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Could someone tell me whose poo this is?

BuchBuch Posts: 40
in Wildlife gardening
I'm trying to identify these animal droppings. They were located along the top of a wall where birds usually sit but they don't look like bird poo to me? Unless the rain washed away the white splotches. Although some of the smaller ones have a white blob on one end.

I am worried they are rat droppings, but they look a bit different to the rat droppings I saw previously. These ones are longer, light brown almost orange colour and there's only one in each area. Some of them are deposited perpendicular to the wall top, almost as if something is sitting there rather than scurrying along. And some of the smaller ones look like mashed berries.




I am in Ireland, so there's not that many mammals around I can think of who leave droppings like this.


Could anyone help?

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Posts

  • BuchBuch Posts: 40
    pansyface said:
     I can’t really get a grip on the size, but do you have hedgehogs in Ireland?

    We have hedgehogs, but I thought they would be much darker and could a hedgehog walk along the top of a wall?
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Hedgehogs are good climbers. Colour of poo will depend on what it's eating.
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    My initial instinct was that it isn't hedgehog poo, mainly based on the orange tinge to it. In my experience hedgehog poo is very dark brown to black, but maybe Irish hedgehogs have a slightly different diet. The consistency looks about right.

    https://littlesilverhedgehog.com/2017/03/10/hedgehog-poo/

    Hedgehogs can climb, but not to great heights as far as l know. If it's a low wall they could  climb up and down. They do climb a step in my garden but we're talking 4 to 6 inches height.
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    I think that's bird poo in spite if the absence of white bits. I finds it on walls and steps in my  garden. I have a lot of Blackbirds 



    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • coccinellacoccinella Posts: 1,428
    I agree with @nutcutlet, I have the same on a windowsill next a to a holly. I will post a photo tomorrow. 

    Luxembourg
  • coccinellacoccinella Posts: 1,428
    Covered in snow now but definitely blackbirds here. I too was mystified at first. No way hedgehogs can climb and squirrels' looks different.


    Luxembourg
  • nutcutletnutcutlet Posts: 27,445
    Fire said:
    Hedgehogs are good climbers. Colour of poo will depend on what it's eating.
    I often hear this but have never seen any evidence. They don't look as though they're built for climbing and of all creatures seem to be the ones that have trouble climbing ot of drains and ponds


    In the sticks near Peterborough
  • SherwoodArrowSherwoodArrow Posts: 284
    edited 18 January
    I once found a hedgehog out in the daytime which was covered in ticks. I put it in an empty cardboard box which had had a table fan in so it was about 50 to 60cm high. As I was getting ready to take it to the vets I had to stop it climbing out 2/3 times. It’s head was poking out of the box each time. I took it to the vets who removed the ticks, 9 of them, for free. I released it back in the garden and didn’t see it out in the day again.
    I’ve also seen them climbing over my empty plant pots and compost bags that I keep in my messy area behind the shed. They kind of extended there legs out of the spiky skirts and then there off!
    Nottinghamshire.
    Failure is always an option.

  • coccinellacoccinella Posts: 1,428
    edited 18 January
    The windowsill in question is 2 m high from the ground, unless they climb up using the holly ... 

    Luxembourg
  • AnniDAnniD Posts: 12,585
    edited 18 January
    I have seen a hedgehog climbing up the step in my garden from the lower section of patio to the upper section where the feeding station is situated. Sometimes it might take 2 or 3 attempts, but there is such determination. 
    The steps on this video appear to be slightly higher, but it's a good example of what hedgehogs can achieve. 

    https://youtu.be/DkI-KRDuHuw?feature=shared

    The problem with drains and ponds is generally the steep sides so they can't gain any purchase,  hence the advice to have at least one gentle sloping side or "beach"', or even a miniature staircase at one side of a garden pond, and to ensure that any open drains are securely covered.

    As per my original post back in December, l don't think the the poo shown in @Buch 's post is hedgehog, l'm pretty sure it's a bird of some description. 
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