nature notes

Hedgehog Highways petition to make hedgehog highways a legal requirement of new builds; please sign if you can. Here's the text of the petition;

'Hedgehogs in the UK are in serious trouble. Repeated studies have shown that the nation’s favourite animal is being wiped out. But there is something we can do to save them.
I’m an ecologist and author and I’ve been studying hedgehogs for over 30 years. I know that a key cause of them dying out is that our landscapes are being fenced off into ever smaller fragments. We need to make sure new housing developments include ‘hedgehog highways’ - a 13 cm hole in the bottom of a fence that allows hedgehogs to move freely between gardens to find food and find a mate.
This simple move would have a big impact on the UK’s hedgehogs - and it’s cheap and easy for developers to carry out.
So I’m calling upon government to ensure every new housing development builds in these holes for hedgehog highways. This will allow gardens to be connected, creating the pathways they need to survive.
We can’t sit back and let hedgehog numbers keep plummeting. It’s estimated that numbers are already down 95% since the 1950s. We have to act now.
Please sign here to call on the Ministry of Housing and Planning to make hedgehog highways a legal requirement of new builds.'


and here's the link if you want to sign;
http://chng.it/KfKGp7WqDv
 
Many times Marigold. Most often while sat in a car at the ferry terminal. I think they appreciate the calm water behind the breakwater as much as we do.
A friend of mine down island lost all his ducks to an otter. It even had the cheek to create a holt under his duck shed. But along with the orcas they are a major tourist attraction bringing money into the islands.
 
Hen-Gen said:
Me to. Having said that I’d like to see them gone from here because they are an introduced species which eat the eggs of ground nesting birds.
Click to expand...

It's a real shame when that happens. They were introduced to South Uist (allegedly to keep down the slugs) but had to be exterminated after decimating the eggs of ground nesting birds. `we don't have them here - and we don't seem to have many slugs, either.
 
Well today I spotted 3 things which I have posted about before but not all on the same day
a) a pair of Egyptian grasshoppers mating (why did I have to chose to pull up some weeds from the middle of this particular perennial of all the plants in the garden? I bent down and my hand came very close to the pair!)
b) a predator swooped down between me and OH about 6ft off the ground on its way to pinch a sparrow or similar. It was fast and brown and heavier than your average garden bird, it passed in a blur. From its trajectory it must have been perched either on our satellite dish or possibly on a telegraph pole.
c) we have another solitary glowworm, right up next to the house, do they have some sort of homing instinct I wonder between generations, they are always to be found within a 6ft radius.
 
That’s nature red in tooth and claw, Mrs Biscuit.
Yesterday a friend here found a ewe struggling feebly with its eyes and tongue removed by a bunch of crows. These birds quarter the island looking for the weak or sickly.
 
I think I got off lightly yesterday. Just one baby rabbit which had chosen to end its days on the steps up to our back lawn. It moved its back legs slightly when I picked it up, but that was all. No sign of mixi.

By this morning it had passed away so I wrapped it in newspaper & laid it to rest in the food waste bin, as people eat rabbit. It seemed more sensible than putting it in the garden waste bin...

I've never seen as many rabbits in our garden as we have this year. There are dozens of them & that's just the ones that we see...
 
That's redder than anything I have encountered HG. I know its nature, but its still desperately sad.
 
Like the time we watched a Heron grab and eventually swallow a Little Grebe, they are also fond of Lapwing chicks as are the Crows. As a friend of mine says "Lapwings, nature's biscuits, everything snacks on them"
 
Sparrowhawk perched on a bush on the rockery in our garden this morning. Usually they just swoop through and take a tasty snack from the bird feeders.

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Wow fantastic rockery. Was the Sparrowhawk waiting for the train :lol: :lol: :lol:
You must post a picture of train going around, I take it Tony built the railway
 
We both built the railway. All 900 feet of it with 3 stations and 2 halts. One day back in 1990 I left Tony tucked up in bed with man flu and I went off to work. Whilst I was out he got bored and went down town and bought a garden railway magazine for something to read. By the time I got home he had measured the garden and drawn up the plans. It took the best part of 20 years. I mixed most of the many tons of concrete for the foundations of the track and we got quite good at moving the 25 tons of rock used to make 2 rockeries. We had to have rockeries so we could have tunnels. Then we had to have Norfolk Terriers because they were the right size to run through the tunnels when chasing cats out of the garden.
The railways has actually been out of use for the past 9 years because Tony took up again with his first love ie flying model planes and spent his time up at the flying field. Last year the railway virus emerged again and he began refurbishing the track and stations. The past few weeks in lockdown have been used to get ready to run again and today we had the first go steaming up a train. I did take some video including a hilarious shot of Poppy running away down the track and having her bum nudged by a following train. She's only 6 so hadn't ever seen trains running before. Unfortunately I don't think you can post video on here.
The sparrowhawk was surprising. It just sat there whilst I was creeping nearer.
 
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