ON THE MOUND... (Temple Balsall, badger watching, 1st May 2023...)

 On The Mound…

A strip of orange sunlight lingered

Above the increasingly shadowy evening;

Yet in the copse, some light, unhindered

By shade, revealed a badger moving

In the undergrowth. Yet it totally ignored

The food laid out near the setts upon the ground

And slipped through barbed wire across the lane toward

A field of gaudy yellow rapeseed, stealthily, without a sound.

The strip of amber sunlight disappeared

And as the dullness of dusk settled its greyness,

A head popped up and down again, then reappeared

But vanished again into its sett of perpetual darkness.

A mouse rustled through leaves into its gloomy hole

Behind me, then a badger emerged from a sett at my rear 

And soon I began to re-evaluate my brock watching role

Upon my mound, eyes alert and watchful of motion near…

I smiled then, for like a baseball pitcher I felt,

Hesitating upon his mound, watchful of stealers of bases

All around him and preparing to throw a batter out.

But I was checking for the grey of a badger’s shadowy pelt,

Or the sudden flashes of black and white masked faces,

My presence there creating a thrill, as well as some doubt…   

Pete Ray

2nd May 2023 

Strange visit to Temple Balsall, for there was so little breeze, a clear amber sunset, raucous birdsong, the occasional bleats of restless sheep and the strong odour from nearby fields of rapeseed…

A powerful badger soon crossed the copse, avoiding all of the food I had scattered and crossed the lane into the rapeseed field, which surprised me.

A young badger then popped its head up and down several times, like a Jack-In-The-Box, before a large brock investigated the area in front of me, whilst one suddenly appeared from a hole behind me, as I watched a mouse disappear into its hole. 

THE MOUSEHOLE...

The badger seemed interested in my presence and as I turned this way and that, watching, I nearly laughed out loud because I felt so like a Kansas City Royals’ pitcher, keeping a nervous eye on the bases, in case an opponent tried to steal a base…

I really did…