In what is likely to be the last update of 2025, I have found two sett entrances left of the main sett entrance. We'll call these Upper left and Lower left.
Upper left is in use; I've had a trail cam on it for a week.

We've known of Lower left for some months, but it never seemed in use. About three days ago, we noticed that it had been dug out. I managed to get a trail cam on it today.

I put my ancient Apeman onto the Upper left hole, as I wasn't 100% sure it was in use. Although the trail cam has appalling resolution, it does keep chugging on when other trail cams have failed, and it does sufficiently well to show badgers entering and leaving the Upper left hole.

Like this. I've no idea what the boar thought he was doing with the sow.

A minute later, the sow pushes her way out. The main sett is way to the right of this entrance. I reckon there is at least one chamber between this hole and the main entrance.

Sadly, I only fitted a 4GB SD card into my Apeman trail cam, which then filled up quickly. This meant it missed three days of action. Which is a shame, as there are signs the badgers did further digging of this entrance as well as bringing in bedding.

The main sett entrance was a hive of activity this past week. Both badgers engaged in extensive excavations of this entrance, and I believe the female brought in huge amounts of bedding. I'm not sure where this bedding is going. The main sett (to the right of the main entrance) must be getting pretty full.

By the looks of things, I believe that while both badgers appear to be using the right chamber, it's possible the sow is reserving it for herself and any future brood. This might explain the excavations around the left entrance - chambers need clearing out for the boar.

My only slight concern is that once again there appears to be no sightings of the boar since about 25th of December i.e. Christmas day. However, it is getting slightly more difficult to tell the two animals apart, as the sow appears to have put on weight and/or grown. I can just about tell them apart when they enter the sett entrance - the boar fills it.  The other reason for not seeing the boar for a day or two is that there are the two other entrances he can use.

Now for a bit of fun. The boar crashed out after extensive excavations. I must admit I've never seen a badger do this befor.

Not a huge amount happening at Badger Manor, which is just as well. Two badgers (possibly Itchy and Scrawny tail) still in residence.

I did put a trail cam out on, what I hope is, a side entrance to the sett complex. It was a little bit tricky negotiating brambles to insert a post and hammer it in place. The recent wet weather softened the soil, making hammering easy. I've put an old trail cam (an ancient Apeman) out. It's video and photographic capabilities are abysmal, but sufficient for the task of seeing whether the hole I have it pointing at is, indeed, an entrance to the sett complex.

I did think of putting an UsoGood trail cam here, but didn't. The UsoGood trail cam is an exercise in how NOT to design such a beast. The most annoying aspect of this camera is the codex it uses to form video files isn't really recognised by Windows software, or where an application does make an attempt at playing a video file formed by these trail cams then it simply screws up the graphics of my laptop, and I have to cold boot the thing.

I think I have formulated a plan to put a trail cam out on the right hand set entrance. It involves building a screen of branches and foliage cut down when contractors cleared the footpath.

Armed with a pair of secateurs and wearing tough old walking boots, I ventured into the undergrowth to the left of the main sett entrance to Badger Manor. Old bramble canes, with the odd new one, fell to my secateurs.

I walked past a low badger sett entrance, which I'd known about for some time but discounted as unused, ploughing up a hill, and espied what looked like a badger sett entrance against a fence behind Badger Manor. A further clipping and removal of old and new bramble canes, I feel I have found an active sett entrance to the left of the main entrance.

What appeared to be straw, hay or straw was strewn about the front of the hole. While the downward slope looked reasonably clear, as if the hole was being used actively. The hole itself is about 3m from the main sett entrance. Close enough to either dig a connecting tunnel or, hopefully, a chamber. A holly tree would provide lots of roots to support the chamber, while the hole is less accessible from the footpath.  I hope to move some branches around to make it even less accessible - or seem that way from the footpath. Afterall, I need to get to it to swap SD cards!

A nice feature of where the hole is placed is that it should be relatively easy to put a trail cam out on it, while keeping the trail cam reasonably well hidden from the footpath. Only the most observant of souls would see it, and only the most persistent will want to manouevre their way through the undergrowth to it.

Now all I have to do is get a trail cam onto the hole. Hmm, not sure when. It's supposed to rain a lot over the next week. Sigh.

I was getting rather concerned as I reviewed footage from Badger Manor this last week. One badger came through the area on 7th and 8th of November. No badger went in or out of the sett main sett entrance.

Finally, on the 9th did a badger appear in the main sett. It was the female. All she did was cross from the left to the right of the sett. I am supposing going from a left chamber to a right chamber. A few seconds later she passed from the right to the left.

The lack of footage of a badger using the main sett entrance, and the female seen to pass from left to right and back again, reinforces my theory that there is a chamber and entrance to the left of this main entrance. 

This would make sense to me. This main entrance is quite exposed to the path which runs across it. An entrance to the left is much more hidden, sheltered and difficult for  human to get to.

After the female's little jaunt on Tuesday 9th November, there were no more badger sightings until Friday 12th November. When a badger investigated the main sett entrance, but didn't go in.

However, later on our female badger made her usual cautious exit, then promptly turned around and disappeared back into the sett, turning left in the process. This is contrary to their normal habit uptil now.

Once again, there were no badger sightings either going in or exiting the main sett entrance until the early morning of Saturday 13th November. A badger (male by its size) enters the main sett entrance, and a minute or two later both badgers are seen. They hang around a while, have a bit of anal rubbing (nothing too vigorous, you realise) and off they went to the left, where I think there is a sett entrance.

Oh, well. It looks like I may have a little bit of an unpleasant time tomorrow entrance as I try and hunt for a sett entrance to the left of the main sett. It's rather overgrown in this area, and tricky for a human to get through.

I do know where one sett hole is, but it doesn't really look as if it has been used.  There is another entrance some ten yards from the main sett, but I haven't seen a badger use it. Sods law says this latter entrance is the one I am looking for. Only, I removed a trail cam from it a couple of weeks ago, in the belief that nothing was happening there.

Other animals using the area in front of the main sett entrance this week include foxes, Muntac and Roe deer, Grey squirrels, mouse caching nuts in the sett,  a robin and a Nuthatch.

Here is a Grey squirrel caching a nut in the side of the main set entrance.

Now a Nuthatch. This is the third time this Nuthatch has visited this area in a couple of weeks.

Our two badgers are still here, enduring the wild, wet and changeable weather we've experienced this week: mild, dry, very wet, torrential rain, freezing, frost, high winds, etc. Only snow and hail remain to happen.

After two weeks of frantic activity scraping bedding into the sett, our female badger has slowed down this week and only made one foray. However, with the possibility of sett entrances to the left of the main entrance, it is possible that she did forays via that one. More on this later. I have a suspicion that there are one or more chambers to the left of the main entrance.

A mouse shares the sett with our badgers. It has been exceedingly busy, charging out of the sett, scurrying across the footpath, and back again. No doubts getting food and caching it.

I feel it is a little safer than of late. Only one visit by a large cat (which can clog up my trail cams  by hanging around and causing it to trigger hundreds of times), and no sign of foxes.

My trail cams reveal more evidence of  an entrance to the left of the main entrance or if not an entrance, then a chamber, or both perhaps. In this first video, you'll just glimpse a badger (probably the female moving straw from the left to the right of the main entrance. She did several movements from left to right and back again over the week.

I could be wrong, but this is the first week where our badgers indulged in an extended grooming session.  The size differences between the boar and sow are very evident in these videos.

What has been lacking since our badgers returned is any anal rubbing. Very odd.