Wildlife & Gardens

Yes!
When I leave drumsticks out the foxes look like they have a cigar in their mouth!

 

Spotted a badger for the very first time in I think the north corner of the field in the centre of this satellite view in north Essex: Google Maps. If only I'd been quicker off the mark in opening the camera app on my phone - I was a bit startled by this sound which seemed too noisy to be a bird or rabbit/hare. It appeared in the field for about a second before rushing down its hole.

I was surprised by the curvature of its body, expecting it to be more like that of a fox, but it reminded me a bit of an otter - and indeed, I just discovered badgers and otters belong to the same family Mustelidae, though they have very different lifestyles. Anyone spotted any badgers in Hertfordshire, assuming any exist there?

 

Certainly around Wigginton/ Tring. See them frequently on my garden wildlife camera (which is a shame as it stops us being a great release site for hedgehogs, as they eat them !). Also in Watford at my parents garden in Parkside drive.

 

I thought you meant you spotted the badger in teh google earth pics. I was going to say you must have a lot of time on your hands to trawl through google earth looking for small indigenous British wildlife.

Time that could be better spent trawling google earth for women bathing topless in their back gardens

 

Frogs and toads come out in huge numbers when it’s really wet due to the number of slugs and worms etc that are active. Roads, patios and paths generally are easy places for them to see prey so it might be they were just hunting rather than crossing the road. I had to tread very carefully last night when putting fox food out. Snails, slugs, frogs and toads everywhere. Also lots of babies around at the moment, about half an inch in size.

 

Yes in lots of areas there will be patrols out, similar to Lollipop Men,Women, ushering them across roads. Saw a brilliant piece on Winter or Spring Watch about one such group.

 

It was probably playing “dare” with its mates !

 

Never knew that! How do they eat them, do they kill them and go for the belly (thus avoiding the spines)?

 

Not Herts but see them now and again in Leighton Buzzard. There's a park at the end of my road which had woods behind it (right next to the town centre). Walking back at night it's not uncommon to see a fox or a badger.

Badgers sort of ripple along as the run.

 

If anyone in Herts has never seen a badger, the Herts and Middx Wildlife Trust hide at Tewin (which you can book) is good. Very likely to see a badger or seven around dusk.

https://www.hertswildlifetrust.org.uk/badgerwatching

 

I've come to accept that badgers are part of my garden now. They randomly turn up and rip up a piece of lawn that has those bugs they love underneath.
A couple of months back Mrs D opened the back door and let out a blood curdling scream because a badger was right outside! Big buggers.

If I ever do some work in the garden that I don't want ripped up by badgers while it settles in then I just pee in a few spots and they seem to get the message.

 

When we lived in Cassiobury Drive our neighbour opposite had a badger used a "trail" through her garden. When she put up a new fence the badger created a hole in no time. No messing with them!

 

The park side of cassiobury drive ? May well have backed onto my parents House. They have a new fence at end of garden with a hole in it that foxes and badgers use to move between gardens.

 

Yes kill and eat though not sure how they circumvent the prickly ball defence.

 

See lots on the roads, especially near to farms which always makes me suspicious.

Very aggressive creatures too when required.

Mr IBB had a disagreement with one once,lost the first set and was about 4 all in the second when the badger departed!

Yes I've heard they eat hogs.

The natural world is cruel.

 

The ancient woodland around Great Missenden was always a good place to spot badgers. But then someone decided it would be a good idea if the area was bulldozed and dug up to make way for a train line

 

Very unhappy with Ford.

For the second consecutive morning he has brought in a young sparrow,second brood I assume.

Today I've liberated him or her but this is not acceptable as I've told him as he sits by the front door.

 

We had this with one of our cats a few years ago. He obviously found a nest and brought the chicks back to the house one after another. Grim.

 

Yes I think you're right.
He's not a birder but I think sparrows nest in hedges and I think he's had practice with the voles and the Cotoneaster bush.

 

Not going to work for chicks but a bell on the collar gives adult birds a bit of a warning.

 

Somewhere outside there is a stash of cat collars, beautifully designed, that all my felines have had at such times.

Mr IBB is convinced they remove each others!

The quickest Houdini was from Ford,three hours.

He returned home and paraded up and down infront of me. He stopped short of pointing a paw at his neck and then flicking a claw,but only just!

Nothing for the last two mornings,Monday I kept him in when he wanted to exit the bathroom window at 4.20am.

However I'm sure I have a skull and cross bones version around somewhere so I'll seek it out.

 

No - we lived right near the Rickmansworth Road end of Cassiobury Drive so were backing onto the Park ourselves.

 

Got a video of a fox taking a whole egg that I put out last night

 

OK, will have walked past on the house on the way to games for decades.

 

The time has come to updgrade my fox poo trowel, which is no longer able to cope with the size and consistency of craps that are left for me in the mornings.

The one I had the fortune to avoid stepping in this morning was horrific. I can only presume that the fox either partially turned inside out or a family of wolves have claimed Meister Manor as part of their territory.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Somewhere back in this thread is my account of finding a whole shop-bought chicken's egg buried in a grow bag on the roof of my shed. We've also had a fox cub come into the house - took a small box of chocolates (and luckily failed to get in to it if foxes have the same physionomy as dogs) and also took a shine to my new shoes.

 

If anyone has the inclination and the cash please donate to Saveafox who are trying to buy a fur farm and save 500 foxes from being killed for their fur.

They need $700,000 by November.

They will buy the building and convert it into another sanctuary like Minnesota and Florida sites.

 

How disgraceful that this sort of thing can still legally continue in 2023 in the western world. Breeding animals just for their pelts.

 

Abominable.

 

Oh no.
Nellie,Monty Don's dog has died.
She's buried next to Nigel in his garden.
So sad to lose a beloved animal.