Hubby and I were about to take the dog out this afternoon just as our neighbours were unloading their car of shopping. By all accounts it looked like they were getting substantial supplies in.
We said Hi as we always do and the conversation got round to strange goings on under fences. A couple of weeks ago they’d noticed something had been digging by their side fence so he filled in the hole and put a slab on top of it.
Apparently a night or so ago this had been shoved to one side, the hole re-established and their visitor gained access to their back garden. There it promptly found another area of interest which just happened to back onto our garden.
Other properties have had similar problems with holes dug on their front lawns or burrowing under fences.
On our more frequent walks in the evenings, especially now when Maggie is being far from co-operative, we sometimes see a badger running down the road, and think this might well be the culprit. On returning from our walk this afternoon, we checked the back garden and sure enough by their second shed there was evidence of freshly disturbed soil on their side being excavated to clear a passage underneath into our garden.
Much as we are sorry to see badgers dead on the roadside and to hear about culling,Ā we don’t actually want one in our garden because they can do a lot of damage and devastate our crops as well as our property.
Hubby has had some dealings with badgers first hand when he was on night security.
He was trapped inside his vehicle as a badger tore his tyres to shreds because he had parked over her baby. The cub was perfectly OK and in no danger at all, but Hubby just happened to have stopped at the wrong place and Mom went nuts. He called it in saying there was no way he was getting out of the car, and he would need assistance as he couldn’t drive it anywhere with no tyres.
He knows a couple of tips for deterring them though, and passed that information on to our neighbour. He has also applied those remedies to our side of the fence and we shall see what happens. These remedies also deter foxes and we know there are at least two around here.
We have already had rats in the garden and had to take our bird feeder down because the little swines were after the seed.
Photo: bird feeder when first purchased in December 2018. The garden has changed a lot since then!
pensitivity101 
That tyre-shredding story! :O
Protective momma!
There’s a conundrum, for the foxes and the badgers would both eat the rats…… It reminds me of the old song, “I knew an old lady who swallowed a fly!”
Oh don’t Joe! The dog would go even more mental!
We get lots of rabbits in our garden and we managed to train the dogs not to chase the rabbits but they would still go after a fox or badger. One of the dogs came off very badly after a fight with a badger but luckily you don’t see them very often and not a problem now that the dogs have passed on. Funny how just writing that brings a tear to my eye, reminding me how much I miss them especially Theo the last one to go, he was a very special dog to me.
Losing a beloved pet is sometimes more painful than losing a relative. We lost barney over 15 years ago, and although we got Maggie 6 days later (horrible going home to an empty house and even worse for Hubby as he was home all day anyway), it still hurts. Maggie has never bothered with ducks or geese, but gulls, pigeons, crows and squirrels were fair game. She chased a cat the other night, and forgot she’s not as young, or as quick, as she was.
It’s only just a year since we lost Theo but it seems much less and I still say goodnight and good morning to him when I go through the kitchen where he used to sleep, except when he got older and needed to sleep on the bed with us more often. It is definitely worse than losing a relative.
I know what you mean. Maggie sleeps on the bed and I fall asleep knowing she’s there and usually have my arm round her or hand on her flank.
I can’t have a garden with food because we have an open area behind us with literally hundreds of squirrels, too many rats, opossum, skunks, etc. For some reason they don’t understand our yard, is our food. Since I stopped growing food, the dog has stopped going crazy.
We still get badgers coming into our garden on a night time. Squirrels during the day.
Would love to see them in their natural habitat. We don’t get many squirrels wither here or in the park.
If it were not for Ani, who owns the garden, I’d swap my moles for your badgers….just because I would love to be able to watch them. But I understand the frustration when you are growing for food…or for beauty.
I’d love to be able to watch them too as I’d never seen one close up until a few years ago. There’s a sett in the large garden on the other side of the road going towards the park. We only had the one mole in our garden when we were in the cottage, and he was a big sucker!
The moles are wonderful little creatures.. but the do some damage!
Badgers I have seen more of in the south…alive… than anywhere else,but they are still rare and elusive sightings š
The first time I saw one here I was stunned, and we’ve had several sighting since.
Having to stop on the backroads while they amble over is the best… I get a good look then š
Have done that with muntjac deer.
We get those too š
so cute.
Badgers are not to be trifled with! Here we have opossums and racoons…
If it tries to come through the fence now, it will get a bit of a headache!
Scary Mary Badgers! Perfect for Halloween but not the garden,š
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The grass in out front yard is almost bubbling up. I think it is the skunks. We have always had a problem with grubs and I know that possums and skunks eat them. When you walk across the grass you sink in, almost like a mole tunnel but bigger areas. I think that must be what it is. I have never seen a badger but we do have a beaver pond down the road.
Oh wow, beavers!