I presume you meant hedgehog roadkill rather than red squirrel? Red squirrels tend to have habits that mean they're not often coming into contact with traffic. We're signed up for the red squirrel protection scheme.
One of the main reasons for the decline of hedgehogs in the country and where there is still habitat and the environment for them, is where the balance in the food chain is out of kilter and there's badgers in large number. Badgers eat a significant amount of hedgehogs in those circumstances aside from competing for the same food source.
When we moved here 12 years ago there were hundreds of slow worms as the neighbours both sides let their gardens run wild. Our toothless cat would often come home with them because they were the one thing she could catch so I'd spend much of my time returning them to the wild.
Now they have both cleared their gardens with strong weedkillers and dug up all the ivy and bramble and I haven't seen any of these little fellas for over a year - it's tragic.
I am trying to make a decent habitat for them behind my summer house with old logs, compost and bits of foliage. My woodpile is already home to many toads and frogs.
If you've toads and frogs then you might have a chance of winning them back round. So long as folks around you aren't still at it with immaculate tidy minimalist or pristine gardens and using awful things like slug pellets and insecticides to get rid of ants and woodlice etc.
If your neighbours are then it might well be best if the slow worms stay wherever it is they've now found.
I've never seen a slow worm here but that's not to say we don't have them. I struggle to think we wouldn't with massive horse muck compost heaps, lots of water and lots of cover.
We see the occasional adder. Without exception we've only seen them when it's been a hot day and then they'll come out of the drystone walls and bask in the sun either on top of the wall or on the south side of it.
Sorry NLass - but red squirrels up here also get run over a lot as they're in glens bordering small villages with narrow winding roads, so when they cross those....
and some people still think driving at 50 or 60 mph on those windy little roads is ok
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Fot the second year running, we have found a hedghog with its head ripped off.
It was even in the same place, under the oak. We do not have badgers.
I spent a weeks marine biology field trip on the isle of mull. We were hunting otters(with cameras). It was a privilege to watch them hunting for fish in the sea. On the last day, we were told they appear every night outside the whisky distillery. You just have to know where to look.
I can't choose my favourite mammal moment. Was it the bottlenosed dolphin that played around us, as we dived off of St Ives, or the minute where the dozen fox cubs and two mothers erupted on to the back lawn playing, and then vanished back into the wood just as fast.?
Really surprised that not one forum member has yet mentioned any of the 14+ bat species native to the British Isles?? Could it be that folk are being beguiled by other more 'cute n' cuddly' species that exhibit more appealing lifestyles that are somewhat easier to interact with??
Can't say that bats are my favourites. This house was full of them when we moved here as it hadn't been lived in for 6 years. They are quite messy, pooing and weeing from the ceiling! Thank God most have moved to the garage now. Wasn't a garage at first, we built it. But often my car's windscreen needs washing before driving.
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Really surprised that not one forum member has yet mentioned any of the 14+ bat species native to the British Isles?? Could it be that folk are being beguiled by other more 'cute n' cuddly' species that exhibit more appealing lifestyles that are somewhat easier to interact with??
I like bats. I also think they are extraordinarily cute. We have them here. In the trees. In the barn. In the roof loft space of our house. In the roof of the holiday cottage. We even have a special access in those and so they can get in and out and do their thing.
We've been surveyed by a very excited man from the Bat Conservation Trust who came with a load of electric radio gear and got very enthusiastic and animated because of the variety of species we have.
Occasionally when we've had the bedroom windows open we've had one get itself in there Quite a surprise to walk in to go to bed and find a bat hanging off the curtains! Even more so to wake up and find one flying around the bedroom Some years ago I had a friend staying. A city lady from London. She woke up to hear something in the bedroom somewhere. She couldn't find whatever it is and so eventually timidly knocked on our door to say "I think there's something in here". My partner went to have a look and it was coming from behind the panel that covers the fireplace in the bedroom. He went to remove it and she was terrified saying "what if it's a rat or a mouse". "Nah" he said "it's only a bat" as he walked towards her to show her and put it out of the window. I've never seen anyone move so fast as she pushed past him and out the room! Suffice it to say we had to put her in the room without a fireplace for the remainder of the night!
Posts
I presume you meant hedgehog roadkill rather than red squirrel? Red squirrels tend to have habits that mean they're not often coming into contact with traffic. We're signed up for the red squirrel protection scheme.
One of the main reasons for the decline of hedgehogs in the country and where there is still habitat and the environment for them, is where the balance in the food chain is out of kilter and there's badgers in large number. Badgers eat a significant amount of hedgehogs in those circumstances aside from competing for the same food source.
Now they have both cleared their gardens with strong weedkillers and dug up all the ivy and bramble and I haven't seen any of these little fellas for over a year - it's tragic.
I am trying to make a decent habitat for them behind my summer house with old logs, compost and bits of foliage. My woodpile is already home to many toads and frogs.
i hope they come back.
If you've toads and frogs then you might have a chance of winning them back round. So long as folks around you aren't still at it with immaculate tidy minimalist or pristine gardens and using awful things like slug pellets and insecticides to get rid of ants and woodlice etc.
If your neighbours are then it might well be best if the slow worms stay wherever it is they've now found.
I've never seen a slow worm here but that's not to say we don't have them. I struggle to think we wouldn't with massive horse muck compost heaps, lots of water and lots of cover.
We see the occasional adder. Without exception we've only seen them when it's been a hot day and then they'll come out of the drystone walls and bask in the sun either on top of the wall or on the south side of it.
Sorry NLass - but red squirrels up here also get run over a lot as they're in glens bordering small villages with narrow winding roads, so when they cross those....
and some people still think driving at 50 or 60 mph on those windy little roads is ok
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
It was even in the same place, under the oak. We do not have badgers.
I spent a weeks marine biology field trip on the isle of mull. We were hunting otters(with cameras). It was a privilege to watch them hunting for fish in the sea. On the last day, we were told they appear every night outside the whisky distillery. You just have to know where to look.
I can't choose my favourite mammal moment. Was it the bottlenosed dolphin that played around us, as we dived off of St Ives, or the minute where the dozen fox cubs and two mothers erupted on to the back lawn playing, and then vanished back into the wood just as fast.?
Really surprised that not one forum member has yet mentioned any of the 14+ bat species native to the British Isles?? Could it be that folk are being beguiled by other more 'cute n' cuddly' species that exhibit more appealing lifestyles that are somewhat easier to interact with??
Can't say that bats are my favourites. This house was full of them when we moved here as it hadn't been lived in for 6 years. They are quite messy, pooing and weeing from the ceiling! Thank God most have moved to the garage now. Wasn't a garage at first, we built it. But often my car's windscreen needs washing before driving.
I like bats. I also think they are extraordinarily cute. We have them here. In the trees. In the barn. In the roof loft space of our house. In the roof of the holiday cottage. We even have a special access in those and so they can get in and out and do their thing.
We've been surveyed by a very excited man from the Bat Conservation Trust who came with a load of electric radio gear and got very enthusiastic and animated because of the variety of species we have.
Occasionally when we've had the bedroom windows open we've had one get itself in there
Quite a surprise to walk in to go to bed and find a bat hanging off the curtains! 
Even more so to wake up and find one flying around the bedroom 
Some years ago I had a friend staying. A city lady from London. She woke up to hear something in the bedroom somewhere. She couldn't find whatever it is and so eventually timidly knocked on our door to say "I think there's something in here". My partner went to have a look and it was coming from behind the panel that covers the fireplace in the bedroom. He went to remove it and she was terrified saying "what if it's a rat or a mouse". "Nah" he said "it's only a bat" as he walked towards her to show her and put it out of the window. I've never seen anyone move so fast as she pushed past him and out the room! Suffice it to say we had to put her in the room without a fireplace for the remainder of the night!