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Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Soaking up the sun

  

Lucky day at work today (25 February 2025)!  We were headed outside to eat lunch on the deck when I noticed a very large hill of freshly dug soil...and an American Badger resting right next to it!

The badger mostly spent time lying in the sun, but it looked around a few times, so here are a couple of different views (below).  Note: We watched the badger from far away, so these photos are a little misleading.  I took them with a large zoom lens and then cropped the photos heavily.

 


Hooray for coastal prairies and mustelids!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is the best live picture that I have ever seen of a badger! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Wow! Wonderful pictures!

Hollis said...

All that digging is tiring work! ; -)

Jackie Sones said...

Thanks, all!

Hollis -- that same thought also crossed my mind while watching the badger. It's an anthropomorphic view, but sometimes the badger's body language suggested a heavy sigh, lying out flat and dropping its chin onto the ground. It felt like the equivalent of, "Whew, that was a lot of work...now I just want to rest here for a little while."

Another possibility -- "Hmppphhh...I can't believe I didn't catch a gopher after all of that digging."

Or I suppose the opposite is possible, too -- "Time for an after-gopher nap!"

We hardly ever see badgers, so every observation helps expand my thinking about what their lives might be like.

:) Jackie

Bill said...

Great photos Jackie!