A few days ago, on a dark February morning around 6 a.m., I opened my front door to see a hedgehog snuffling around the mat in the porch. He or she dashed into the shrubs at the side, but those few seconds were enough to make my day. In fact, it’s made my month! That was the first time I’d seen a hog in my garden since October last year. Four months without them, and the garden had felt kind of empty. After several years of them visiting, I’d almost started to take them for granted. If I think back to when they started coming, I was so excited – a proper wild animal in the garden. What a privilege! I got a hedgehog hole put in the fence, bought hog biscuits, and made a shelter in a quiet spot. I even bought a wildlife camera. Then one day, they stopped coming. So what happened?
The fox happened. Previously, I’d only seen them in the front garden, but in mid October a neighbour sent me a photo of one on the shed roof at about 9 pm. I put my camera out and discovered they were eating the hedgehog biscuits. The first time, a hog came later, but after that, no more hogs, but the fox kept coming. I didn’t really want foxes in the back garden, so it seemed the only thing to do was to stop providng food. I felt bad about this because the local hedgehogs had already suffered disruption and lost habitat.
For years, there had been a very wild garden across the back alley. I’d been told hogs lived there, then the humans moved, and for about two years it was left to nature (apart from the car parked in it, but that’s another story!). In August 2023, the owner had the garden completely cleared. Not long after that, our wildlife-friendly nextdoor neighbours moved out, and their garden was similarly tidied.
For two months, this clump of grass in a local flower bed was the closest I got to seeing a hedgehog! Then in early January, I spotted a small hog running along the pavement. Wisely, it went into a garden three doors up, where another wildlife-friendly family lives. That decided it. I resolved to make a fox-proof feeding station.
I found a video from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust and collected a plastic box I’d seen dumped in an alley, plus some bricks flytipped in a verge.
One brick is placed in front of the doorway, leaving a corridor for a hog but not enough space for a fox or a cat. Another brick on top means it’s not easy to knock the box out of the way. The first few nights I put food in, nothing happened. Then one morning the biscuits were gone, but who’d eaten them was a mystery (my money was on a rat). Next night, the camera was set up, revealing a cat having a sniff around but not getting in.
Then, two days after my morning visitor – success! Three separate hog visits in the early hours, and two of those were definitely different hogs. How do I know? Because one had a distinctive scar on its back.
Honestly, I’m overjoyed to have the spiky ones back. I just wish everyone could experience this – too many children I’ve asked have never seen a hedgehog. I’m pretty sure they’d be as enchanted as I am.
Read more about Hedgehog Champions Bevois Town Primary School and visit the Southampton National Park City website, where you’ll find advice on how you can help hedgehogs to thrive.
Dandelion Nature 