Happily Ever After

Life in The Rural Retreat with a beautiful wife, three cats, garden wildlife, a camera, a computer – and increasing amounts about running

Earlier posts can be found on Adventures of a Lone Bass Player, where this blog began life. Recent entries can be found here.

The Nocturnal Gymnast

by Russell Turner - 20:32 on 02 May 2018

Many years ago, while Matchgirl and I were enjoying our Namibian honeymoon and watching lots of exotic animals, cat-sitters Soo and Tony trumped us by spotting a pine marten in the garden – a creature we’d never seen. We saw lots after that, and I got some good snaps (although they’ve dried up in the last few years), but the visitors got there first.

Now they’ve done it again. While we were marathoning in London, Tony set up his Bushnell in the garden to capture late-night pine marten action (of which there’s still lots), maybe a few hedgehogs, and any other nocturnal visitors.

What he discovered was an athletic badger. Who knew they could climb gates? Brock was after peanut butter left for martens, I’ve been informed.

I know there are badgers around – I startled one at the side of the road once when setting out for a gig – but the only evidence I had of them visiting the garden was a black-and-white presence on the edge of one Bushnell snap captured a few years ago.

Maybe they’ve been partying every night and I’ve missed them. My Bushnell will be out tonight.

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