Dark bonanza

The badgers have clearly returned, digging holes across the lawn, a second attempt at uprooting the holly bush and destroying the daffodil shoots. Pleasantly enough the fox made a reappearance around 2am, with his 'whooping' call for some lady-friends, as he sauntered down the middle of the road before disappearing up the side of the house opposite.

Best of all though, the first sighting of a live hedgehog in Dorset in ten years. 6.15am in the pouring rain it sprinted across the road in front of the bike, hopped up the kerb and up someones drive. It's been far too long!

Poor display for Birdwatch

Despite the enticement of multiple bird feeders, home-made fat ball mix and apple slices it was a poor showing for the Big Garden Birdwatch. A few Sparrows, Tits, Jay, Magpie and a Great Spotted Woodpecker but nothing really of note, even the regular Starlings and Blackbirds was absent.

Visited the Stour at Iford Bridge again yesterday and had a decent sighting of a Little Egret and a fleeting glimpse of a pair of Kingfishers, but no sign of the Otters.

There's been little evidence of the badgers recently, with the peanuts left untouched most mornings but today the peanuts were gone and a few fresh holes had been dug in the garden, so perhaps they came around. Also, whilst doing some maintenance on the pond a big fat frog made its presence known popping up from behind the reeds. Good to see there still some life in there, the jury is still out on the newts.

Woodpecker bonanza

So the snowfall and freezing conditions have been harsh on the birds but the life has been flourishing in the garden. A new blend of fat ball mix immediately attracted the sharp-eyed Starlings, whilst the Sparrows, Blackbirds and Robins went about their business. A Green Woodpecker and Collared Dove kept busy in the back garden but their visit was overshadowed by three Great Spotted Woodpeckers fighting over the peanut feeder. One of the males had been a regular morning visitor but we'd never had three at once, two males and a female, getting feisty, so it was a big treat. This was all after a pair of Jays had dominated the feeders earlier during the day.

Poor showing in the rain

The miserable weather meant that Saturday was pretty much a washout, although managed to get a nice sighting of a Little Egret and Grey Heron hunting down by the river at Longham. The highlight of the weekend though was the return of the Goldcrests to the back garden. A pair played for ages last Autumn in the fir tree and today it was just a single bird in the pine.

Expanding the realm

In the absence of any fascinating badger updates, and in spite of this being called the Bearwood Badger Blog, more general wildlife observations will be added to provide some semblance of fresh content. To kick this momentous development off will be the inclusion of an annual bird listing inspired by Mr Foster on his blog. Friday 5th saw a visit to Blashford Lakes and a bountiful selection of sightings and to add to it all I learnt that the collective noun for a group of herons is a 'siege', according to their blog. I failed to see the Bittern but had some great Redpoll and Nuthatch views.

This was all prefaced by the overpowering aroma of fox urine on our front step on Friday morning. The foxes used to be abundant in our area, to the point that I caught a pair copulating on the front lawn one morning, but since the rise of the badgers, the foxes have been less conspicuous.

Night owls

Not much of an update purely because the pair of badgers have been visiting extremely late over the past week, some nights not arriving until 22:30. Presumably they are restricting their night time activities and perhaps visit sites they get food at regularly, who's to know. What we do know is that they do not like brussel sprouts and despite the amount of leftovers they had, they still insist on trashing the lawn looking for earthworms.