Trouble ahead Meles meles, Monday 29th January 2017

Before I get to the core of todays blog, let me say thanks to the Monday mencap volunteers who turned turn out regardless of the weather to carry out tasks at Pembrey Burrows LNR.

Today was wet, not by usual Welsh standards, just drizzle and mizzle but the kind that gets you wet, today we fixed a step on a stile into one of the fields, there was a photo but there was a bit of "builders bum" going on so I've deleted it!, still thanks lads.

I carried on checking around, getting to the information hut for a cup of tea, (from a flask before anyone thinks I've taken up the suggestions of a tea/coffee machine) I got out of the van to be faced with badger trouble, I'd noticed a lot of activity on the track such as old bedding and scuffling; but the have clearly been busy in the bank outside the hut, it quite a job they've done and the photos don't do it justice..

So what may they be up to....

Lets have a bit of background information about Badgers, the largest British member of the weasel family, the mustelids, nocturnal by habit and an omnivore with a taste for most things!.

The females, sows, come into season after the birth of the cubs in late winter early spring, which coincidently is when the males, boars, are fertile.

The sow goes through a process known as -delayed implantation- so the blastocysts do not implant into the uterus until December prior to a 6-7 week pregnancy, with most cubs born in February.

I suspect that the sow is getting ready to give birth and has been doing a bit of house keeping and foraging widely in anticipation of the arrival of the cubs.

Badgers are predators and impact on a wide range of other species, such as Bumblebees, and ground nesting birds, but nature has a way of maintaining a balance.