Possible new sett hole. All quiet at Badger Manor. 22nd March 2026

We've experienced the usual mixed bag of weather that March can throw at us. Mild early on last week, with a day or so of torrential rain, followed by sunnier, dry but colder weather i.e. frosty mornings. Badgers do not really like the cold. They prefer to hunker down and enter a state of torpor. Which is what our badgers seemed to do.

But first, a first for me: Firecrests. I've been hearing a rather high pitched call, which I thought initially were Goldcrests, though remained doubtful. The call was louder, with more defined tones than our Goldcrests. I whipped out Merlin. It told me I was hearing Firecrests.

Well, what a surprise. Further, not only did Merlin pick up Firescrest at various locations around our walk, it also picked them up in a nature reserve  some 300 yards from us, but which we rarely, if ever visit.

Of course, one needs to be slightly suspicious of Merlin. It's not 100% accurate.

All this changed this morning when, shortly after swapping the SD cards and about 20 yards from Badger Manor, I heard the alleged Firecrests - only we spotted the things, this time. Howls of frustration may have heard all over Berkshire - I was too lazy and didn't take my medium lens and R7.  All I had was my compact digital camera.

This is, I can't aim the thing. Especially at high magnification. I point it in what I hoped was the right direction, in the approximate area of where I saw a little bird flitting about. Much to my surprise, I got this.  Notice the gloom and mass of twigs around the bird.

You'll notice the bird is fluffed up. That's because it was frosty this morning.

Just to proved to me that Merlin was correct, the thing burst into song again.

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Back to our badgers. One odd feature this past week is that the badgers have been using the lower right sett entrance a lot. They've hardly used the main sett entrance, and most definitely have not used the right roof entrance.

The question is: are they now using a chamber to the left of the main entrance, having moved over from the chamber on the right?

Here's a badger, I think sow, taking a look out of the lower left sett hole.

Here are a couple of a badger exiting the lower left sett hole.

Now going into the sett hole.

There is a possibility of a new sett hole being dug to the top right of the right roof hole. It's actually quite difficult to spot, being high up, under a fence on the field adjoining the badger setts. I think it will be a little tricky to get a trail cam onto. I need to take a look first.

We roll on towards May, and hopefully signs of a cub or two.