Welcome To The Kingfisher Wildlife Diaries – John Bailey
October 2nd 2009
Mr Brock is Back
I'm so pleased. It's been years since I used to feed a badger nightly at Elsing, just upstream of the Kingfishers on the banks of the River Wensum. It got used to my nocturnal roach fishing sessions and he'd shuffle within five yards of me to make a meal of bread and sweetcorn before departing off into the dark. Several naturalists disputed my claim. The flood plains are too wet, they asserted, for a badger to live upon.
Quite true. I later found my badger (badgers) lived in one of the high, dry outcrops that abut the river valley.
So, it was with great pleasure that, yesterday, whilst walking the banks, I came across a series of quite obvious badger latrines. They were freshly used and the faeces carried the obvious remains of the cereals, presumably from the harvested fields, and seeds, probably from blackberries hanging everywhere in the hedgerows.
What I didn't expect to find in one latrine were the remains of a signal crayfish. Of course, signal crayfish are bad news for our native English variety. They spread disease and generally oust their smaller English cousins. Badgers, of course, don't dive for their food and I guess that this particular crayfish had been sniffed out by an otter and, for one reason or another, left high and dry. Not his day then that Mr. Badger should chance along.
On the same expedition along the river, I came across the Environment Agency's electro fishing team. Very impressed with their diligence, care and evident expertise. All the fish that they handled went back with a minimum of stress or harm. And it was also heartening to see a good head of really fine chub, perch and pike taken from such a small stretch so close to our lakes at Kingfisher. It's very easy to become gloomy about the impact that otters are making. Perhaps our fish are just a little wilier than we've ever thought them to be.