The cliff below the meadows is horribly steep and covered with impenetrable vegetation. We believe it to be dotted with several setts that our small family of three badgers move between through the year. For most of these setts, it would be completely infeasible to attempt to get a camera on them and we didn’t know where the badgers were currently sleeping. However, yesterday we decided to put a camera on the sett they used last year to give birth in which is one of the few in a position that we can reach:

This turned out to be a good move because it seems that they have returned to the same sett to give birth this year as well – the new camera position caught the male badger dragging bedding underground there last night.

So our hope now is that when the young first appear above ground in early April, this camera will record the momentous occasion.

However, the weather will have to get a bit better first. Today it snowed like it has not snowed since we bought these meadows, accompanied by ferocious, bitter easterly winds.

The Butterfly Bank which stood out shockingly white against the field when it was dug last month….

…now no longer seems quite so white:

And the first Blackthorn to come into flower now looks foolhardy rather than brave:

We have these strong winds forecast for the next two days and then perhaps it may be finally  time for Spring to properly start.