Finally last night after many expectant years I saw my first live Badger - it came across the road in front of the car and it now is completely clear to me why I have only ever seen dead ones - they are too slow! But don't worry we didn't run it over, it scurried into the hedgerow - it nicely finished off a really good evening as we had been to the Lincolnshire Bird Club's AGM and had the good fortune to hear a great talk from Martin Garner author of Frontiers in Birding. The talk was billed as inspirational and it was - it inspired me to go back to an old haunt (Ashbyville) this morning in search of Wheatears, Ring Ouzels and possibly the odd Shrike or two but I soon had all expectations knocked out of me. I knew that a lot of development had taken place on the site but had not realised just how much - over the years Ashbyville has turned up some fantastic birds and although it was nothing but a flooded quarry surrounded by waste land it had a “nature reserve” feel to it but now the lake is surrounded by the most banal housing development you could wish for and to add insult to injury every road is named after a bird ie Pochard Drive, Garganey Walk, Wigeon Way, Lapwing Close etc etc so after watching Wheatears on the site every year for at least the past 20, today there were none - all I heard was one solitary Chiffchaff and 1 Reed Bunting with a pair of Great Crested Grebes on the lake.
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