The Good News Only - thread...

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We've had a smaller than a cat phantom crapper for a while. Pictures of the poo and an examination at close quarters told us it was a Hedgepig.

Something else left a calling card in exactly the same place on our front lawn for several years; almost certainly a fox.
 
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mudsticks

mudsticks

Squire
We've had a smaller than a cat phantom crapper for a while. Pictures of the poo and an examination at close quarters told us it was a Hedgepig.

Something else left a calling card in exactly the same place on our front lawn for several years; almost certainly a fox.

Reminds me, I must get the electric fence up to keep the badgers off of the sweetcorn.

Field mice are another matter..

In happier news I found a slow worm when I moved a piece of wood the other day..
They're great consumers of slugs 😋
 

Ian H

Legendary Member
Reminds me, I must get the electric fence up to keep the badgers off of the sweetcorn.

Field mice are another matter..

In happier news I found a slow worm when I moved a piece of wood the other day..
They're great consumers of slugs 😋

We get frogs, the occasional slow worm. E found a newt the other day. The mice in the greenhouse ate all her sunflower seeds.
 
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mudsticks

mudsticks

Squire
We get frogs, the occasional slow worm. E found a newt the other day. The mice in the greenhouse ate all her sunflower seeds.
Yes, the whole 'nature worship' thing can pall somewhat when 'nature' eats all your hard work.

But at the same time we have to appreciate a lot more, all the free inputs we get from nature, without which we would be completely and utterly stuffed.
 

Bazzer

Well-Known Member
I bought Mrs Celine a trail camera for her birthday as she was curious as to who or what was shitting in the garden.

Culprit duly detected.

View attachment 4424
Given the amount of slugs she must be eating Mrs Tiggywinkle is welcome to continue with her nocturnal activities.
Some years back when we lived near the Pennine way, we had a hedgehog who used to visit the house back door for food. She (as we later discovered) stopped coming for a while and then reappeared with what we assumed to be her hoglets.
A friend has regular hedgehog visitors and makes arrangements for them to be fed when he is away.
 
We were camping in Germany once in a tent that had one of those porch areas. We kept the food there. Woke in the early hours to a rustling noise. Shone the torch out to find a huge hedgehog, like half a football sized, rifling through our food bag. It froze then darted under the canvas and disappeared. Turned out it had started on the Ritz crackers big style. Didn't fancy half eaten, hedgehog licked cheese biscuits so chucked the rest out on the grass. Probably not the best idea but they'd all gone in the morning. Hedgehogs are great. I love hedgehogs.
 
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mudsticks

mudsticks

Squire
Some years back when we lived near the Pennine way, we had a hedgehog who used to visit the house back door for food. She (as we later discovered) stopped coming for a while and then reappeared with what we assumed to be her hoglets.
A friend has regular hedgehog visitors and makes arrangements for them to be fed when he is away.

We were camping in Germany once in a tent that had one of those porch areas. We kept the food there. Woke in the early hours to a rustling noise. Shone the torch out to find a huge hedgehog, like half a football sized, rifling through our food bag. It froze then darted under the canvas and disappeared. Turned out it had started on the Ritz crackers big style. Didn't fancy half eaten, hedgehog licked cheese biscuits so chucked the rest out on the grass. Probably not the best idea but they'd all gone in the morning. Hedgehogs are great. I love hedgehogs.

Badgers are often accused of eating hedgehogs, apparently they can peel them open like spiny chestnuts.

I don't suppose the badgers are nearly as culpable for fewer hedgehogs, as the general countrywide loss of habitat, and forage is. But at the same time we do have a lot of badgers round these parts, and barely any hedgehogs 😐
 

fozy tornip

At the controls of my private jet.
I thought badgers's staple was worms.
Before you all gush on more about hedgehogs take a close look at their back legs and tell me there's nothing wrong.
 
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mudsticks

mudsticks

Squire
I thought badgers's staple was worms.
Before you all gush on more about hedgehogs take a close look at their back legs and tell me there's nothing wrong.

Tis pretty much and other ground dwelling bugs leatherjackets etc, but I guess they like a bit of variety.
Had them trash whole crops of broadbeans too. 😐

Agree re the back legs thing though..
They kind of 'trundle' rather than run..
🦝
 

Rusty Nails

Country Member
I love Hedgehogs...but I couldn't eat a whole one:

hedgehog-e1596284385435.png
 
I recently found out that foxes and badgers sometimes travel together. Trotting about, I mean, not on buses. Honestly though, what the feck is that all about?
 
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