Badger Watch

When I was on Facebook I noticed that  someone had been Badger watching in Llandeilo at Dinefwr Castle and I thought yes that sounds a great idea. I went staight on their web site and found the phone number and contacted  them and was told this was the last watch of the year and there were only two spaces left. There were three of us so sadly no good to me and then she said there might be two more dates and will phone me back and if by magic she said yes they had add two more dates and took my booking and I thought brilliant. Well the week up to the 20 August was sunny but by Friday it was raining and windy, Saturday came and it was wet, I keep checking their website to see if it had been cancelled but no it was still going ahead. We got there in good time and thankfully it was dry. The hide only holds 10 people and it was great to see other people turn up and a relief we were in the right place. Then our guide turned up and said two people had cancelled and had not paid for the watch. On line it said it had sold out and my older daughter could not go because of it. He also said a local Camera club had booked the hide a couple of weeks earlier and only two of them had turned up and the rest had not paid, this must be heart breaking and losing money for the Wildlife Trust with places that could have been sold elsewhere. The hide was a nice size and on getting in there we sat down and our guide went down below and started put out the badgers food, he had a bag full of peanuts and peanut butter and he spread it over a fallen tree and no sooner had he put it out and some birds turned up for some free food. In two hours we got to see  Blue Tit, Great Tit, Coal Tit, Nuthatch and Chaffinch. Just has we were thinking where are the Badgers a head popped up, little did we know the Set was right by the food. He said there were ten badgers in the set and we got great views of six of them. He also said that badgers have got bad eyesight and this was proved right when a female chaffinch landed right by the badger and he did not see it, when it flew of the badger jumped a mile and you could see it lift into the air. All to quick the two hours were up and the light was starting too go, also on site were lots of Fallow Deer and he said on times they will come after the peanuts too. When we got back to the cars I said I will see you next year and he said we will see as he was 83 and had been doing it for twenty years and I said it's a shame you cannot get someone else to help you and take it over, he said they been trying for a long time but know one wants to take it on. We felt if only it  was closer  to me and my daughter we would have taken it on. You could see it's the love of the badgers that is keeping him going. I jokingly said to him if only you could put a hide by a Lesser Spotted Woodpeckers nest and he yes that would be great. I asked him how many pair are present and he said two pairs and you could see why they are so hard to find. But to think this has been going for so long and we did not know about it, I would have gone every year to see them.
 

This Badger was very clever, he picked up a lump of peanut butter and ran off with it and a youngster did the same thing but as he got to safety a larger badger took it of him .