Showing posts with label American badger. Show all posts
Showing posts with label American badger. Show all posts

Sunday, June 9, 2019

A Live Badger Observed in Pine Hills (San Diego County)

No photos, unfortunately, but this was my first "good" view of a live badger ever, and especially interesting, at least for me, as it was in San Diego County.

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).