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HOGLOG (Hedgehog and other wild sightings.) Not counting foxes or grey squirrels
2007 Monday 29th May, on the lane going up to the
Walna Scar road, about eleven am, I saw a weasel emerge from a clump
of bluebells under the drystone wall, maybe 20 metres away. Mustela
nivalis vulgaris saw me, and retreated. You want to August 24th, mild evening. To Ebernoe for a magical evening
picnic batspotting by Furnace Pond. Not really a wildlife spotting,
as premeditated & Ebernoe is hopping with bats. The bats
came out in showers, in a blue twilight, from their roost high up in
the beeches, following the freeway where the powerlines run, o 2006 Monday 14th August, Eguisheim, Alsace. An inauspicious campsite in the heart of the Alsace wine country, which is an open air shopping mall, ribbon development; with added snottiness. Could be I'm less than fair, as the weather was appalling. Camped on the highest terrace, up against the chainlink fence, vines on the other side, we were woken by strange minor earthquake noises, which we instantly recognised. Hedgehog by torchlight, in the dripping wet night, trying hard to burrow under the fence, why we don't know. The slugs were just as large, fat and juicy on our side. Responded to our presence as hedgehogs often do, just crouched there & waited for the annoyance to go away. Old pal! It was good to see you. Also, on the Brest-Nantes canal (yes, we did quite a bit of driving. It passes the time when it's too wet to do anything else), 19th August, Peter saw a bittern, which I reckon is worth a mention tho' I don't usually do birds here. I missed it. 2005 Saturday 2nd April, a russet bank vole with blunt short silky tail and blunt nose, eating pitta bread on the slate windowsill outside the kitchen window, H-H-. On Friday April 1st there was allegedly a rat in the bath, but that was an April Fool rat. Wednesday
30th March, Blencathra Centre, Cumbria, on our way to collect our
car, after a walk-up climb drowned in low cloud, occasional glimpses of
the panorama from Saddleback, a fine ridge walk We declined the thrills
of the Sharp 2004 Sunday,
Aug 29th, walking along Grim's Ditch,
Oxfordshire (three days along the Ridgeway, aka the Didcot Power Station
path). Cool morning, no one about, the 2003 Thursday, December 18th, about seven thirty pm,driving over the hill to the Marina to see TLOR III, a well-grown young badger went scooting across the road Sunday June 29th, early evening, walking up out of Angmering onto the downs, three stoats, a mother and half grown kits at a guess, went gambolling up the lane ahead of us, like giant looper caterpillars, v. sleek and happy looking. 19th July 2003 Tongdean "Everybody but me and Ross
had gone, we were sitting outside at a small table 14th June 2003 Lewes Full moon night. We walk to Lewes
across the downs by the Jugg's road
Darko Suvin 11/12/98 TO A HEDGEHOG (COUNTER-PROJECT TO CHU CHEN PO) You nose about, circumspect &
compact, [from the book THE LONG MARCH, Willowdale ON 1987] E-mail darko.suvin@tin.it back to the old hedgehog page
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Garry Kilworth 8.12.98 By the way, it's not always necessary to bake a hedgehog in a fire. You can stick it in the middle of a haystack where the combustion cooks it. The prickles come off when you peel away the hard clay. But are we talking about hedgehogs to kill and cook, or hedgehogs we love and cherish? Ahem.
A whole haystack? Well, certainly Garry. Or we could target the hog with a scud missile, that wd do the trick. The question of loving and cherishing vs eating is a debate we don't need to get into as long as we are only cooking hypothetical hedgehog… in other words, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Eds.
Lucy Sussex 8.12.98 As a child in New Zealand (the part I was living in was VERY English) I was sitting by the bank of a stream and saw a drowned hedgehog swept past, rolling over and over in the shallow water. I followed it past a bridge and saw it had got stuck by its bristles on a spot where a branch had snagged and created an islet. As I watched, it sneezed. Then I knew it was alive. So I waded in and rescued it. It hung around for a couple of days, ate scrambled eggs, and then wandered off. 10.12.98 Forgot to mention my mother was told by a doctor that her case of tinea was due to hedgehogs. She was walking barefoot in the early morning due, you see.
Garry Kilworth 13. 12.98 I hope you're joking about the burning haystack. But in case you're not, I'll take it you're not a 'country boy' like me. A natural heat builds up inside a damp haystack (indeed even a dry one, but a wet one's better) which can reach oven baking degrees. You don't burn anything, you simply stick it inside the haystack and the natural heat cooks the hedgehog. This is why haystacks often catch fire on their own accord. Here endeth the lesson.
Hedgehog by Gabriel. |
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Edge.
Better going up, that one... a red squirrel bouncing from a larch in the
Centre grounds onto the mossy top of the drystone wall, tufted ears and
creamy belly, we followed it, in view for a good few metres, then it bounced
off into the trees again. We left it a gift of Frusli bar.
Ditch
here grown with beeches, hedge on one side of us, the earthwork bank across
the ditch on the other, a furry animal slipped out from under hedge and
belted off, ochreish tawny coloured, low on the ground and sturdy, much
bigger than stoat. A polecat. They are 'increasingly common' in W. England.
On the same part of the path, clear signs of a badger sett.
