Kitchen Garden Forum

Spotted this little feller Thursday lunch time on the ground just outside our patio door. Could hear parents but it seemed too out of breath to respond. A while later it had moved and was in danger of being trodden on because it was on the patio right where we step out the door. moved it back to where we first found it and it immediately scuttled off up the garden by the fence, using the raspberry bushes and honeysuckle for cover.

Mrs S saw mother feeding it later in the day.

Hope it made it

His face says it all!!!!!

Popped into my Mum's this morning and in her garden were lumps of hedgehog skin and spines....i take it a fox had eaten a young one....didn't tell my Mum, as it would have only upset her. There aren't many about, so i hope it doesn't have any more young ones that may be about!!!

That is such a sad tale, OH. We have not seen a hedgehog in our garden for three or four years and we really don't know why. Our garden is very wildlife friendly with gaps in fences and walls for them to roam, we don't use slug killer, we are next to a nature reserve and on a very quiet, almost traffic-free road, so why have they disappeared when we always had them? We do see and hear the occasional fox, but I don't think they are the problem here.

And, Pa snip, I love your photos. These little fellows are so vulnerable at that stage of their life, aren't they? The three baby blackbirds in the nest in our porch fledged successfully and their parents now bring them to the back door to be fed with currants. Father usually eats a few himself and then gives some to his offspring. The greatest attraction at the moment though are the berries on the amelanchier tree!

What a delightful photo. Probably the product of a second brood. It doesn,t look as if it was quite prepared for the turmoils of the world into which it had just been thrust. They have to learn survival skills pretty quickly don't they?
Our garden is currently alive with the latest blue tit and great tit fledglings. Luckily next door neighbours with three cats moved out several months ago so youngsters now have a slightly better chance of surviving.

We occasionally see what we think is a black hedgehog spraint on our lawn but never actually get to see or hear one of them..

I'm wondering if I'm doing the Fox a miss-justice, blaming it for killing the hedgehog....I'm now wondering if it could be Badgers!!!
It could be likely with the ground be so hard and dry and them not being able to get worms and the like. Do you have Badgers near you, Monika?

Badgers will certainly roam further from their normal home territory in a drought. Some years ago we had some rare albino badgers visit our garden during a drough. They live a fair distance away and I believe they're still there but we only see them in very dry periods when hunger drives them further in their search for food.

We do have badgers at the moor edge, OH, but have never ever seen or heard of them anywhere near us. They would also have to negotiate a rather lively beck before they got to the village. Sadly, I think their demise here is probably caused by people using slug killers. Our frog and toad numbers have also declined though at least we still see some regularly.

Two of my nocturnal visitors:-