Warwickshire Badger Group

12/08/2026

Warwickshire Badger Group Member Visit to The Tree Sanctuary,
Shilton Lane Allotments, Coventry, CV2 2AD

Saturday 22 August 2026
11.00 am to 1.00 pm

Book your free place here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/visit-to-coventry-tree-sanctuary-tickets-1995322902514


The first Sycamore Gap tree sapling planted in Coventry by the Tree Sanctuary and the Tree Amigos.
There's still time to book your places for our visit to the Tree Sanctuary in Coventry, hosted by our own committee member Martina Irwin.

Martina co-founded the Tree Sanctuary in Potters Green, and over the years it has grown from a small grassroots project into a real hub for community conservation, welcoming everyone from local families to the Minister for Nature.

Trees do a lot of quiet, unglamorous work for us, storing carbon, cooling our streets, and holding soil and water in place, so protecting them matters more than most of us realise.

The site is home to rescued and unwanted trees, saplings grown from the seeds of trees lost to development, and native trees donated by the Woodland Trust, many of which go on to be replanted in the nearby Liberty Wood.

It's also a haven for wildlife in its own right, with swallows, woodpeckers, and skylarks recorded on site, alongside managed beehives producing honey from the wildflower meadow, and yes, badgers too.

It's a chance to see all of this first hand, hear about Martina's tree protection campaigns, learn more about what you can do, and enjoy a relaxed afternoon in good company.

Refreshments will be provided and places are free, but limited to 30, so do book if you'd like to come along.

Places are limited to 30, so book now to avoid disappointment.

Join Warwickshire Badger Group at Coventry's Tree Sanctuary, home to rescued trees, and one of the UK's first Sycamore Gap saplings

12/08/2026

Please join us at Warwickshire Badger Group Open Meeting
Tuesday 8th September 2026, 7.30pm to 9.30pm.
Stoneleigh Village Hall, Stoneleigh, CV8 3DG (Doors open at 7.15pm)

There will be a break to buy refreshments. A raffle will be held.

Guest speaker: Jo Harper, Warwickshire Bat Group, Bats without Borders and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust.

Jo's talk will take us from the UK to the wider world, covering a year in the life of a bat, what they eat, and how to recognise some of our most common Warwickshire species by sight and by their echolocation calls. Like badgers, bats are nocturnal, spending the daylight hours tucked away and coming out to feed once the sun goes down, which is part of why they remain such a mystery to most people. Jo will look at the threats bats face and, just as importantly, what we can each do to help them.

There will be time for questions afterwards, so bring along anything you've always wondered about our nocturnal neighbours.

For those of us at Warwickshire Badger Group, Jo's talk is a welcome reminder that badgers share their hedgerows, woodlands, and green corridors with other creatures of the night. Bats, like badgers, depend on healthy, connected habitat and a good supply of insects and prey, and their presence, or absence, tells us a great deal about the state of the countryside we're working to protect.

We hope members will leave better informed about bats and with a greater awareness of the nocturnal species that share our gardens and local neighourhoods after dark.

30/05/2026

We would love you to join us at our next Open Meeting on Tuesday 16 June at 7.30pm. Refreshments will be available & a raffle will be held.

We are bringing you an evening that connects the vital local work we do here in Warwickshire with one of the most important conversations happening in the UK right now:
The People's Emergency Briefing
On Climate and the Nature Crisis

We will be screening The People's Emergency Briefing, a 50-minute film presented by naturalist and broadcaster Chris Packham, alongside leading scientists, a former general, and Jennifer Saunders. It is, as its makers put it, a group of people being "far too frank about where things are heading and what can be done about it."

The film grew out of a formal National Emergency Briefing held in Westminster last November, where ten of the UK's leading experts briefed an audience of over 1,200 politicians and leaders from business, culture, faith, sport, and the media on the implications of climate and nature breakdown for health, food systems, national security, and the economy. That evidence is now on the public record, and this film takes it out of Westminster and into communities like ours.

The film arrives in the wake of some deeply uncomfortable news. The government attempted to suppress its own national security assessment of the impacts of global biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse. Freedom of information requests eventually forced the release of a reduced version of the report, which revealed that the Joint Intelligence Committee had assessed every critical ecosystem to be on a pathway to collapse, with major associated threats to UK prosperity, food supply, and national security.

That is not a fringe view. The Joint Intelligence Committee is made up of the heads of MI5, MI6, and GCHQ. Their report issued a stark warning that without decisive action, the UK faces starvation, economic collapse, civil unrest, and wars rooted directly in food insecurity and economic instability.

This is the context in which we do what we do. Protecting badgers, monitoring populations, and campaigning against persecution are not small acts. They are part of a much larger effort to hold the line for wildlife across the UK. The film is designed to create honest local conversations, not just about the threat from climate and nature breakdown, but about what we can do together with our politicians to build a better future. We think it is exactly the right film for a group like ours, and we hope you will come and watch it with us.

Following the film, our Chair Denise Taylor will share highlights from her recent trip to Bulgaria, one of Europe's most biodiverse and ecologically rich countries. Bulgaria is home to a remarkable range of large mammals, including wolves, bears, and lynx, alongside an extraordinary diversity of birds, insects, and plant life. Much of it thrives because significant areas of land have remained relatively undisturbed, a living example of what nature can do when it is given the space and protection it needs.

Denise will reflect on what she witnessed in the field, the conservation projects and communities working to protect these landscapes, and the questions her trip raised about how we approach wildlife protection at home. The parallels with our own work are striking. Whether it is habitat loss, human-wildlife conflict, or the relentless pressure on species to adapt to changing land use and climate, the experiences of conservationists working in Bulgaria speak directly to the challenges we face in Warwickshire. For those of us who spend our evenings out with badgers, it is a reminder that local action is inseparable from the global story. What we protect here matters far beyond our county boundaries.

01/04/2026

8 years on from my original FB post of this picture and I remember it all very well. Quite a few people including those with a great deal of experience had never seen a semi-albino badger cub with these facial markings before. But, as I pointed out, they are extremely rare - only ever seeming to appear at this time each year. (Steve Hawkes – WBG)

14/03/2026

We warmly invite you to join us for our next Open Meeting and Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Wednesday 19th March, an evening that promises both reflection and inspiration.

We'll begin with a short AGM to share highlights from the past year, present our accounts, and look ahead to the year to come. Then, we're delighted to welcome our guest speaker, David Brown, Warwickshire's county moth recorder and one of the UK's most knowledgeable and experienced moth specialists.

David will be sharing the remarkable story of how moths survive in a world full of predators, from master camouflage to bold warning colours and cunning mimicry, with a special focus on the species you can find right here in Warwickshire.

Come along for engaging discussions, wildlife updates, and the chance to hear from a true expert whose passion for moths spans more than five decades.

Our meetings are a great opportunity to learn, connect, and catch up with fellow membe

Annual General Meeting
7.30 pm to 8.00 pm
Agenda:

Apologies for absence
Adoption of the minutes of the previous AGM
Matters arising
Presentation and adoption of accounts
Presentation of Annual Report
Notice of motions
Any other business

02/03/2026

This tiny female cub is around three weeks old. Her eyes and her ear canals are still not open which mean that she is essentially blind and deaf at present. The eyes and ear canals of badger cubs open at the five-week-old stage. In normal circumstances she would now be in her home sett with Mum and any siblings cuddled together in a warm underground bedding chamber. This is where cubs remain for most of the first eight to ten weeks of life without appearing above ground at all. At that stage they will then begin exploring the entrance tunnels and sometimes go to the surface and peek outside at the big wide world.
But at this precocious time of her life this little girl would not ordinarily encounter the outside world nor any of the many dangers associated with human beings at all. In this instance though “Lady Luck” shone on her in that her first meeting was with a kindly building site worker who found her completely alone, cold and damp, with no sign of Mum or her home sett anywhere nearby. The site was very busy and so he had no choice but to pick her up and take her into care.
When cubs of this age are found in this way it is usually because Mum has been moving them, one at a time, from one sett to another for some reason. This might happen for example where the warmth and comfort of a sett is compromised by a sustained period of heavy rain, causing it to flood. Very young cubs need to be kept warm and dry at all times and the clan will usually have several setts in their territory with suitable ones in reserve to move to when necessary. These auxiliary setts are usually not that far away and can be brought into use at any given time.
In some instances when moving cubs, (which they do by gently carrying them one at a time in their mouth), mothers will occasionally put one down en route to then go back and fetch another. Normally they will return very quickly and find the cub again but on occasions they can lose them particularly if some mishap occurs with the mother. At such times any cub(s) left on its’ own sadly will then be orphaned and unless found and rescued soon would very quickly perish.
We don’t know precisely what happened in this case, but what is certain is that the building worker who rescued the cub and took her to the Nuneaton Rescue Sanctuary most definitely saved her life. Thereby giving her a chance to begin her journey on the long and difficult road to rehabilitation. The ultimate aim being to eventually give her a second opportunity to live her life back in the wild in a few months time.
Badger cubs are social animals and do not generally tend to do so well if they are reared in isolation. As such I have taken this cub to The Vale Wildlife Hospital who, year on year, generally end up with several orphaned cubs which, following quite detailed protocol, are grouped together in little families ready for me to release in the autumn.
At present this little cub is on her own as cubs this young coming into “care” are relatively unusual. If no others arrive at The Vale in the next couple of weeks it may be that she will need to be taken to another Rescue Centre where there are already cubs of a similar age.
There are currently three male cubs of the same age and size at St Tiggywinkles Hospital in Haddenham. So it may be that this little lady might move on to join those in due course. Whatever the outcome everything will continue to be done in her very best interest, and we must sincerely thank all of our wonderful rescue centres for helping and working together to ensure our wildlife has vital help like this when needed. I will keep you updated of this little beauty’s progress. Steve Hawkes (WBG)

02/03/2026

Apologies for delay in posting but one week ago today I collected this wonderful little three week old female badger cub from Geoff at the Nuneaton Wildlife Sanctuary. I took her on to Vale Wildlife Hospital where she will hopefully now make progress along the difficult rehab journey until she is ready for release back into the wild in the autumn. More detail about her background story with another pic will follow shortly. Steve Hawkes (WBG).

01/02/2026

As I feared might happen - the poor badger that was rescued on Fri evening passed away last night. At least she was in a warm, comfortable environment and free from pain and suffering - which would most certainly not have been the case had the person who first saw her not contacted me. Always very sad to lose them like this but we can only continue to do our very best for them. Every one saved and able to be returned to its home makes it worthwhile. Sadly not to be for this poor girl. (Steve Hawkes - WBG).

31/01/2026

With badger welfare always a prime consideration here is a very quick single clip taken of the rescued badger this morning just after I had changed her bedding. (The background noise is a tap running which sounds much louder than it was - even so I should have turned it off). Steve Hawkes WBG

30/01/2026

Just back in after a call out to a cold, wet, and very busy A46 - the other side of Snitterfield to rescue an injured badger. The caller who reported the casualty to me thought it might have been an albino but it is actually a beautiful erythristic (ginger) one. He gave me a rough location of its' whereabouts and I managed to find and cage it safely - although things weren't made easy by the high volumes of speeding traffic on the carriageway a few feet away. Unfortunately due to the lateness of the call and a longish drive to get to the where the incident had occurred I didn't have enough time to get to the wildlife hospital before their admission closing time. So the badger has been made comfortable and warm in a dark and very peaceful area of our kitchen for the night. (In a cage I hasten to add). If "she" makes it through the night I will take her to the hospital first thing in the morning. There are no obvious outward signs of injury but the problem with RTA's are the unknown internal injuries which can and do regularly occur. With many years experience of dealing with RTA rescues I do not have high expectations given her overall demeanour - but I can but hope she does make a full recovery. I will update as/when appropriate. Steve Hawkes (WBG) UPDATE - HAPPY TO SAY THE BADGER MADE IT THROUGH THE NIGHT WITH SOME SMALL SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT. She is now at a wildlife rescue centre and hopefully will make a recovery - in which case I will return her to her home territory should the time arise. Further updates will be made as/when I get them. LATER UPDATE 2pm SUNDAY 1 FEB - SADLY - as I feared might happen - the poor badger passed away last night. At least she was in a warm, comfortable environment and free from pain and suffering - which would most certainly not have been the case had the person who first saw her not contacted me. Always sad to lose them like this but more often than not that is the likely outcome when they are hit by vehicles. (Steve Hawkes)