Hedgehog!

We know we've got Hedgehogs in the garden as I've seen them before and we regularly see their poo. Indy, the labrador pup belonging to our son and daughter in law, loves nothing better than eating hedgehog poo she finds on our lawn!

I was up really early this morning dropping jan of at Manchester airport as she's visiting our daughter in Australia for 2 weeks. Getting home around 6.30 I saw this Hedgehog feeding on spilt food beneath the bird feeders. It was unconcerned by my presence merely freezing rather than rolling up in a ball. Once  I got a few photos I retreated and within a minute or so it started mooching around and feeding again before trundling off into the hedge at the bottom of the garden.

Its great to know they're still around as Hedgehog numbers have plummeted in recent years and the nearest many people get to one is seeing one squashed on the road. The use of insecticides and slug pellets has resulted in many Hedgehog deaths and their only known predator are badgers that can easily open them up when they're curled into a ball.

Proof again that our policy of keeping the garden fairly wild and natural without using chemicals is helping the local wildlife.

Even the lawn is kept fairly wild even though its regularly mown (apart from a couple of areas we've planted up with wildflowers. Its full of white clover, black meddick, selfheal and buttercups - a pollinators paradise and with the mover set at a high setting the flowers remain and aren't crowded out by the grass.

Hedgehogs eye view of the lawn.