields close by. I put out scraps each night but the neighbours found out and told me they thought I shouldn't do it for safety reasons (fox bites child etc) so I have now put food under a bush where they can't see it but foxy can!. I also have a Bee's nest under the roof tiles. They are not bothering me and by winter they will have gone. I think they are Bumble rather than Honey but we need all the Bee's we can get so I'm leaving well alone, if they were in the loft I would have them removed to another place but no harm done yet.


Kathy

[Jo13]

Had two badgers visit together last night, about the same size, not sure if two males or two females would happily eat together, or if it would only be male & female.
Not sure where the sett is but think they may be coming from a woodland area two rows of houses behind ours. If that is so, fortunately they only have one quiet road to cross. Would love to know exactly where, but can't see me climbing fences and following them through peoples gardens in the middle of the night....not a good idea.
Got to say I am a bit sneaky about the feeding, try not to let the neighbours see
Do you think you will be able to get some photo's of the hive when they are gone? would be interesting to see.

[Jo13]

After breaking the lid off the hedgehog house and eating all the peanuts!! Mr or Mrs badger was considering going to weight watchers

Tubby badger
Poster: Jo13, viewed 29 Time(s)

Badger
Poster: Jo13, viewed 68 Time(s)

[Strixaluco]

Great photos - looks like (s)he might be expecting a hard winter , so building up reserves.

[Jo13]

Just a quick update......Badger still visits most nights for his peanut supper, then goes under our shed for a nap (I assume anyway) then comes out yawning before having a look to see if there are any more.
Not as much activity at the moment as there was a few months ago, sometimes had three together, great watching them groom each other.
It could be because there will be a good supply of their favourite food worms! with it being autumn.
If any one else has Badger visits it would be nice to here from you!

[Jo13]

I've been so busy with watching my Bluetit nesting, I've not been running back any recordings of the Badgers that visit my garden for the peanuts I put out every night.
Wow....couldn't believe what I saw when I did....Badgers mating right in full view of my camera behind my shed!
It went on for 90mins!! The male literally had hold of the female by the scruff of her neck for the whole 90 mins! It went on so long...thought the female was trying to get away a few times but she had no chance!
They quite often spend an hour or so under my shed but its not their sett. For the first time they were still there until almost light at 5.40am then off they went......amazing!!!

[Karwin]

Few weeks ago wife & me found rare pink form of Trientalis europaea in the forest. While focused in focusing our cameras to it, we heard grasses rasping behind our backs. We just thought that it was our daughter there, but when turned - there was a badger staring at us five metres away. We all were surprised (wife & me having cameras did not remember to use them!), and then the badger walked back. We noticed that we were almost on its long-used path in the forest.

[Catnip]

Hi Jo, we also get badgers in our garden. They come in via our neighbours' gardens, and generally have a snoot round, then leave. But we have a peach tree and when the fruit is ripe they come every night and spend more time here trying to get at the fruit and eat it! They love peaches - and plums. A few years back we used to feed them peanut butter or honey sandwiches on our patio, and also used to smear honey or peanut butter or actual peanuts into the crevices of bark on a smallish log - great fun to see them rolling it around or falling off it! We were even able to open the door quietly and watch them at very close quarters, and could hear them grunting and munching! Once we decided to get our dog, though, we had to dog proof the lower part of our garden, so the badgers can no longer get in and therefore we no longer watch them on the patio. But I have a cam fixed so that we can see them in the other part of the garden, and I am about to move it to a better position, more at their level, as it has been fixed up on a fence and the viewing is not so good. Your pics are really good and the badgers do look in fine fettle. The ones we get seem to be fighters - always got fur misplaced, you can see marks where the fur has been raked through by claws, and we had one which limped quite badly. Goodness, fancy seeing a pair mating though - little cubs in the making. Did you know they have a kind of delayed fertilisation thing going on, where they mate earlier in the year, but the embryo doesn't start growing till December, I think it is, and then the cubs are born in February, if I remember correctly. (Better check, I might be wrong!) I'll be doing more badger watching now the great tit chicks have flown the nest!