Day 40: Garden Snail

The last few days of wet weather has certainly awoken the snail and slug population that lurks under pots, leaves and rocks in our garden. This garden snail (which I'm hoping I've correctly identified, it seems there are more species of snail in the UK than I realised...), whose shell does look rather battered, was making a break for it across our patio. Admittedly, like most gardeners, I get cross if my plants get obliterated by snails and slugs overnight, but have come to accept that this is just a part of gardening for wildlife. They are also providing a food source for the hedgehogs, and, since the hedgehogs arrived in the garden, there has certainly been less damage to plants. 

This group of molluscs are also interesting in their own right, whether it be the foot they move upon with its rippling muscles visible through glass, or their toothed radular they use to eat, or the fact they are hermaphroditic 

I left this snail be to carry on with its journey, whether that be to munch on my heuchera leaves, as often happens, or whether it ends up as a midnight snack for our hedgehog visitors.

References:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/other-garden-wildlife/insects-and-other-invertebrates/worms-slugs-spiders/garden-snail/ (accessed 02/05/2020)

Day 20: Hedgehog

Last spring, we made a 'hedgehog highway' into our enclosed garden - just a 13 cm square hole in the
fence leading to our driveway. We hadn't seen any hedgehogs, but we do have a park nearby, so thought it was possible they might be around. I hand't convinced everyone it was a worthwhile enterprise though...

After a few weeks, I noticed some droppings in the garden which looked like those from a hedgehog - dark, with shiny black bits, the wing cases of beetles, one of the hedgehogs' main foods. So, I bought a small bowl and some hedgehog food.

To our surprise, that same evening, I looked out of the doors, just to see if anything was there, a hedgehog was sat at the bowl, happily crunching away at the hedgehog food! I could scarcely believe my eyes. They began to visit like clockwork - always arriving at the food bowl at 10:10 pm every evening. When I didn't see them, I worried something had happened to them, but they always came back.

As they had been visiting so regularly, we decided it was time to buy a hedgehog house, just in case they liked our garden enough to stay there. I'm fairly sure one hibernated in the house during the winter. We put straw in the box, but when I had a sneaky check (only once and only because I had to move it so the fence could be fixed), it was so packed with leaves and other bedding material, it was pressing against the roof!

I've been putting out food for them this year since mid-March, but it's only been the last week or two that I've seen any evidence of our hungry hedgehogs, so I borrowed a trail-cam from work to see if I could catch them - and to see if it was these little animals that keep knocking the food bowl down the steps. It would seem they are!

It is so lovely to have these lovely mammals visiting our garden, and that we can provide them with food and nesting space, as they are really struggling to hold on at the moment - over the last ten years, more than half of rural hedgehogs have been lost and third have been lost in towns and cities. There is, however, lots we can do to help them in our gardens - I've written about just a few here, but you can find out lots more at Hedgehog Street: https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/help-hedgehogs/.

If you want to feed hedgehogs, remember, never ever give them bread and milk! Feed them with specialist hedgehog food or cat or dog food. I use 'Brambles', but there are lots of others available.

Also, never use slug pellets! In fact, since the hedgehogs have arrived in our garden, we have hardly any problems with slugs and snails.

It is getting to the nesting season, so fingers crossed for baby hedgehogs this year...