On the night of May 1, 2019 while driving home from Palomar College, at around 11 pm in Pine Hills near the town of Julian I saw what looked like a low-slung cat waddle off to the left side of the road and then disappear into a small grassy ditch along the side of the road.
I decided to carefully back up and look more closely (from the car) and saw an unmistakeable badger face observing me from a foot or so from the edge of the road. That explained the short-legged waddle. I tried to take a record image with my cell phone but the head disappeared. Upon later investigation, there is a culvert in that spot which extends under the road, although on the opposite side it seems to be closed off.
I have driven along this stretch of road late at night two days per week for about 32 weeks per year over the past 12 years or so, so this sort of observation is a rarity.
For the record, the spot where this badger was seen was very close to:
33.048016, -116.636228 just south of the corner of Eagle Peak Road and Boulder Creek Road (as shown on Google maps).
For the record, the spot where this badger was seen was very close to:
33.048016, -116.636228 just south of the corner of Eagle Peak Road and Boulder Creek Road (as shown on Google maps).
Back in the middle 1990s when I distributed Bread from one of my specialty bakeries, (Dudley's), when I drove through the open rangeland south of Warner Sprins at 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, I'd often see the, waddling across Hwy 79, especially near the jct of the Ranchita Road turnoff.
ReplyDeleteIn the 1980s I would also see Ringtailed Cats in and around Burnt Valley east of Anza Valley on my way to Indio at 4:00 in the morning heading down to El Centro for work. Found some old historical photos of later 1800s & early 1900s of Anza Valley where fur trappers displayed what looked like close to a hundred of them. To this day you won't find any showing themselves at night or daytime.
That's very interesting - good to know. Am hoping some day to get some decent photos of badgers (here, or anywhere, actually!). I did see a ringtail fairly late at night a couple years ago not far from where the badger was seen (in Pine Hills). It wandered around indecisively for about a minute (a long time) before heading off to the underbrush to the side of the road. I'm beginning to think a dash cam would be a good investment.
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