One Sunday afternoon in August 2020, the day after we’d had this hole cut in the fence, we heard a commotion in the alley on the other side. The little girl who lives over the road had spotted a hedgehog. They shouldn’t be out in daylight, so we brought it into our garden, tucked it under a shrub and gave it food and water, relaxed in the knowledge that there were shady places to rest, but also an escape route.
Of course we looked online to decide what to do, and found that females may go out in the day time if they have little ones, called hoglets, to feed. The photo shows that this one was a good size – that saucer is 12 cm in diameter – and she (?) started eating pretty quickly. I’d also asked my sister, whose friend runs a hedgehog rescue, what she thought. If a similar thing happened now, I’d check with our local rescue and rehabilitation organisation Hamble Hedgehogs for further advice, but back then I had little experience. That soon changed – once I started putting food and water out every night, the hogs just kept coming. Mostly we got four or five, usually one adult and the rest youngsters, but one night I counted six at the feeding area!
I rarely took photos, so as not to disturb our visitors, but once or twice I couldn’t resist. Here you can see three hoglets with an adult, and I love this photo because the little one on the left is right in there, actually on the silver saucer, which was quite a common thing to see. I also love the back leg – if you haven’t seen a hedgehog move, you might be surprised at how long their legs are, and how fast they can go! They can also climb, but I haven’t seen this yet. I put two saucers of food out next to my gate, where I could peek through the window at them. Just to their left is a bowl of water, near the hedgehog hole. I also keep the alleys behind my house clear of litter, and you can see in the photo below that I put a bowl of water under some ivy out there. The third photo shows a local shrubby patch. It looks lovely, but delve in and you find accumulated litter. This means hogs foraging for food come up against lots of plastic, so I’m clearing these areas as part of my ‘hedgehog highway expansion programme’!
Another way to provide food in your garden is to make stick or log piles where insects can shelter – and hogs can forage. I also have quite a few pots, which I sometimes move slightly just before dusk to expose worms and slugs underneath. Occasionally a visitor arrives early, and is ready and waiting (see photo). You can get lots of good advice on Hedgehog Street , where you can also find the Big Hedgehog map. Here you discover how many hedgehogs are in your area, and log your sightings as well as any hedgehog holes you create. I’m fortunate to have alleys behind my house, and I can see that many of my neighbours have ‘accidental’ holes in their fences, or gaps under the gate – good news, as hogs travel about a mile every night looking for food and a mate.
This year the hogs started coming out of hibernation in early March. Two days ago, I noticed that one had white patches on both sides, something I’d never seen before, and got a photo as he was eating (you can just see the edge of the silver saucer). I contacted Hamble Hedgehogs and Amanda, one of their foster carers, came over last night once I’d put Harley, as we’d named him/her, into a temporary box. Amanda confirmed the white patches were paint, transferred Harley into a proper carrying box and will get him/her cleaned up. When she’s happy Harley is ok, she’ll bring him/her back. Watch this space for an update!
Dandelion Nature 