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Country Matters 12th September 2002
The badgers that visit our garden have a severe problem, namely diarrhoea. A close look at their droppings scattered across the lawn soon diagnoses the reason why. They are full of Victoria plum stones picked up from under our two trees. All the books tend to repeat the fact that 80% of a badgers diet consists of earthworms. But obviously the authors have never studied Rayne’s badgers. I have found both fur and feather remains in their droppings perhaps a rabbit litter dug out and someone’s hen it has found. On the farm I found one dropping was full of undigested sweet corn.Badgers like the fox are opportunists and when a tasty morsel is picked up by their noses it soon becomes part of the evening meal. Fox droppings are also interesting! One finds not only the skeletal remains of mice, the fields are full of Long Tailed Wood Mice this year, but also shiny beetle carapaces. Why a large animal like a fox should spend time eating such a small meal is difficult to understand. The fox can digest most of the bones it eats but fur and feathers often appear in their droppings. Unlike the badger the fox uses its droppings to prominently mark its territory. This is why you often find them on top of large stones or clods or on well-used paths. In our farmyard the round straw bales are stored outside and many of them are marked with a fox dropping.
The hedgehog has a much smaller dropping from 1 to 4cm usually. I am always being told that there are no hedgehogs around but a close look at ones own lawn will often reveal their black droppings. Though they eat slugs and worms their droppings are usually full of beetle carapaces like the fox. They also clear up any dog, cat or bird food left out overnight. Last month I blamed the badgers for reducing our hedgehog numbers this year but one night recently I saw three clearing up a bowl of bird food on the lawn.
Following on the Parish reports, Roger Martin had a Spotted Flycatcher raise a brood of young and then probably the same parents returned and raised a second brood. We had a Green Sandpiper for the second year running visit our farmyard lagoon. It always surprises me that the most successful mallard duck broods are raised on the other lagoon that takes the drainage from the farm muck clamp. Colin Flemming reports a pipistrelle 45 bat flew into their bedroom but unfortunately the cat killed it. The bats roost is almost certainly very close by. If anybody has this happen or the cat brings in a dead bat please let me know, as it’s important to identify the species we have in the area. Syl and I have been monitoring a large bat roost in Braintree that is moving between various houses in the area. The owner of one of the houses that the bats are using was telling us a tale about a bat that flew into their living room. She got her neighbour to catch it in a towel after it landed in a wall light. The bat was released and flew off. Three days later sitting in the same room she saw a very small bat hanging on the lip of the wall lamp looking over the top. The original bat was probably the mother carrying her young to a new roost and unfortunately the youngster became detached when the adult was caught and so was left behind. The youngster did not survive. Despite living in the house for 30 years she did not realise they were hosts to a bat roost. We can pass injured bats on to vets and helpers who will try and help them survive.
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