Breaking In.

I like Badgers, I really do, but just about this time each year, they have a group visit to our garden and have a good root around. I then like them a bit less.

I know that they are coming and so have filled up any holes in the fence and put rocks here and there, where I think it may discourage them from entering.

They pick their rainy night carefully and take advantage of the soft, wet soil to dig under the fence. Some of them will barge the wooden fence and invariably manage to break some of the rotten slats near the ground.

Then they are in. They dig a latrine in the herb garden and dutifully fill it with their droppings. They also dig holes all over the lawns as they search for worms, leather jackets or whatever.

My neighbour asks why they come through his garden on the way to mine without doing anything: and why they bother to break in.

It is the old story of "Forbidden Fruits". In this case grapes. Our dump has the last of the discarded fruit from the vine and these are all consumed by the visitors.