I had a strange hole appear in my garden about 8 weeks ago
. Something had been excavating soil from my rockery which is made up of very large boulders. It had made a hole between two of the rocks and exposed a cavity behind and between the rocks
.
At first I suspected my Cats
, however the hole is half way up a verticle rockery at a height of 4-5ft. I don't see my Cats climbing around there and my Tortoises are not into climbing sheer rock faces
.
Maybe Rats I thought!
Then the plot thickened as I discovered some strange poo on the patio
. It was not Cat poo and was too black for Tortoises, mmmm it could still be a Tortoise but what have they been eating I thought
.
Then a few weeks ago a large spiky Hedghog appeared at about 1915hrs
. It had become a regular now and appears about the same time most nights, doing a circuit of the garden before heading off next door. The fact it appears in my garden had led me to believe that it was the phantom digger, this was backed up by the mystery poo appearing near the hole in the rocks
.
Then this morning after getting back from the school run and waving the Wife off to work, I went into the garden to do the daily Tortoise rounds and there in the middle of the patio was a baby
Hedgehog. It was about the size of a doughnut and looked a little sorry for its self. I picked it up and it did the ball rolling thing, once on its back it tried to let out a cry, I got a good look inside its mouth and saw no teeth, it was a bit gummy in there so where was Mum?
I gave it a look over and decided to put it near the mystery hole, it crawled slowly into the hole and I thought I would keep a look out for Mum who might of been in the process of moving her little ones.
No sign of Mum by lunchtime and with ten minutes until I had to leave for work and with the worry of little un weened Hedghog in my mind, I thought I would box it and contact the local wildlife sanctuary
. I approached the said hole and put my hand in side
. There was a loud hissing sound and alot of anger coming from that hole
. I withdrew the hand very quickly and headed for the garage for tools
.
I returned with a torch, shined it into the darkness and after locating the baby, I could see dried plants and a bit of plastic, and then movement. Not the baby but further back in another void, there were some eyes looking at me, looked like at least one Hedghog back there and maybe more. It was very difficult to see as my torch was not really giving off much light, the batteries are on the way out
.
Looks like I have myself a
Hedgehog Nest
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