Casualty

 

A little emergency yesterday.  I stepped out into the garden to consider which jobs needed doing most urgently, and, before I could decide, Prickles our hedgehog emerged from the gooseberry bushes.  In the middle of the day, in heat – which is never a good sign where hedgehogs are concerned.  He/she was sneezing repeatedly, seemed to have a very red nose (injury? or just very irritated by something?) and was being bothered by flies.  He didn’t seem to notice me, but came up close and lay down in the shade right beside me; after a couple of minutes he moved off into deeper shade by the house wall, ending up tucked behind the recycling boxes, as though he wanted to hide in cover. 

There is a hedgehog rescue charity not far away, so I consulted their website; following their advice, I put newspaper in a cardboard box and put Prickles inside with the lid closed, where he seemed to doze off while I rang the charity.  Bring him in, they said, so I did, and he/she is now in their safe hands being looked after.  I’ve said that I would like him/her back, assuming he/she recovers, so I hope to see our little casualty again!

The weather has been very hot for the past few days, which wouldn’t have helped Prickles; we do have a couple of saucers of water round the garden for the wildlife, and following the RSPB’s advice I’m trying to change the water regularly.  Our pair of greenfinches, a species which is one of the main casualties of the avian disease doing the rounds, came to drink today, and other birds have been enjoying drinks and baths.  The great tits seem to have left their nest when the heat began, presumably as the little ones had fledged rather than sit it out in a hot nestbox; I haven’t seen them since, but a family of blue tits has been feeding in the trees.  And on a couple of evenings our local tawny owl was sitting on next door’s roof, before flying into the ash trees opposite to feed a very vocal youngster.

A 'red on black' ladybird

The warm weather has helped the ladybirds, which seem plentiful this year; they're doing a good job at keeping the blackfly down on the broad beans.  I had to rescue a few from being binned along with the forget-me-not plants, which have mostly gone over and are starting to set seed.  We’ve had a few white forget-me-nots this year, which I like to encourage, although the blue ones make useful underplanting for the spring tulip pots so I do allow them to seed for that purpose.

Scarlet tiger moth - sadly deceased

I said in my last post that it would be nice to see a scarlet tiger moth again, and so I have – unfortunately a dead one, another casualty.  Well, butterflies and moths often have only a short lifespan once they emerge from their chrysalis – which is a pity.