NB: This update contains a video clip that may be too large to show in the e.mail version of the update; you will need to view online: HERE
For many years my constant companion on nature walks has been Herbie, the terrier: here is one of the earliest photos I have of him as a tiny pup...
For many years my constant companion on nature walks has been Herbie, the terrier: here is one of the earliest photos I have of him as a tiny pup...
Somehow, and I really have no idea how, but somehow since then, 15 years have passed. He's now an old gentleman and finds walking at all difficult, let alone rambles in the countryside...
Now partially sighted with almost no hearing, a touch of doggie dementia and a long-term allergy, he's pretty much confined to base, and that suits him just fine.
As I guess happens to us all as we age, sleep patterns are disrupted and whilst Herbs will happily sleep for 15 hours or more of the day, he also often wakes in the early hours.
Why am I telling you all this? Well because on one recent early morning visit to the back garden to enable him to empty his bladder, an amazing thing happened - something that I may never have known about otherwise. Here is a very obscure, tenuous clue, that I doubt you will know because you are not of...an age!
No? Surely you know all about 'The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion'? Okay then, too niche? How about Thomas Hardy's poem 'Afterwards'? It's a bit of a eulogy, but lovely poem all the same...
'If I pass during some nocturnal blackness, mothy and warm....'Okay then, enough with the criptic clues now, I'll just show you the footage...
I have not seen a hedgehog for years now, and the last time I spotted one in the garden must be close to 20 years ago; it was before I had a digital camera, I do remember that much.
It was so exciting to see this one looking really healthy and well fed: probably eating from scraps dropped from the bird feeding station, as well as helping to keep the slug population down. I've got a very strong light that I sometimes use for macro work and so decided to try and use it to get a closer photo in colour using my phone camera...
On one night the hedgehog spent about 5 hours feeding and wandering in the garden, between around 11pm and 4am. I'm not sure if it actually lives in the garden, as a rule I think hogs need more than one garden to call their patch, but I want to try and encourage it to hibernate here, if it has not done so in previous years.
I set to work on a makeshift hedgehog house, constructed from an old apple crate...
Here it is in situ...
The jury seems to be out on whether to add dry leaves to the nest box area, I decided to add some anyway...
The next job was to sort some food; perhaps not required right now, but maybe so later on. There is already a large stone saucer that provides a supply of fresh water.
I did put some food out just to see if the hedgehog was interested, but all it seemed to attract was plenty of slugs...
This next image is again, from my phone...
So there it is, my very exciting news: the little garden that just keeps giving, what a joy for this boy!
Now don't get yer knickers in a twist, this is not a spider...
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| Odiellus spinosus - a Harvestman |
When I was researching the species, this is what I found on the internet:
It prefers man made habitats and is most often found in gardens and around buildings.
It usually lives on the ground but will climb bushes, trees and walls.
What I can tell you is that this is the first ever sighting of this species for me. As for the 'will climb bushes, trees and walls' bit; I guess it'll do more than that because I spotted this one inside the loft space in the house.
Oh yes! My little poser in the title of this update. The answer was 5,000 to 7,000 and the question? Roughly how many spines does a hedgehog have.
