BADGER BLOG - At last ! the nights are lengthening and unusually warm, so in the next week or so, we will commence our badger watching evenings. The cubs are out of their sett and cute as buttons. The little munchkin below is busy eating a custard cream which they relish like children, first removing the top bit to get to the yummy middle. You can actually see him holding down the biscuit with his claws having removed the top part of the biscuit :)

Decisions, decisions. Which sett to watch first is the difficult bit. Over at our Goole setts, access to some are like fighting your way through unpenetrable jungle with briars and nettles whilst over at Selby, the thick bracken grows taller than us, millions of mosquitoes eat us alive and the forest floor right now is a thick carpet of bluebells and wild garlic hiding all kinds of trip hazards such as rabbit holes and fallen branches just crying out for us to trip and fall (ha ha, been there done that - broke a leg). But when you have the joy of sitting quietly in a forest watching a family of badgers, it really is magical and so worth the effort ! More posts on the Badger Blog soon :)

SELBY AND GOOLE BADGER WATCH
www.selbyandgoolebadgerwatch.co.uk
Email: selbyandgoolebadgers@aol.com

A very warm welcome to our website.
We hope you enjoy learning more
about badgers and the work which
Selby and Goole Badger Watch
undertake......

HOW THE BADGER WATCH STARTED....

Selby and Goole Badger Watch started life over 20 years ago and was known back then simply as Selby Badger Watch. We monitored many badger setts around the rural villages in Selby.

From the village of Barlow on the outskirts of Selby, we delivered Badger Awareness training to local people interested in badgers and these were always well attended. We led visits to badger setts and organised badger watching evenings in local woodlands and further afield in Cropton Forest. We were the very first group to start using trail cameras many many years ago when they first came on to the market.

Back in the day we never had the technology which we have today, for example, What3Words, drones and mobile phones which actually take videos and are like little mini offices in your pocket!!

Sadly, following a number of badger related crimes in remote areas around Goole, it was decided to incorporate these rural villages in the Goole locality into the areas we originally covered. Thus, Selby and Goole Badger Watch was born.

Please note: we are still building this website and any gobbledygook (or unrelated images, or words written in latin) you see is just part of the IONOS template we are working on and will over-write as the website develops

SELBY TIMES & GOOLE TIMES
Press article - Feb 2025

Thank you to both the Selby Times and Goole Times for simultaneously publishing our article, it really is appreciated and already we have received interest from readers who would like to monitor badger setts in the areas we cover.

FEBRUARY'S HERE AND SO ARE THE CUBS

FEBRUARY IS A BUSY MONTH FOR OUR BADGER WATCH TEAM!

We have been exceptionally busy these last few weeks. As usual at this time of year we visit setts taking as much fresh, dust extracted, clean hay as we can carry to help the sows prepare for the arrival of cubs. It's such a great feeling to revisit the same setts and see all the hay has been taken down the entrance holes and used to make a (warmer) nest for the cubs.

But with the arrival of cubs in February, this month can be a particularly dangerous time for badgers and the unpleasant truths can be read on our badger crime page. So....

We need more eyes on setts ! Only this last week we have been introduced to three more setts by a local resident. But we can only do so much.

Badgers need our help, now more than ever. What with the threat of billions of new houses being built on green belt, the ever increasing threat of flooding, industrial developments springing up everywhere, it's amazing that there's any wildlife left. And what a barren world we would live in if that should happen !

Please read our pages (some still being built) as we are usually out checking setts and only have limited time, but nevertheless, some great information for anyone who loves badgers!

EYES ON SETTS

Over the next few weeks, we will be doing a bit more publicity to encourage anyone with an interest in wildlife, and especially badgers, to keep an eye on badger setts and to report any suspicious behaviour to the police. Hopefully our local newspapers, the Goole Times and the Selby Times will run a small article for us to help raise awareness. Fingers crossed.

Please do not hesitate to contact us to assist with any badger related matter. We will help and advise in any way we can. ALL INFORMATION TREATED IN THE STRICTEST CONFIDENCE.

Flooding hell! - January 2025

Yes ! a road does exist somewhere under this recent flood water. This is a rural village on the outskirts of Selby and with many badger setts in the locality. It's just devastating to wildlife, not only badgers with setts in dykes and low lying ground, but for many other burrow dwelling creatures too. Rabbits, voles, moles and mice to mention a few. whilst hedgehogs, deep in hibernation will perish in their sleep.

Fortunately, the beautiful brown hare is not a burrow dweller and can high tail it to safer ground. But sadly, owls and other birds of prey find it difficult if not impossible to find food when flood water covers their hunting grounds.

Don't tickle my nose !

Fluffy badger cub on her very first visit out of the sett without mum and no higher than the bluebells.

Wait for me ! Another cub hurries through the bluebells after his sister. But where's mum and dad? Don't worry they were around and vigilant as ever !

As the sun sets, another badger cub emerges, tentatively at first before joining in with the rough and tumble playfighting with the other cubs

"Now where are those naughty cubs? Getting into mischief no doubt"

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Since our decision to cover the Goole area, we have built some useful contacts and helped a number of individuals who have approached us for advice, including:

Badgers in a horses field. Was it badgers or was it rabbits? Well following our site visit, we confirmed it was both, but the area in question was definitely rabbit.

Power lines over a large active badger sett with huge trees interferring with the power lines causing loss of electricity to a household. This was a difficult one as tempers, quite understandably, were running high, but working with the farmer, Natural England and the Power Company, a solution was reached, the encroaching trees were cut and the badger sett beneath the trees, carefully monitored.

Earlier in the year we discovered one of our monitored setts had been extensively dug. We notified Humberside Police who attended very quickly. We notified the landowners and asked if they could discuss this serious incident with their tenant farmer.

This sett has been targeted again, this time in July when weed killer was thrown over it. Humberside Police have been notified once more, images taken, and our records updated to include this latest incident.

Just a few miles from this dug sett, yet another backfilled sett has been discovered, and as previsouly, beside a dyke.

So as you can see, for badgers in Goole, we are making a difference - and as more sett monitors join us and complete our training programme, we will be able to cover more setts and help more badgers stay safe.