MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I've very rarely seen a badger that wasn't dead, but today at 5.30am I saw one trotting along the end of my road along the pavement casual as you like.
I followed it around the corner in my car as you do and watched it cross at the traffic lights and into a garden as if it were quite used to the road network.
In the still of the Summer morning I felt a sense of enormous badger-centric privilege and joy.
Insomnia can have its benefits.
The only other live encounter I've had is when one ran out in front of us on an xc ride and headbutted my pals back wheel before darting off into the undergrowth.
A badger recently
I like a badger.
Tell us your own badger related tales.
A mate got his house broken into a few years ago. He heard it and gave chase down the street in his slippers and y-fronts.
A few nights later heard a noise and ran out, again in his ys, to be confronted by a badger coming towards him down the narrow close. He bravely jumped on the wall to let Mr angry badger pass.
I gave up the good fight in the front garden
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/how-high-can-a-badger-jump/
But in the back garden the Mrs still thinks she can keep them from digging under the fences and making a general mess.... the feeckers, but guess they were here in Sunny Brentwood first.
Hit one whilst out on a night ride - i came off worse! It trundled out of the undergrowth straight in front of me, I hit it's back end and went straight over the bars and into the bushes. Bloody thing never even stopped to see if I was ok! 🙂
The farm I live on has a resident family. They make a mess of everything but it's pretty cool to have badgers living "in the back garden". They are even pretty tame and largely just ignore people. They no longer come into my actual garden as the cats tag team them and end up annoying them enough that it doesn't seem worthwhile to them.
Yesterday ,I saw my first ever real live one!
Going up the last climb on the South Downs Way, Mr Badger popped his head out of the hedgerow & was sniffing around.
As I passed him I greeted him with "evening Mr Badger", as you do.
Badgers are ace.
Never seen one. Or a mole. Only dead.
I did have lovely moment this morning when a deer looked out at me from a mound of earth, with the low sun shining straight on it. Those moments when you wish you had your camera.
But no, never seen a badger.
The first and only time I've ever seen one was going through the middle of Edinburgh, at half 3 in the morning at the end of ride to the sun. Between that, and the bearded guy in the dress and stilletos, it was an odd evening indeed....
Not as often since I started WFH, but still...
Sometimes see them on nightrides when I go through a particular woodland. Fortunately never hit one although have had to slam on the brakes once or twice.
when a deer looked out at me from a mound of earth
I hate to break it to you but deer don't live in mounds of earth. It was possibly a badger in novelty head gear.
We have loads round here in the Cotswolds area. My latest encounter was on an, avoid the heat early morning ride, I set out at 04:30 and whilst in the woods stopped as my bike had an issue, as i stood there an elderly badger came trotting down a steep bank of garlic, heading directly towards me, head down, trotting along in his own little world. He got within a meter of me when he twigged i was there. He did a funny startled jump and then scuttled away, stopping to check me out again every few meters. It made getting up and out the door so early well worth the effort.
We live on the edge of Sheffield and get one visiting every night, roughly 4 hours after dark. I usually leave a handfull of peanuts out for her (?). She is very obliging, and doesn't seem bothered by me taking photos, even if i put the flashgun outside near the nuts.
[url= https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5645/30041168523_a9b38dcd58_b.jp g" target="_blank">https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5645/30041168523_a9b38dcd58_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/MLCQMr ]IMG_8251[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/97014723@N07/ ]Tim Russon[/url], on Flickr
Riding beside someone on a night ride along a farm road, I was half a bike length behind them, see a shape run out at them and the front wheel pop up. With incredibly quick reactions he'd seen it run out the undergrowth, got the front wheel up, clipped it with the rear which brought the front down over the badger. He rode off still upright and the badger ran in front of me (I'd slammed on the brakes) and over the fields.
Know for sure if we'd been the other way round on the trail I'd have hit it as I'd have tried to brake instead of pull the front wheel up.
Absolute and utter gits.
I've just made a new lawn; hard labour over 3 weekends. Coming along lovely it was. Last weekend, the badgers ripped it to bits.
If they weren't a protected species...
Heading down 'Long Tongue Scrog Lane' ( real name ), one appeared out of the bushes, I managed to avoid it, it then turned uphill and continued at full pace towards my mate who was following .... I heard lots of panic braking and skidding ... fortunately it turned off into the bushes at the last minute avoiding a collision.
Have seen a few others on night rides locally.
An uncle of mine, who was a farmer for about 175 years (well, it seemed so...) didn't think that badgers were the "problem" WRT bovine TB.
Commuting on the Ridgeway one morning I hear a thundering sound next to me and there is a badger tanking along matching my speed, I tap on the brakes to avoid outrunning it it and the bugger senses my weakness, darts in front of me clipping my front wheel and then tumbles through the barbed wire fence into the hedgerow.
Tough little buggers. Used to stay at a B&B in Cornwall that had a family of them at the bottom of the garden. Autumn evenings before heading out for a late beer we'd sit and watch them playing with the little ones and then coming up to see what scraps had been left out. Magical.
She is very obliging, and doesn’t seem bothered by me taking photos, even if i put the flashgun outside near the nuts.
She has to feed on the nuts after she was blinded by the glare of a photographic flash a metre from her head one night. Plus side, she doesn't notice the flash any more.
Cool photo!
Only real badger story I have is very similar to the rest, they are quite meaty if you ride into one unexpectedly on a night ride.
But a mate at his wedding had a load of paper and pencils on the tables for a 'Badger Off' - everyone had to (days before googling on phones) draw a badger from memory, which were then put on display for people to laugh at mainly. If you think it's relatively rare to see a badger, the evidence suggested it's even quite rare for some people to have even seen a picture of one!
Without checking up there, how many stripes? Black and white or white and black? eyes in which?
A couple of summers ago I was on an evening stroll with the dogs, flip-flops and shorts and t shirt weather, when my two dogs came running back towards me chasing something - was quite dark in the woods so couldn't really make it out what it was until it was about 5 meters from me....a big badger!! There was no option for badger or myself to step aside on this path so I honestly just had to lift up one leg and let it run under me hoping and praying it didn't take a bit out of anything hanging down, I was scared!! Dogs were a bit bemused too as they weren't running at full speed to catch it, very glad they decide not to get too close, pleased badger didn't turn around to attack them.
When i worked in a pub I agreed to drive a rather drunk patron home in their car. Vehicle was an automatic, something i'd never driven before.
About half way to his abode we go over a small hump back bridge and in the middle of the road is a badger doing badger things.
I proceed to stomp the brake, thinking it was the clutch and, said patron shattered the windscreen with his head. Luckily he was a tad pissed and didn't really notice. Badger scurries off to no doubt tell its chums of the close encounter.
Dropped him off and was never mentioned when he next popped in.
Next week I have a new colleague with the surname Badger. I'll let you know in a few months.
Similar to some of the stories above - on a night ride, a badger burst out of the undergrowth to cross the trail and was somewhat surprised to find me and several others heading towards it. It ran between my wheels and I had to hop the back wheel to avoid squashing it. Apparently (according to the rider behind me), it turned around and looked at me as if to say 'why the hell did you do that?'.
I've seen plenty run along side us while out night riding though - always figured they were following the lights in some way.
Seen quite a few over the years and love em! I remember one summer evening watching a whole family of them playing. Adults relaxing in the sunshine whilst the youngsters chased rabbits through the gorse bushes - seemingly for shits and giggles!
Another memorable one was when I was stood on an old drainage pipe under a woodland track when quite a lot of rustling and grunting underneath - out pops a badger about 2' away from me and spends ages sizing me up!
They've got pretty poor eyesight though, so if you stand still they often can't figure out what you are. Presumably a consequence of constantly having flashguns fired in their faces...
-Heading up the lane from Pool Bridge to Dunkery Beacon, a big badger in bright sunlight bundles down the high bank into the lane in front of me. Both suprised, we kept going. I tried to keep up with him but he had a low centre of gravity. We climbed the hill in single file at a similar pace for a good few minutes before he found a gap and disappeared back to badgerland
-Heading up Foley Terrace one night a badger again ran in front of me, this time it switched 180 back and ran up the adjacent zig-zag trail along the top of a stone wall. We passed uncomfortably close at eye-level and if there was ever a look in a badger's eye that said 'Here's where I flip you the bird', then that was the look I saw.
Saw my first ever badger while out riding Saturday afternoon in East Lothian. There it was in the middle of a the path snuffling around for food. Did not seem that bothered by me being there and in time wandered into the undergrowth. Sadly my phone photos* were crap so no moonlighting as a wildfire photographer for me.
However I understand that with the dry weather the ground is rock hard so they cant dig for worms, are short of water and are starving hence being out mid afternooon. Which is a shame unless you are a badger hating farmer type.
*apologies for the huge photo its the only way I can get it to work on this forum. And again for shoddy quality.
So, can you name the London tube station that is spelt without the letters B A D G E R.... ?
Pimlico
Not British badgers but South African honey badgers... I was in a game park drinking beer and my hosts said that a couple of honey badgers would be along soon to clear out the bins after the braai. We got behind a wire fence for our own safety and sure enough along came a pair who started a really comical game; badger 1 lifted off the lid and got up, teetering on the rim of the bin, hind legs gripping the edge, tail waving and head in the bin, front legs chucking stuff out in an arc all over the compound, which badger 2 went to and fro sniffing. They carried on until somebody's camera clicked, when they scarpered.
Apart from that as kids we watched badgers playing outside their sett in the Cheviots one evening, which was thrilling.
How about beaver stories? I've plenty of them.
My surname is Fox.
I went to college with a John Otter.
I have seen badgers. (Only twice and both times whilst night riding. Me, not them.)
Through my work i get to see quite a lot of badger footage, from ecologists undertaking surveys for projects i've been involved on. One evening, whilst on a group mtb ride, i got talking to one of the ladies who does similar work as me. We then talked the whole ride about badger pron and the various things they get up to. Quite an interesting evening.
Badger pron? Is it found in hedges?
Not British badgers but South African honey badgers
I had a bin of bird food and peanuts by the side of my house. I notices the bins were getting knocked over, and the peanuts eaten. I put a large brick in the button, and a plank over the top, but they were still getting eaten. So I set up a trailcamera to see what was happening.
Seems there was several badgers visiting regularly, they managed to lift the lid off, and climb in.
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Back in the drought of 1976 we had a badger that used to come and raid the compost heap. My mum saw it first and called me out. I brought a torch and for within a couple of yards of it. The thing that impressed me most, apart from the fact it didn’t even flinch as I stood and shone a torch at it, was the strength of its jaws. We’d had pork chops and it was chewing the bones up like we’d eat crisps.
Next encounter was when one ran out from a hedge as I rode two up on a Honda CB 100. It was killed more or less instantly as its head hit the engine and the back wheel went over its neck. We were lucky not to have come off, but I was gutted it was killed.
I was out one night, sitting up a tree waiting to see badgers emerge, and after 2 hours saw none s was riding home, when a badger shot out from the side of the path and tried to torpedo my front wheel. I braked in time, but I felt that it was he who had ambushed me
A good few years ago whilst a gamekeeper I was spending an evening in late summer sat very quietly in a wood awaiting roosting jackdaws...
sat in silence I was genuinely astonished when a badger stuck its head out of a sett about 5 ft away, seemingly oblivious to me and strolled across to have a sniff at my trouser leg.
Magical and also slightly terrifying incase it decided to bite me! Sadly I moved slightly and it instantly was gone.
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.390625px; background-color: #fbfbfb;">I’ve seen plenty run along side us while out night riding though – always figured they were following the lights in some way.</span>
There's some buzzards and at least one Owl fly alongside cars and bikes back home. Buzzards seem able to keep up with a car at 40mph, and an owl easily able to keep up with a bike at 20mph. They are always on the left, about six to ten feet up.
They are waiting for you to scare some prey in the verge, which will then give itself away when it moves.
I wonder if your badger has developed the same technique? Or maybe it's just like a collie and thinks it's fun
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Open Sans'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 22.390625px; background-color: #fbfbfb;">I’ve seen plenty run along side us while out night riding though – always figured they were following the lights in some way.</span>
There's some buzzards and at least one Owl fly alongside cars and bikes back home. Buzzards seem able to keep up with a car at 40mph, and an owl easily able to keep up with a bike at 20mph. They are always on the left, about six to ten feet up.
They are waiting for you to scare some prey in the verge, which will then give itself away when it moves.
I wonder if your badger has developed the same technique? Or maybe it's just like a collie and thinks it's fun
Was out on the road bike tonight, seen 4 badgers within 10 minutes! Its funny how they see you, then trot along the road. One must have gone about 100m before heading off into the verge. Another one stopped in the middle of the road just in front of me me to look around, before heading for the opposite verge.
I have seen one badger... was walking many years ago with my mum and gran. First and only time they had seen one too.
<span style="font-size: 0.8rem;">I imagine they have them in zoos but not seen one there...</span>
if you think about it, it’s quite odd that a creature everyone has heard of is so elusive and people don’t think it is some conspiracy...
At a pub in Mickleham, the willy the forth, badgers used sit on the raised bit
at the edge of garden and watch the drunk people.
Saw two this morning - one dead on the way back from the gym in a very built up area and the junction of 4 roads, so no real surprise there.
And low and behold during the cycle to work at about 8.20 I witnessed one tootling along a country road right in front of me and then in to a field. It must have missed the last bus!!
I once ran one over...
Similar to Scapegoats post, I hit a badger side on up a country lane at about 30mph two up on an old Kwack zx10. Bike left the ground but landed straight and I managed to stop without falling off amazingly. Distressingly the badger wasn’t killed immediately but took a few seconds to die after I got back to check it out. Considering the amount of weight that had hit it it’s testament to how robust they are considering it wasn’t dispatched outright, awesome beasts. I think the word Trundling was invented to describe the movement of a badger, so fitting 😉
oh, and as for Honey Badgers - you wouldn’t want to mess with those things at any level, truly the SAS of the animal kingdom!
We used to have a kids’ slide in the back garden, about 4ft high. One morning there was a freshly curled heap of badger crap on the top. No idea whether it climbed the steps or scampered up the slide but presumably it didn’t fancy the way back down again.
A former colleague wrote his Volvo 343 off hitting a badger on the M5. Destroyed the front bumper, valance, radiator area and obviously didn’t do the badger much good.
Over the last ~13 months, I've caught the fleeting glance of one dashing into the bushes, plus sadly ~12 dead on the road (including a youngster last week) up around Warnford... The stench of the poor blighters is unreal as you cycle past them in this heatwave! 🙁
Years ago, I saw a badger whilst riding back though the woods near home so I stopped and looked for the sett. The next night I went back before dusk, sat down wind of the sett and waited to see what would happen. Soon, I was surrounded by about 3-4 adults and half a dozen cubs, all oblivious to my presence. Absolutely amazing experience which in part contributed to meeting my now wife.
Anyway, after about 30 mins or so, they all disappeared so I took the opportunity to move off. As I stood up, I turned round to find a couple hiding in a bush behind me...they'd obviously got there before I arrived and couldn't let me know they were there as it would have scared the badgers. Predictably, I crapped myself on the spot.
One ran out in front of me during a night ride in Kirkhill forest near Aberdeen, many years ago. It took off down the trail but somehow managed to trip over its own feet and tumbled like a bowling ball before finally coming to rest and disappearing back into the undergrowth. I almost crashed from laughing at it.
Badgers don't have great eyesight, do they?
Not badgers but the most surprising wildife encounter I've had was when a buddy and I were riding down a lane in a cutting with high fences each side, slowing for a car that was coming up when two deer jumped the fence and landed right in front of us. We and the car stopped, the deer realised they were trapped and panicked; one managed to clear the opposite fence in one huge jump but the other failed and bounced back, crashing hard onto the road. It absolutely freaked out, turned round with hooves scrabbling on tarmac and tried to jump back the away it had come, failed again and was bounced violently back, crashing into the lane again. Two more failed jumps and on the fifth attempt it made the opposite fence but by then the energy it had expended was so huge that the lane was full of flying debris, dust, fur, dried leaves, all kinds of stuff. We rode on and for the next couple of minutes we were spitting deer hairs out of our mouths!
Wonderful animals, makes me so angry people enjoy killing them for no reason.
A friend in town has up to ten that visit their garden every night for peanuts. You can sit by the sliding doors and watch them eat literally 2cm from you, bang on the window, camera flash or whatever you like and they don't bat an eyelid. The young ones are very entertaining and sometimes the older ones just lie down for a little snoozle right there.