wildlife in a suburban garden

I was only saying to my hubby the other day 'you know, I have never seen a squirrel or a hedgehog around here' and blow me the very next day we saw both!! Not seen the squirrel since but I hard some noise in the garden the other night when i was just out there sitting and thinking and it turned out to be a hedgehog. Dont know how it got there as my garden has a 6 foot fence all around with 6 inch high gravel boards at the bottom of every one retained with concrete posts so I know theres no gaps.

I read somewhere that the number of sparrows was in decline but all I can say is they havent seen the bird feeder in my garden. My husbands off work at the mo and he says they arre there all day- about a dozen of them taking it in turns to be next. I now buy the seed in 6 kilo bags as it goes so quick.

there are a number of bats skimming about at night as well so dont know where they hang out(ha ha) during the day as theres no disused barns and things around here for miles! Not much wildlife I admit but I get a real thrill from sitting and watching the birds all the time.My husband even filled up the containers as I have been away for a few days and he has a bit of a phobia about birds. bless!

 

It's odd, we live just about 200 meters from a small woods and have rarely seen a squirrel in our garden. We don't see many hedgehogs either, but did have one eating what our cat Gato (a real picky-putty) leaves on the dish. I put the left-overs out by the front door and either the neighbour's cat comes, or magpies, crows and even had some jays a few times. The hedgehog was very noisy, he was pushing the glass dish around and we could hear it in the house, so went out to see what was up.

 

Hedgehogs are very noisy eaters, aren't they?

 

hedgehogs are funny creatures. There was one outside my window once snuffling so loudly I thought it was a burglar!

 

Well, I never knew that ... that hedgehogs were noisy! Learn something every day! St Tiggywinks Animal Hospital (mainly for hedgehogs) was just a hop, skip and a jump away from us in Bucks.

 

I have them visiting my garden - and yes they are noisy on the move - they root around in leaf litter etc for the food they want - but freeze when startled. Used to drive my dogs mad, cos they'd bark and rush, the hedgehog would curl up, and the dogs would back off yelping. They learnt to leave alone. :D :D

They cover a good mile a night, and are excellent climbers - though difficult to imagine looking at the shape of them - but look at the feet!