This year I plan to bring you 30 Nights Wild, reporting all the action from my local badger sett in Yorkshire, throughout the month of June.
I'll be following this small clan as they go about their evening
activities of foraging, grooming, collecting bedding and cleaning out
the sett. Will the badgers turn up every night? They never do on
Springwatch!
Dominant sow Theresa. Note the torn left ear
I've been watching this sett for the last eight years and every year is different, largely depending on the number of cubs they produce. Last year they had two cubs and there were six badgers in residence by autumn. Now there are just three adults and one new cub.
Badger identification can be tricky. Mature males are more heavily built
than females, but in younger males the differences are not that
obvious. At this sett, the dominant sow Theresa has a distinctive torn
left ear. The tail on a male badger is generally thinner and whiter than
a female's.
Males' tails are narrower and whiter than females'
Here there are two young males which are difficult to tell apart. Getting to know them as individuals, I can see differences in their mannerisms and behaviour. Boris is usually first to the peanuts I put out for them, while Jeremy will often wait nervously by the sett entrance until Boris has finished. But if he does venture out to feed with Boris, there is no hostility between them.
Today I’ve been to Fulford Ings, to collect seed from tansy plants to sow next spring. Each plant produces dozens of flower heads and each flower contains hundreds of seeds, so the small amount I’ve collected will have no effect on the natural spread of the plants. I’ll aim to produce another 1000 tansy plants next year. Dead flower heads now contain ripe seed The seed will be left to dry out in my kitchen The new generation of tansy beetles that emerged from pupae in the summer have now gone underground for the winter – except for one, which was still wandering around! The last tansy beetle still active I was concerned that the tansy we planted in August was being nibbled by rabbits (see Helping Barn Owls and Tansy Beetles ). Today I saw that new growth has appeared at the base of the plants, which the rabbits haven’t touched, so I think they will be OK in the spring. The wild flower meadow is now being grazed by sheep. They eat tansy plants...
It’s difficult to pick a favourite nature reserve, as they’re all so different and vary so much with the seasons, but one of my favourites must be Fen Bog, on the North York Moors. It’s in a hidden valley surrounded by moorland, with a boggy mire in the centre. Volunteers pulling bracken I usually only visit once a year, when Yorkshire Wildlife Trust have a conservation volunteer work day there. This year we’ve had two days, cutting back the bracken on the valley sides which threatens to engulf the reserve. The denser patches are cleared with brushcutters while thinner and steeper areas can be pulled by hand, minimizing damage to the surrounding vegetation. It’s one of those reserves where the results of our work can be clearly seen from one year to the next. Areas of dense bracken we brushcut last year just needed a tidy up by hand this year. Small pearl-bordered fritillary Large skipper sipping nectar from a thistle This is a great place to find some interesting in...
Last night I went to a fascinating lecture given by Mike Noonan, a DPhil student with the Oxford University Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCru). This was organised by Yorkshire Mammal Group. WildCru have been studying badgers at Wytham Woods in Oxfordshire for the last 25 years. The main focus of the talk was the development of new tracking devices for monitoring badger movements above and below ground. They are now collecting a vast amount of data, which is challenging many of the previous assumptions about badger society. Every movement is being tracked The new collars have three components that measure how a badger is moving and where it's moving to, above or below ground. A 'tri-axial accelerometer' records the pitch, yaw and roll of badgers (!) giving a good idea of what the badger is actually doing at a given time. Radio tracking only works well above ground, so they are using magneto-inductive devices to track badger movement below ground. Previ...
Looking forward to seeing more of your Badgers during 30 Nights Wild. Alex
ReplyDeleteThanks Alex. I'm hoping the badgers' behaviour improves!
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