Damn. Beautiful sunny day and at 1.00 in the afternoon there's a rat in the garden. It's probably been disturbed by the developers concreting over the countryside nearby. Had to chase it off and remove all the hedgehog and bird feeders and the water. Feel so bad now to see the goldfinches and blue tits trying to work out where the food has gone. Will have to spend the next few weeks making sure it doesn't make our garden its new home.
“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” Winston Churchill
I know I'm a cynic but I agree that retailers hike prices . Years ago when skateboarding became popular, a kayaking friend told me they'd rebranded kayak helmets as "skateboard helmets" and hiked the price up. I'm quite sure the same is done with "oraganic" and "peat free" products for no reason other than ripping off customers. Thai food seems to use pretty much the same ingredients at Chinese food, but it always seem much dearer to me .
Hi Mark, I know that the original discussion has segued into several splinter discussions but I thought I would let you know that I have received a letter from my MP, Lisa Nandy, who informed me that she has written to the Secretary of State for the Environment, raising my concerns about the A24 trap. She enclosed a copy of the letter she received from Therese Coffey - who is acting as minister for wildlife policy - which shows, as we expected that the Government are reluctant to take any further action around the issues. Ms Nandy then goes on to say that she has personally written to Goodnature UK to ask them to respond to the BHPS offer re helping them develop a better exclusion tunnel which would be standard rather than an optional extra. I have been promised further contact once she receives a response.
Cacoethes: An irresistible urge to do something inadvisable
I've just been pleasantly surprised again by finding TWO hedgehogs in our garden again! So excited. I'd suspected a hedgehog may have come back after almost a year without them, and as our garden is a bit out of the way I'd assumed the detour was too far for them to bother. Despite the plethora of slugs/snails/worms. We've got such a small garden as well.
But hooray! And two at once!
And...one is making a very loud snuffling sound - they've been in the garden for a couple of hours at least, now - so when I looked this noise up, it turns out it might be courting noises. I do hope so. Hopefully they will find love in the undergrowth.
That's good news Anna33 - so exciting for you and very encouraging for future numbers. We have grunting hedgehogs too but as yet no offspring (I think it is far too early for hoglets yet). Fingers crossed!
Of the two we had visiting regularly we stopped seeing one towards the end of last year which coincided with finding a flattened one in the road and the smaller one which fed all through the winter every day often with temps several degrees below freezing stopped visiting 3 or 4 weeks ago. Hopefully they didn’t succumb to the same fate.
I feel so lucky to have three regular hedgehog visitors at the moment, but in the past we have also found them squashed on our nearby road - such a sad ending to the dear little creature's life. It would appear that on the whole they are thriving here, unlike in the U.K.?
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Years ago when skateboarding became popular, a kayaking friend told me they'd rebranded kayak helmets as "skateboard helmets" and hiked the price up.
I'm quite sure the same is done with "oraganic" and "peat free" products for no reason other than ripping off customers.
Thai food seems to use pretty much the same ingredients at Chinese food, but it always seem much dearer to me .
Ms Nandy then goes on to say that she has personally written to Goodnature UK to ask them to respond to the BHPS offer re helping them develop a better exclusion tunnel which would be standard rather than an optional extra. I have been promised further contact once she receives a response.
But hooray! And two at once!
And...one is making a very loud snuffling sound - they've been in the garden for a couple of hours at least, now - so when I looked this noise up, it turns out it might be courting noises. I do hope so. Hopefully they will find love in the undergrowth.