The Wildlife (and Gardening for Wildlife) thread

[StevieM]

Hedgehogs aren’t particularly fond of eating slugs usually; they prefer worms and beetles. Chunk however isn’t going to turn down any snack that he happens to come across.

Ask him if he'd like to come and live in my kitchen. A veritable feast awaits him!

[6Foot2]

It's back again:

 

Link 1: Big Butterfly Count...

The results are in!

 

Link: Big Butterfly Count [Results 2021]

 

[tg12]

Chunk is my new spirit animal.

[LeMarchand]

This is Chunk, our biggest hedgehog visitor. Going by hedgehogs we have at the rescue, he weighs at least 1.2 kg. We consider 600g to be a healthy hibernation weight.

 

He is now starting to find the bend in the feed station entrance a bit of a squeeze

 

He's not fat; he's big quilled!

[elsiegee40]

For no apparent reason, Chunk decided to ball in front of camera last night. It didn’t look defensive. Mr gee40 suggested Chunk was just checking he wasn’t too fat and, having satisfied himself that he could still ball, waddled off to find more food.

[Andrew_C]

Did he actually get under the gate?

[elsiegee40]

Did he actually get under the gate?

 

We have cut off the bottom of one of the stakes… a badger got through the gap (much to our astonishment) so even Chunk should fit

[StevieM]

We have cut off the bottom of one of the stakes… a badger got through the gap (much to our astonishment) so even Chunk should fit

 

So, the stakes couldn't be higher...

[FN-GM]

You also get these in your kitchen! Luckily I haven’t seen one in a while.

 

Some poor sod on the news had one appear in her car on the highway!

 

[FN-GM]

Oh and a blue tongue lizard in the garden. They keep away the cockroaches and snails!

 

[3s-gtech]

You also get these in your kitchen! Luckily I haven’t seen one in a while.

 

Some poor sod on the news had one appear in her car on the highway!

 

[ATTACH]63424[/ATTACH]

Is that a variety of Huntsman? They really are chunky. Much as I'd love to see parts of Oz, the presence of a face sized spider puts me off a little.

[FN-GM]

Is that a variety of Huntsman? They really are chunky. Much as I'd love to see parts of Oz, the presence of a face sized spider puts me off a little.

 

It is yes. In all fairness you very rarely see any of the above. Those photos were all taken within a 2.5 year period. My Australian partner hasn't seen a snake out in the wild for 10+ years. You do see huntsman around but not usually that size.

[mavhc]

The world's most venomous snake has never killed any human on record

[StevieM]

The world's most venomous snake has never killed any human on record

 

That's because they were dead before they got around to telling anyone.

[elsiegee40]

Last night we had our smallest hedgehog visitor yet who demonstrated why I put a step up to the gravity waterer.

 

Teeny needs to put on weight rapidly to be big enough to hibernate. I shall be keeping a close eye on this one. Fortunately here in Kent winters are usually late and mild.

 

Teeny

 

‘Normal-sized’ Splodge for a size comparison

 

The infamous Chunk

 

Teeny demonstrates why I put a ramp in for small hedgehogs to reach the waterer

 

Splodge

Edited October 20, 2021 by elsiegee40

[Ditto]

A bit of fun - an Autumnwatch hedgehog quiz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/12c50t33bdsRygMxMfYhTNT/the-hedgehog-quiz

 

Anything less than 100% from someone ( ) would be disappointing! I was a middling 5 out of 8!

Edited October 27, 2021 by elsiegee40

[elsiegee40]

A bit of fun - an Autumnwatch hedgehog quiz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/12c50t33bdsRygMxMfYhTNT/the-hedgehog-quiz

 

Anything less than 100% from someone ( )would be disappointing! I was a middling 5 out of 8!

 

Phew!

Edited October 27, 2021 by elsiegee40

[Ditto]

Massive respect! Performance under pressure! Q2 really had me thinking hard. Let's see what others can do!

[elsiegee40]

Massive respect! Performance under pressure! Q2 really had me thinking hard. Let's see what others can do!

 

I knew Q2 … it was Q3 where I guessed!

[bald_pig]

A bit of fun - an Autumnwatch hedgehog quiz https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/12c50t33bdsRygMxMfYhTNT/the-hedgehog-quiz

 

Anything less than 100% from someone ( ) would be disappointing! I was a middling 5 out of 8!

 

Another 5/8 here!

[southhamster]

We have been gardening for wildlife but in an annoying way.

. Mrs SH finished planting loads of bulbs in pots yesterday.

Cue Mr Squirrel [emoji191] digging them up. Grrr. Just wasted an hour putting more in and netting them over. They seem to prefer the crocuses and left the daffs/tulips alone fortunately. Maybe we need to get a hungry cat...

[elsiegee40]

We have been gardening for wildlife but in an annoying way.

. Mrs SH finished planting loads of bulbs in pots yesterday.

Cue Mr Squirrel [emoji191] digging them up. Grrr. Just wasted an hour putting more in and netting them over. They seem to prefer the crocuses and left the daffs/tulips alone fortunately. Maybe we need to get a hungry cat...

 

I have planted a load of crocuses in our lawn… I really hope the fluffy tailed tree rats leave them be!

[southhamster]

Maybe you could train your hedgehogs to keep them away!

I wonder if pieces of bramble thorns would work - certainly keeps cats from using our raised beds as toilets.

[mikeprice]

Maybe you could train your hedgehogs to keep them away!

I wonder if pieces of bramble thorns would work - certainly keeps cats from using our raised beds as toilets.

 

:scared::scared::scared::scared:

[Ditto]

Maybe this should be in Cool thing thread, but we had a blue tit happily flying around indoors upstairs yesterday. Unfortunately no photos, but we calmly opened the window and it managed to fly out without drama - or leaving 'deposits' as far as I can tell! I'm not entirely sure where it got in, but can only imagine it squeezed through a partially open fan light!