It was around four when I heard Albert “ Chatter”
It’s a funny sound and a rare one in this house as I can only liken it to a very small person shaking a very tiny set of maracas.
Cats usually chatter at birds that they can’t reach or ambush and Albert is no different
But the chatter was in the middle of the night
And the only birds around at that time are a pair of barn owls that swoop silently across the valley from Marion Mawr.
Albert was sat in the window seat looking down into the lane with wide yellow eyes.
I got up and wrapped the quilt cover around my shoulders and joined him.
He moved over without averting his gaze.
He was watching a pair of badgers in the lane who were trotting after each other somewhat playfully.
February is the mating season for badgers.
Living in the country has its upsides and downsides. But how many people can say that they have watched badgers courting outside their windows at night?
Not very many.
The boar wagged his fat bottom as he trotted into the garden and stopped to listen as Roger sleepily barked once from the kitchen.
They pottered and played for a while like hairy pigs.
Badgers are noisy animals and grunt and snort when they explore and as I grew cold I left them too it and returned to bed where Dorothy spooned me without waking up.
I heard Albert chatter some more before everything returned to a sort of silence again
I asked my google cube what time it was
It’s now chatting as a butch man and told me in a manly way that it was 4.22 am
I asked it to play a tropical rain shower which it did and I fell asleep almost immediately with no dreams of badgers or of Pedro Pascal or of anything of note for that matter
Day off today.
A walk,
Some shopping,
And theatre later with Gorgeous Dave
We are seeing the stage version of The Shawshank Redemption
I’ve just put out the reclycling and saw a few untidy holes in the borders of the front garden
The badgers have removed many of my spring bulbs from beside the stone wall.
And tufts of grey hair can be seen stuck in the lower branches of the hydrangea that faces the West
You can’t complain
Not when you’ve left the gate open
Lucky you to have badgers. Shame about the bulbs, though. Still, I think it was a small price to pay for having such beautiful creatures in the garden. xx
ReplyDeleteThey are cute to look at but are a predator of great agression when cornered
DeleteOOO, reminding myself to look up badgers - I wonder if yours are the same as the ones in the western US? If so I saw one once, deeply exciting. How nice that you got up to check on the chattering and got to see them!
ReplyDeletececi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpx70ARAabo
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILFCDPjwSBw&t=20s
DeleteThere u go
DeleteThose badgers had a date in your garden!
ReplyDeleteDirty buggers
DeleteWhat a shame it wasn't full moon. It would have been even more magical (as magical as anything can be at 4.30am).
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I could have seen the northern lights last night
DeleteLiving in the country makes for wonderful wildlife observation. You might be enjoying a badger family soon. Badger newborns are adorable.
ReplyDeleteBadgers are protected here and I'm glad. about that because they are living on the allotments and people grumble about them digging up their spuds - They walk up. our road at night x 🌙
ReplyDeleteMy cat will do that chattering occasionally, but not during the night. We are both tucked away sleeping.
ReplyDeleteLucky people
DeleteWe have badgers in the grounds here, I think Beano saw them on Saturday night as he took one look and then turned and hurtled back inside and Beano doesn't get up speed very often.
ReplyDeleteA Badger could easily kill a dog ifcornered
DeleteSurprisingly I have seen badgers on our street in the southern suburbs of Sheffield. In a local pet supermarket I asked if they had any badger food for sale - perhaps from a brand called "Brock" but I just got laughed at. Did you know that government funded marksmen are still stealthily killing badgers?
ReplyDeleteWe have badgers close by but my husband and I speak to nobody but each other about them because of the cruel abuse that badgers suffer. I must admit I gulped when I read John's blog post and wondered how long that pair of badgers are safe. People can be very cruel to innocent creatures just going about their business can't they?
DeleteI was born and raised in a farming village but I still cherish our native animals and I think the secret war being waged against badgers is sinful and narrow-minded. Up The Badgers!
DeleteThere is a great deal of blame attributed to them
DeleteBadgers are not cute at all, they are a very sucessful apex predator and one of the main reasons the hedgehog population is declining. Interestingly if you live in an urban or semi urban area and have badgers in your garden the local authority will relocate them as they carry disease and are dangerous to people and pets.
ReplyDeleteErase arch is variable about them carrying TB
DeleteBUT I agree theyare not fluffy animals .
I once caught one inside a hen house and it was vicious
Research
DeleteMy own lifetime of research, aka casual observation, suggests that humans are not cute at all but are very successful apex predators that specialise not only in caging and predating billions of gentle creatures, often in dreadful conditions, while also torturing fluffy creatures in laboratories to test fripperies like cosmetics, and also specialise in killing their own kind in numbers unmatched by any other creatures on this Earth. Badgers are blameless denizens of the planet compared to us.
DeleteOh, and let's ask the baby rabbits and birds and mice just how fluffy and cute sharp-toothed, claw-armed Albert is (although of course I forgive him, cats, badgers, humans... we do what we do). Nature is a nightmare, mostly, for most.
DeleteBoth good points andrew x
DeleteI found your posts in spam which is odd btw
DeleteIt's not unknown for my words to be dismissed as trash.
DeleteMine too
Deletei would be interested to hear your views on the Shawshank redemption, i'm seeing it at my local theatre in april x
ReplyDeleteRead next blog entry x
DeleteIt's amazing to watch those animals who are bucy at night. One morning here we found what looked like a huge hairball on the other side of the hedge. The county agent told us it was from a mountain lion and not to tell anyone about it! Yikes!
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful day off and at the play tonight. Remember that amazing aria Andy played on the loud speaker system?
Hugs!
Canzonetta sull'aria
DeleteI have never seen a badger in real life. I'll swap you a fox for a badger. Foxes aplently here nights and day.
ReplyDeleteThey are incredibly handsome close up
DeleteI always enjoy the picture you paint with words ...that puts a whole episode in my head. The detail and breadth are most enjoyable in my imagination.
ReplyDeleteThat’s kind Gemma
DeleteIs it light at 4.22 am or was it moonlight or do you have street lamps? You seemed to have such a clear view.
ReplyDeleteThere is a street light right outside the cottage which is dimmer than usual ( bliss)
DeleteI know we've had one who used to visit sometimes, probably lived in the woods at the bottom of the garden, but not seen him/her for a while. We are very pleased that an owl appears most evenings, but less pleased with the fox!
ReplyDeleteBadgers use to terrorise my chicken coops
DeleteI’ve never seen a badger from my window. At one home, we saw skunks, woodchucks, and raccoons all the time. The woodchucks destroyed the flower gardens. The raccoons stole and disassembled the bird feeders. And yet we thought we were so lucky to see them.
ReplyDeleteRaccoons seem to me the comics of the mammal world
DeleteOh, I would love to have seen them, even at the expense of a few bulbs.
ReplyDeleteIn the past I have seen a sow and older babies playing in the lane
DeleteWe have javelinas and coyotes, you have badgers, ain't it grand to be surrounded by so much wildlife.......
ReplyDeleteI had to Google javelinas
DeleteIn the uk our wildlife is pretty benign .
Wild foxes are elusive and curious .
Badgers having nomajor predator are sometimes overpopulating area in the uk.
It is also thought that they carry TB
Bovine TB....the name says it, rather...a disease of overcrowding and malnutrition whatever the mammal. Badgers generally give cattle a wide berth....
DeleteI rarely see adult Badgers, but I did once find a small one stuck in a hole. One of the Dogs found it, and I went to see what he was barking at. The small Badger wasn't happy, and I'm sure it would have bitten me if I'd tried to help. I went back later to see if it was OK, and he'd gone.
ReplyDeleteWhen any of my cats 'chatter' at the window, it always being at close-by birds, they tend to add a squeaky sound to the ca-ca-ca, following it up with a pleading meeow. Entertaining, though no doubt exasperating for them.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, I saw a badger just a few streets away last week. I'd never seen one before - Bel Ami
ReplyDeleteDriving home late one Summer’s evening we spotted three badgers walking in single file down the lane. We stopped. The badger in front suddenly became aware of us and stopped too. The two behind were not paying attention and cannoned into each other and the one in front, sending him about a metre towards us. There was complete shambles for about a minute whilst they sorted themselves out and then peeled off to the right down a track, still in single file. We followed to turn into our drive but they had disappeared.
ReplyDeleteFor the last four years Cornwall Wildlife Trust have been working with the Zooalogical Society in London to vaccinate badgers against TB. From all their tests and results the project would seem to be working. Last year the project moved to another area in Cornwall and found no infected badgers. Meanwhile work on a vaccination for cattle continues.
Keep that gate closed, you need some of your bulbs to be able to come up. And be careful of Albert going out at night if the badgers are nearby. I lost my last black cat to badgers, they are vicious.
ReplyDelete