Defensive move

Just the two of them the past couple of nights, with Greedy getting the lion's share, but last night stood our due to an error on my part. The food was out, and it was dark, and so as not to disturb them I went out to the garage by the front door, but when returning used the back door. I rounded the corner of the house and sent Smudge barrelling down the garden in surprise but Greedy was less interested in giving up his feast. He reared up and hissed loudly at me, even doing a mock lunge. I took one step forwards, only to receive a second hiss, and then decided to retreat and leave them to it. A great demonstration of how ferocious they can be when cornered, I'll try avoiding that in the future.

Interloper perhaps?

So come 19:30 at least one of the badgers is pitching up and feasting on everything, generally it's Greedy and sometimes he's been joined by Smudge but most of the time he is the early bird. A few nights ago they were done by 20:00 but later that evening a lone large badger was skulking around the garden and when disturbed he bolted through the hole in the fence. It could be he's from the sett over on the heath, which would be interesting and would explain why he was on his own 2 hours after the others. Who knows?

Leftover milk and soggy Cheerios are a delight lapped up with passion now, sometimes even before the dogfood is consumed!

Captain is back...Super Sub returns

Like Carlos Tevez returning from South America after a long protest, the Captain is back and he is a welcome addition to the team. Returning after a three week absence, Captain sauntered into the garden last night, ten minutes after Greedy and Smudge had begun their feasting. Captain took a while to check out the area and snuck up the border under cover of bushes, before joining. And when he did arrive he made his presence felt. There are different approaches to the badger box:

Greedy - slow and then a head butt or body slam to gain prime position
Smudge - the box must be completely free of a rival and even then it will be a casual move
Captain - from three feet away he sprints, leading with his head to knock the rival aside, generally it'll be a smash and grab and then off on his own to eat his winnings

It made for more squabbles than we've seen for many weeks but Captain is a welcome return and adds to the mix in the garden.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder?

We were unable to feed the badgers for a couple of days and feared they had deserted us when, on Sunday evening, they did not make an appearance before nightfall. They may have come after dark or a wandering cat had the bonanza of stumbling across the badger box of dog food. Out faith was restored when Smudge and Greedy (as named by the niece and nephew) arrived just after 20:00. Greedy was particularly partial to the leftover rice-crispies and milk whilst Smudge made short work of the scattered peanuts. It did not take them long to polish off the remaining dog food before they were gone into the night again. It will be interesting to see if they move much earlier as the nights draw in or whether there is a threshold time at which they stop coming out. The knowledge suggests that come November we will see them less as they tend to spend more time in the sett and less time out foraging but if they know they're onto a good thing maybe they'll still come to visit.

A cheddar by any other name

Just after 20:00 two badgers turned up last night and were very polite with the distribution of food. One had the peanuts, the other had the dog food and then they came to blows over the leftover mini Cheddars! Not sure whether it was the Cheese and Onion and just the Cheese flavour which caused the disagreement but it was not full body slamming today but skull bashing. The two of them were opposite each other, noses in the box and just bashed each other as they rummaged for treats. No time is wasted and by 20:30 they were gone. It does seem as though the larger of the two has a distinctive dark smudge on the white strip down the middle of its forehead.

As for Captain and his absence, it occurred to me that maybe he has gone off to strike out on his own in the big wide world, but I need to do some research to see whether that is something they do.

Issues of abandonment

We were away for two nights and the badgers made their disapproval known. Not only were there a greater number of holes dug in the lawn, but only one of them bothered to turn up in reasonable light on the Sunday. That one had a good feed and was only joined by a companion when it was properly dark. They hadn't missed us in a truly emotional way, just their chance of an effortless feed. Still only two turning up though, which is odd because for so long it was all three, all the time. Not sure if Captain was amongst those there last night. The wife fears the worst but we're in cul-de-sac suburbia with a low level of traffic and slow traffic at that so hopefully it's down to fear or food elsewhere.