Sleeping in the sun

  

It was another warm day, with temperatures reaching ~65°F on the coast today (3 February 2026).  I was checking on a few different things and was seeing quite a bit of insect activity (butterflies, bumblebees, and flies).  There was a nice breeze and it felt like one of those days when it would feel nice to take a nap in the sun, and then I happened upon a badger...sleeping in the sun!

The badger looked up for a moment, and looked pretty sleepy:

 

 

And then it nestled down for a nap.  

 

I walked quietly in a wide circle so as not to disturb the badger and took one more photo showing the badger lying in the grass next to its burrow:

 

 

 

Any sighting of a badger feels special, but I especially enjoyed this view of one at rest, with the sunshine on its back and the breeze blowing across its fur.

Tucked under

  

I've gone many years without seeing a badger, so the last few months have felt unusual.  A badger has occasionally been spending time within view of where we often eat lunch at work.  I posted some photos back in February, but we had nice views this weekend, too, so I thought I'd share a few more.  All of the photos were taken from a distance with a large zoom lens and then cropped.

Above, this was our first view of the badger yesterday (20 April 2025).  From a distance, I wasn't completely sure what position the badger was in, but when it moved we could see that it had been resting with its head tucked under its chest. 

Here's the view when it unfurled and revealed its face (below).  (If you go back to the first photo, the white stripe is a continuation of the stripe running from the badger's nose, up and over its head, and onto its back.)

 

 

 

The badger changed position, and then rested while curled up on its side:

 

 

 

Several times the badger woke up and did some grooming.  I love this next photo because you can see the front and hind feet, including the foot pads on the hind foot and the amazingly long claws on the front foot.  [You can click on the images for larger versions.]

 

 

 

 

The badger eventually returned to its burrow, but here's one more photo — a nice side profile, showing the white "badges" on the side of its face and the grizzled fur:

 

 

 

Curled up in the prairie

  

Luck found us again last week with a sighting of an American Badger (Taxidea taxus) napping in the mid-day sun.  After a couple of minutes it shook itself and then descended into a burrow.  Fortunately, I had a long lens on my camera, so this photo was taken from a distance and then cropped.

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!

Resting spot?

  

Recent badger digging, with an interesting area in the lower right corner.  In that oval patch you can see the soil is very smooth, with a couple of footprints.  Perhaps the badger lay down to rest there?

Earth day?

  

Every day is earth day if you're a badger!  

Photographed on 11 April 2023.

Close to the ground

  

American Badger (Taxidea taxus) resting on a mound of freshly dug soil around sunset a couple of nights ago.  I rarely see badgers, so I almost couldn't believe my eyes. I love the striped facial pattern and the grizzled fur.  [You can click on the image for a slightly larger view.]

Eric and I are hoping you get to spend some time with family and friends this weekend.  

We'll be sending out thanks to all of the plants and animals and landscapes around us, and to you for tuning in to the Natural History of Bodega Head!

Said the quail

 

  

"Ahhh...dust baths in soil dug up by a badger are the best!" said the California Quail (Callipepla californica).

 

After 16 years...

 

No joke — I've been hoping for a badger photo for over 16 years now, and tonight (11 January 2021) it finally happened.  We often see evidence (digging) of American Badgers (Taxidea taxus) in coastal grasslands in this area, but seeing the animals themselves is rare (they're more active at night, which I am not).

Tonight Eric suggested one more task which would require going for a short walk.  Somewhat unusually, I wasn't so sure...it was cold and foggy and getting dark.  But we got ready to go, and somewhat unusually (again), I decided to leave my camera with the zoom lens behind.  It was so foggy I didn't think it was worth carrying the larger camera.  Then Eric said offhandedly, "Okay, let's go find a badger."

Not long after leaving the car, I couldn't believe my eyes because I looked to the west and there was a badger...rambling around in the coastal prairie...and all I had was a point-and-shoot camera!  Lucky for me, Eric was willing to go back to retrieve my larger camera while I kept an eye on the badger, and we ended up with a few fun photos.  Here it is — surveying, smelling, listening, looking:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Such an intriguing animal.  I'm so happy to know they're out there digging in the coastal prairie soil, even while I'm curled up in my bed.

Ever elusive

Yesterday, while I was driving along the road (on Bodega Head) I noticed an animal in the distance that I couldn't quite identify at first.  I slowed down and then realized what it was.  A badger!  

I stopped the car right away and pulled over.  But the badger turned around and disappeared into the shrubs.  I didn't want to disturb it, but I was interested in seeing if it would come into view again.  There were dense shrubs along the side of the road, but open grassland just beyond the shrubs.  I wondered if the badger would head back to the grassland, so I decided to walk a wide arc around the shrubs for a better view of the grassland.  From a distance, I scanned with binoculars, but I didn't have any luck spotting the badger again.  The ever elusive badger!

While walking back to the car among the shrubs, out of the corner of my eye I noticed a large pile of dark soil.  I thought it might be badger diggings from a previous day, but it could have been something else, so I decided to take a quick look to confirm.  I walked up to it and noticed that it looked very moist and newly excavated.  And then I was surprised to see just a little bit of soil shift at the burrow entrance!  It wasn't my imagination, the soil moved!

The badger was probably down inside that burrow at that very moment.  Amazing.  Later I learned that badgers will dig burrows for all sorts of reasons that we usually think of, such as for shelter and foraging, but also for escape, and that's what I was probably seeing.  [I read that Joseph Grinnell reported that badgers can dig these escape burrows in under 2 minutes!]  

Unfortunately, it's likely that the badger was escaping from me...or at least the circumstance of being frightened or disturbed when my car approached it along the road.  I took a couple of quick pictures (below) and then left the area.

 

 

 

I encountered this newly dug badger burrow by accident.  But if I had known the badger was in the burrow at the time, I wouldn't have approached it so closely.  American Badgers are rare in California and so care should be taken not to disturb them.

P.S.  In April 2012 I posted a few other examples of badger diggings and one of the only badger photos I've taken — you can review that post here.

 

First of spring

Today we saw the first Coast Rockcress (Arabis blepharophylla) flowers of the spring.  This species grows near rock outcrops in grassland areas on Bodega Head.

 

 

These pictures are for Michelle, who is heading south to Marin County, but will always inspire us to look more closely at wildflowers and grasses wherever we are.  

Remembering walks with Michelle will also remind me to always have fun during natural history adventures — who else would agree to lie down next to a badger burrow and diggings to provide a sense of scale? 

 

(Michelle is ~5'3" tall, so perhaps that gives you a feeling for how much soil was dug up by the badger!)

P.S.  To learn more about the Coast Rockcress in the pictures above, review the post from 28 March 2012.

Bioturbation

 

 

 Burrows of the American Badger (Taxidea taxus)

Badgers are fossorial (adapted to life underground), digging burrows for den sites or to pursue prey such as pocket gophers.  Their large fan-shaped mounds are impressive examples of bioturbation — soil disturbance caused by animals.  

Whenever I encounter a badger mound, my eyebrows always seem to rise up in surprise.  The volume of soil they displace is hard to believe.  (For scale, my field notebook in the photos above is 5"x7".) Below the surface the burrows can be up to 30 feet long and 10 feet deep.  The photos above were taken on 11 April 2012 (top two photos, same burrow from different angles) and 23 March 2012 (bottom photo).

Badgers have wide, low-slung bodies, and feet adapted for digging — long claws on the front feet and strong, broad hind feet for pushing soil backwards.  I don't have a great picture of a badger yet, but here's one taken on Bodega Head in 2008.

To see a badger in action digging a burrow, check out this video posted on YouTube.