Appleton Wildlife Diary: 30 Days Wild - Day One

Monday, 1 June 2015

30 Days Wild - Day One - Follow a trail

It's the first day of The Wildlife Trusts campaign to encourage people to do 30 days of Random Acts of Wildness.

For the last week we have been coming up with some ideas and couldn't wait for it to start.

For the first day I decided to do - Follow a trail.

My local patch is criss crossed with trails left by animals and I though it would be fun to follow a few and find out who made them and where they lead to.

The first trail has been made by a badger coming out from my favourite sett and going over the adjoining field.

Being quite heavy, badgers leave an obvious trail. Their trails are used for many generations and the ones from my local sett lead either out into the fields, down to the stream or out to their latrine.

Badgers will dig under fences, climb over logs leaving a smooth surface, push wire out of the way sometimes leaving tufts of hair.

Last year during harvesting the local farmer put the haybales on the badger trail across the field and the badger pushed right through rather than walking around.

Another badger trail

Badger trail over a fallen branch

The badgers at the bottom of our garden climb the small 1m high wall that separates the lane and our neighbours garden.

Badger trail through our neighbours orchard.

Rabbits - rabbit trails are hard to follow as the tiny paths often disappear into the brambles.

Rabbit trail

The woods are covered with deer trails, these are easier to follow than the badgers trails as they are taller. They lead from resting places, to streams and out into the fields. The Roe deers are quite predictable and can been seen in certain places at certain times of the day.