Sunday 30 October 2016

A waif and stray

We were driving out with our granddaughter the other afternoon and passed the village green when something moving in the leaves caught my eye. It looked like a tiny hedgehog so I made my husband drive round the green and pull up and it was! I knew it shouldn't be out in the sunshine, and also that it looked too small to be able to make it through hibernation should the weather turn soon. The only thing I had in the car was an old towel so I caught it in that and we returned home to find a box which we filled with straw and some food and water. As it was a Sunday, and the local hedgehog hospital was closed, we left in the shed overnight. The next morning I popped it on my kitchen scales and was surprised to see it came in at over the recommended hibernation weight of 600g but, as it had been out in the daylight, we ran it over to the hospital anyway to be checked.

Our local hedgehog hospital were at bursting point! There were hedgehogs in boxes everywhere but the woman took mine and weighed it again - 149g!! Well no wonder my cakes never rise! I realised after that I had reset the scales as I was walking to the shed and it hadn't registered the bowl.

The hedgehog was found a box and a warming pad and I signed the relevant forms. I have a reference number and I will give them a call next week to see how it's doing. I passed the village green yesterday and I was so thankful we noticed the little thing as the groundsman was out on his ride on mower!




Friday 14 October 2016

A mouse in the house (actually the shed)

We had to move a sack of bird food in the shed the other day and behind it was a mouse nest. It was built mostly of grass, although there was a chewed up plastic seedling pot in there too, and it was attached to the inside of an upturned wooden crate.  The bird food had been infiltrated and the nest was surrounded by seeds. I set the trail cam up in the shed overnight to see if the nest was still being used or if we had disturbed it too much.

The mouse (not sure which sort) didn't appear to be in the nest at the time as he/she turned up about an hour or so later. The trail cam was set off numerous times overnight where the mouse kept returning to the nest to remove food and take it elsewhere. I watched carefully to see if any young might have been moved but pretty sure there weren't. Eventually the nest collapsed from all the burrowing! We felt bad at having disturbed it but it does appear to have just been a food store. When moving its food the mouse was only gone for a few seconds so I assume it has found another corner in the shed to use. The footage below is when the mouse first came back to the now exposed nest. It does look rather confused!




Friday 7 October 2016

Autumn

I love autumn, the colours, the air, wildlife becoming active again - beginning to stock up and hanker down. The later dusks and dawns are easier to view with mists and stormy clouds, pinks, purples and orange skies. Below are a few of my favourites taken over the past few weeks.