Dry weather continues. New badger arrives? 5th July 2025

Conditions are getting tougher by the day for all animals, including badgers. No appreciable rain for months. Ground getting rock hard, cracking all over, while worms burrow further down. On the plus side, for badgers, there is healthy crop of berries (if a little unripe), with the possibility of many seeds and fruit e.g. great crop of cherry plums. Insects are also quite numerous, if badgers don't mind crunchy beetles.

Comings and goings at our sett areas are a lot lower. Of Itchy and Scrawny tail there appears to be no sign. They are frequenting pastures and foraging areas new.

However, there is the possibility of a new badger on the block. Let's start with this possible, new interloper, who might become resident.

This badger appears to have a short, squat face; though this might simply be the camera angle. Previous badgers appear to have longer faces.

This badger also spends a lot of time sniffing the area, then scent marks, before proceeding to the left of this image. Badgers uptil now have disappeared under the fence.

I think this is one of our usual badgers. It now takes a really good sniff of the area, taking in the aroma of the scent marking, before disappearing under the fence. As you can see, it is a day later.

I now have a conundrum. Is this our new badger or is it one of the resident badgers that is using a sett entrance just uphill of our main sett?

In terms of getting to the hole under the fence, the badger simply walks along a path right up against the fence behind trees and shrubs bordering the footpath.

Whilst there is a video of a badger disappearing under the fence, it is at a later time of 5:50. Though this is easily explained by the awful time keeping of the trail cams. They drift badly.

This badger is passing through very late. It's been light for 1 1/2 almost 2 hours. I wonder if foraging for food is proving difficult in this dry weather. The rain, projected for this weekend, isn't going to amount to much. Just sufficient to push humidity up. I wonder if I should put food out for the badgers? I know the ideal spot, unfrequented by foxes, normally. Though dogs could still probably sniff out the food (hedgehog and cat dry food) from the footpath. I could bung the stuff down the sett entrance under the fence.