For some reason I have not been able to fathom, in recent months I have been developing a “thing” about hedgehogs. Some months ago I suspected that we had one living in the garden, and after borrowing a “trail cam” from a friend this was proved to be true. I have built a little shelter for them in the wood-shed, and put out food regularly.
I all these months, however, I only actually encountered one directly on one occasion. This changed yesterday in a surprising fashion. They are usually nocturnal animals, and yet in the middle of a bright day there was suddenly a squawk from my wife such as might have suggested that she had just spotted a dinosaur on the lawn. It was a hedgehog, in broad daylight, and rummaging busily in the leaf-mould. I grabbed my camera and went out to get a closer view. In retrospect it must have looked like one of those “first encounters” between European explorers and the inhabitants of some remote part of New Guinea. I think we managed to communicate.
I am not sure why it should be the case but it does feel to be important to me that there are wild creatures in the garden, and it is not simply “civilised”. The pattern of these visits changes in ways that are sometimes puzzling. Normally at this time of the year the thrushes arrive, to feed on the rowan berries, but fo some strange reason all the berries have now gone (eaten I think by blackbirds this year) and I have not seen a single thrush. It would be nice to think, however, that the hedgehog has cone to stay.