Well, my four overwintered hedgehogs have been released and hopefully are all off somewhere fit and healthy and doing what hoggies do best ....... good luck guys!!!
I had a rescue hog brought to me last week, found lying at the edge of a field during the day (flies etc), the very kind lady brought her over and poor little hoggie spent most of the first 24 hours sound asleep.
I named her Dawn, and after recovering from her ordeal she eventually came out for something to eat and I could take a better look at her. Blood on her nose and one ear, quite muddy and dirty - suspect she may have been disturbed by a dog.
Anyway, she's slowly getting better each day eating more and look much healthier each day.
The garden's been busy, we have a Robin who visits regularly throughout the day for mealworms to feed her babies - she'll even come down onto my hand now. Also, I think she's spread the word, about the mad lady, and I also now have a lady Blackbird who visits for her regular mouth full of mealworms.
The goldfinches are nesting in the buddlei and have constructed a beautiful little nest, and I already have quite a few visiting hedgehogs.
They need all the help we can give them ....
Wednesday 6 May 2009
Wednesday 21 January 2009
Ok, I mentioned previously that I live in a terraced house with a small garden, I'll fill you in a bit more.
When we moved into the house over 10 years ago the garden was completely filled with grass (or so we thought), on closer inspection it looked like the garden had been a dumping ground and over time the grass had grown over the rubbish and created what looked like little rolling hills!!!! There was everything you could imagine, piles of rubble, electrical cables, floor tiles and even and old Christmas tree!!!
We gradually cleared the rubbish and added a shed and patio area at the bottom of the garden, as this is where the evening sun shines. Flower beds were made with the help of some railway sleepers, a little playhouse added for my daughter. Over the years things have developed, my husband built a lovely archway into the garden which is now covered in a beautiful passion flower which blossoms throughout the year right until the first harsh frosts. New path was layed using recycled bricks outside the back door. The flower beds were shaped and re-shaped and filled and are still being filled. The children brought me a wonderful flowering cherry tree for Mothers Day one year, which now holds prime position in the centre of the garden (can't wait for Spring because the blossoms are so beautiful). Although we are very much overlooked by other houses I have managed over the years to build up quite a collection of trees and shrubs around the edges and now in Summer when you walk out in the garden hey presto the houses have disappeared!!!!! The walls of the house are covered in Virginia Creeper, which during the summer is home is a whole sparrow family, funny when you go out at night and shine a torch up into it, all you can see are sparrow bottoms!!!!, but it's lovely to hear their chatter first thing in the morning and all the squabbling just before they go to bed.
Hopefully in the Summer when the garden is looking at it's best I'll post some photographs.
Bill, Ben, Button and Bee are still residing in the back room, still piling on the pounds, can't bring myself to put them out in the shed yet, had another couple of nights of hard frost, so I'll hang on for a little while, they are rather pampered hedgehogs!!
In the next post I'll tell you all about the wildlife in the garden.
When we moved into the house over 10 years ago the garden was completely filled with grass (or so we thought), on closer inspection it looked like the garden had been a dumping ground and over time the grass had grown over the rubbish and created what looked like little rolling hills!!!! There was everything you could imagine, piles of rubble, electrical cables, floor tiles and even and old Christmas tree!!!
We gradually cleared the rubbish and added a shed and patio area at the bottom of the garden, as this is where the evening sun shines. Flower beds were made with the help of some railway sleepers, a little playhouse added for my daughter. Over the years things have developed, my husband built a lovely archway into the garden which is now covered in a beautiful passion flower which blossoms throughout the year right until the first harsh frosts. New path was layed using recycled bricks outside the back door. The flower beds were shaped and re-shaped and filled and are still being filled. The children brought me a wonderful flowering cherry tree for Mothers Day one year, which now holds prime position in the centre of the garden (can't wait for Spring because the blossoms are so beautiful). Although we are very much overlooked by other houses I have managed over the years to build up quite a collection of trees and shrubs around the edges and now in Summer when you walk out in the garden hey presto the houses have disappeared!!!!! The walls of the house are covered in Virginia Creeper, which during the summer is home is a whole sparrow family, funny when you go out at night and shine a torch up into it, all you can see are sparrow bottoms!!!!, but it's lovely to hear their chatter first thing in the morning and all the squabbling just before they go to bed.
Hopefully in the Summer when the garden is looking at it's best I'll post some photographs.
Bill, Ben, Button and Bee are still residing in the back room, still piling on the pounds, can't bring myself to put them out in the shed yet, had another couple of nights of hard frost, so I'll hang on for a little while, they are rather pampered hedgehogs!!
In the next post I'll tell you all about the wildlife in the garden.
Saturday 17 January 2009
Ok, think I'll start off by giving you a potted history of how I became interested in wildlife, and mainly hedgehogs. I have always had a passion for animals, you know I'm the kind of person who picks up worms and snails from the path and puts them on the grass, it quite often takes us ages to get to school, and we're usually late, but the kids don't mind and they've even started the habit now!!!!
I had my first hedgehog about 3 years ago, brought home by the children because some children had been kicking him about (how adorable the little darlings). It always amazes me downadays how some children are brought up with no respect for living creatures, we should all respect nature, if we take time to look around we'll realise it is truly a wonderful thing. Sadly this little guy didn't make it, but he started me on the 'hedgehog road', bless him!!
I have taken in numerous animals and birds, a beautiful collared dove that I found in the garden last year covered in mud and looking very traumatised, mice etc etc etc.
I overwintered two hedgehogs last year, collecting them in the autumn as tiny little autumn juvenilles and releasing them in the Spring, looking more like footballs. I soft released them into a pen for about a week and then took the pen away, I then provided food and water for them, as I do anyway for all my visiting hedgehogs. They came back for a few days and then I saw them occasionally (yes I know one hedgehog looks very much like the other, but I had marked them). I hope they are now safely tucked up hibernating somewhere ready for Spring and will then be getting back to things hedgehogs do best.
Currently I have four little bundles of prickles, they are Button, Bee, Bill & (yes you've guessed it) Ben. They came in between October/November last year all around the 300-350g mark and are now residing in my utility room and Button and Bee are just over 800g and Bill and Ben are around 600g and 700g respectively. I am considering whether to put the larger guys out in the shed now the weather has turned a bit milder, and encourage them to hibernate for a couple of months. I will obviously provide them with a beautifully warm and dry sleeping compartment and all the food and water they can drink until they decide it's time to get forty winks. They will then be ready for release in Spring. Bee has done particularly well as when she came in she had mites and lost a lot of fur and spikes, with quite intensive treatment she is now looking beautiful, all the fur and spines have grown back and she is becoming quite a rotund young lady.
I only live in a very small terraced house on a housing estate with quite a small garden, but with some encouragement it's absolutely teeming with wildlife and I hope you'll enjoy my tales, I know I'll enjoy sharing them with you.
I had my first hedgehog about 3 years ago, brought home by the children because some children had been kicking him about (how adorable the little darlings). It always amazes me downadays how some children are brought up with no respect for living creatures, we should all respect nature, if we take time to look around we'll realise it is truly a wonderful thing. Sadly this little guy didn't make it, but he started me on the 'hedgehog road', bless him!!
I have taken in numerous animals and birds, a beautiful collared dove that I found in the garden last year covered in mud and looking very traumatised, mice etc etc etc.
I overwintered two hedgehogs last year, collecting them in the autumn as tiny little autumn juvenilles and releasing them in the Spring, looking more like footballs. I soft released them into a pen for about a week and then took the pen away, I then provided food and water for them, as I do anyway for all my visiting hedgehogs. They came back for a few days and then I saw them occasionally (yes I know one hedgehog looks very much like the other, but I had marked them). I hope they are now safely tucked up hibernating somewhere ready for Spring and will then be getting back to things hedgehogs do best.
Currently I have four little bundles of prickles, they are Button, Bee, Bill & (yes you've guessed it) Ben. They came in between October/November last year all around the 300-350g mark and are now residing in my utility room and Button and Bee are just over 800g and Bill and Ben are around 600g and 700g respectively. I am considering whether to put the larger guys out in the shed now the weather has turned a bit milder, and encourage them to hibernate for a couple of months. I will obviously provide them with a beautifully warm and dry sleeping compartment and all the food and water they can drink until they decide it's time to get forty winks. They will then be ready for release in Spring. Bee has done particularly well as when she came in she had mites and lost a lot of fur and spikes, with quite intensive treatment she is now looking beautiful, all the fur and spines have grown back and she is becoming quite a rotund young lady.
I only live in a very small terraced house on a housing estate with quite a small garden, but with some encouragement it's absolutely teeming with wildlife and I hope you'll enjoy my tales, I know I'll enjoy sharing them with you.
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