mammals:
Not everything in the garden is as tiny as a Ladybird or Hoverfly,mammals are beginning to find life in the countryside
harder and harder.Not everyone has a garden that backs onto woodland and can enjoy the sight of Badgers on their lawn,
but these animals,along with Foxes,are becoming more and more common in our gardens.Sadly,i don`t live close enough to any woodland to have Badgers visiting,
but probably have Foxes passing through,although i have never seen one!
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Before turning over your compost,have a good look,you may find a sleeping hedgehog among the leaves and twigs.Yesterday i lifted the lid on my own compost bin(left)and disturbed a tiny mouse that was making a meal of a tomato i had discarded,don`t tell the neighbours! |
Last summer we heard about a hedgehog rescue centre near our home,and we put our name
down on a list to re-home them.At the beginning of september we collected`Patrick`,and
he has since done a marvellous job of keeping the slug and snail population down.
| Patrick lives in a house that i built for him,out of wood.I placed this under a Silver Birch tree,in the corner of the garden,and covered it with leaves and soil.He went into hibernation in the first week of November,and emerged again on 14th February,looking decidedly thinner than when he went to sleep!That was his first winter,and it was a big relief to see that he`d come through it ok.Slugs and Snails are still very thin on the ground,so at the moment i`m supplementing his diet with dried cat biscuits(not fish-based,as these upset his stomach!)and this is a good way of getting him near the house for photographs!. |  |
jamie white.JUNE 2006.