This is going to be a post about Badgers and specifically it is going to be about the one that I have decided to call Patch (Old One Eye wasn’t a very nice name).
However sorry the circumstances having an animal that I can readily identify in the field is quite cool. I can follow his adventures through the year and know that I am watching the same animal all of the time.
But why watch Badgers at all?
It fascinates me that so many animals live amongst us and know very well the importance of avoiding us and when we close our eyes at night and the world is safe for a little while, they all come out to play. Sometimes the fields behind our little English farm remind me of the Serengeti Plains, there are so many big wild animals wandering about that we are completely unaware even exist.
Anyway it can’t all be Wild Flowers and Drunken Bees.
So let me introduce you to Patch.
Patch is the unfortunate animal who carries a visible injury that I have stopped believing is going to get better. I think he has lost an eye.
I first became aware of him early in March when this outlier sett suddenly appeared in the fields behind the farm.
His presence in the field wasn’t universally welcomed. These fields are let out in the summer months for grazing cattle and regardless of the science involved people are always going to associate Bovine TB and Badgers. Badgers have always used these fields but having them visibly present is bad for business.
Just once somebody said to me, “Well, they’ll be starting the cull again soon, that’ll sort them out.” I don’t want my animals turned in to DEFRA so I kept a very low Badger profile. The danger seems to have passed and everyone has accepted the Badgers, the fields have been rented and I don’t even think DEFRA are culling this area. They are very secretive about exactly where they intend to cull but there have been no sett surveyors around here that I know of.
So, Patch. He has been in a scrap and his eye is half closed when I first film him in April.
The next time I film him is early June. He is out in daylight and it is apparent that he also has some injuries to his rump. He has been in a proper fight and that may have been the reason that he moved up here. He has two companion Badgers and the three animals have moved into a new sett a bit further from the farm.
The next video was taken Just a couple of nights ago. It has been almost two months since I first saw him and his eye hasn’t healed. I am afraid that he may have lost that eye but he seems to be getting along fine and he seems to be a happy Badger.
I am going to be watching Patch a lot closer from now on, I want to see how his life goes.
Now I suspect that what you would really like is wild flowers and even wilder Bees. I will take Fizz out and see what we can find for you.
A Tramp in the Woods 