Northern News
A Happy New Year from the North – I hope you have all wintered well – wintered being the operative word!
Winter is usually a time when active members of Wirral and Cheshire Group can relax a little before preparing for a new season. But not the winter of 2009/2010!
Chris Neden and I have been helping a local residents association in trying to ensure the safety of badgers resident for many years in an abandoned railway cutting which is due to be cleared for a metrolink route extension. It’s been a difficult project with a number of the usual rules regarding badger welfare apparently being ignored.
The big freeze from mid-December prevented access to badger setts until I was eventually able to make it to the “hospital” sett on 15th January. I was quite surprised at the amount of activity around the sett, most of it no doubt due to the badgers visiting their outside toilets – brrrr! I hope they enjoyed the food donated by my local pub landlord and supplemented with a load of their favourite peanuts.
Although badgers can live for a time off the body fat accumulated during the rest of the year, the signs are that they are now very hungry judging by the number of requests for help in stopping damage to lawns and a golf course. An additional problem at the latter was a tunnel collapse at the edge of a teeing off green (I think that’s the correct term!) A licence will have to be obtained allowing me to repair the tunnel with a pipe to allow continued badger access and to fill in the hole left by the collapse. An increase in the number of road casualties is probably the result of badgers seeking pastures new in their search for food.
On 12th February an injured badger was spotted by a lady at 3.30 pm in a Cheshire cemetery. She got within five feet of the animal which had quite a severe wound on its rear end, before it ran off. In my absence Mike Taylor went to try to find the badger, without success. Let’s hope he survived (the badger, not Mike!)
On 2nd February a lady driving mid Cheshire hit and killed two badgers. To date, she has been too distraught to tell us more about the incident.
Looking forward, I already have ten watches booked for this year, which will probably include a televised event in June or July, as part of the BBC North West Tonight diary of nature in the region.
Give me a call if you would like to join us on a watch.
This year’s “20/25 Initiative” sponsored walk will take place on 17th October when Merfy (my dog) and I will again attempt to raise £500.00 for Badger Trust funds. The most we have made to date is £325.00 so please help if you can. The idea is to pledge to raise £25.00 from friends, work colleagues etc.
Further details will appear in the next Newsletter but I won’t mind if you ring me NOW! with your pledge.
Finally, two pieces of good news to end with – remember New Zealander, Greg Crofskey, who spent a couple of years combining working and photographing wildlife in this country? Greg is now back home but has expressed a wish to continue with his membership of Wirral & Cheshire Badger Group. Guy Lingford has accepted Greg as our first New Zealand member!
Walking with Merfy on 19th February I was amazed to see at least a dozen hares in one field. Six were feeding contentedly while seven were boxing and chasing each other around – a sure sign that spring is almost here!
See you next time.
Brian H Rhodes