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Daily wildlife moments

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  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,546
    We're still in thr throes of lambing at the moment. My daughter was patrolling the field edges a day or two back, looking for a missing lamb. When she reached the end of my veg garden, there was a sudden loud commotion and lots of flapping under the black silage bag covering my compost heap.
    She leant over the fence and cautiously lifted the edge of the bag, to see a very agitated large hedgehog! She hastily covered it up again, but we don't know if it had been hibernating there, or whether it may have been a female looking for a nest site.
     We knew we had hedgehogs, but sightings have been rare and we also have a thriving badger population.  The badgers don't seem to come into the garden, but the nearest sett is just beyond the field boundary. The heavy rainfall during the 3 storms completely flooded it and the poor badgers had to rapidly decamp and go and sofa surf in the main sett on the far side of our big field! 
    Bad news for badgers, but might be good news for hoggies and great to know that they are using the  veg garden space.  I shall have to take extra care and keep a look out now, when I am in that bit of the veg garden, and might have to import compost from one of my other heaps :)
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039



    Found in one of my leaf mould bins today.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • fidgetbonesfidgetbones Posts: 17,618
    Did it crawl in and die or something bury it? Any idea what it is?
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    The crest on top of the skull suggests it was an adult badger.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    No idea how it got in there.
    I tried comparing it with some on line pictures and couldn’t be sure whether it was Badger or Fox.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited April 2022
    You'd think that if it had been a rotting cadaver, the smell would be astonishing, with something as large as a badger, not an event that would pass under the radar...
  • ErgatesErgates Posts: 2,953
    Looks like the lower jaw is still connected at the joint to the rest of the skull? If so, it’ll be a badger skull. One of the few mammals that has that arrangement. With most skulls, the lower jaw falls off when the soft tissues disintegrate. 
  • punkdocpunkdoc Posts: 15,039
    Thanks @Ergates.

    Yes the skull is still articulated and I have checked a few websites and they confirm what you say.
    How can you lie there and think of England
    When you don't even know who's in the team

    S.Yorkshire/Derbyshire border
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