April 9th Norwich

The Hedgehog's leafy nest

Another night, another stake out. Apart from it isn't badgers I am after but something much smaller. I got a call from Dad this afternoon saying he had found that the old leaves he layered under his hedge bordering his patio were moved into a bundle. He suspect hedgehogs were the culprits. I told him to have a careful quick peek under part of the leaves. He saw spikes sticking out belonging to a sleeping hedgehog. This gave me the chance to visit and see for myself when the hedgehog wakes up during nightfall.

Making a gap in your fence helps hedgehogs

It has been since the 1990's when I last saw a hedgehog in my parent's garden. Since then, Dad had the fence completely gap free, making the garden hedgehog-less for a long time. Thankfully, Dad has put a gap in the fence at the back of his garden in November, giving the hogs access once more. The nest under his hedge is proof that this simple act has worked.

I got myself into position for the night as the sun begun to show signs of setting. I sat on one of Dad's patio benches and armed myself with a torch and waited while overlooking the nest of the sleeping hedgehog. As I waited, memories of when my nan was still alive came flooding back. She once showed me, when I was little, a hedgehog with young under her shrub against the front wall of her house. They were so small, like miniature versions of their mother. It was a precious moment that I will never forget.

By 7:30pm, I heard the first signs of movement from the leavy nest, but it was like the sound of rolling over. It got more active by 8pm, with scratching and the odd grunted barking noise from within the leaves. The rustling activity was increasing by the hour and by 9pm, the hedgehog was on the verge of emerging. Eventually at 9:15pm, I saw it! It was still reluctant of leaving the nest, but at least it was out. Then I heard more rustling, this time from the back of the garden. I went over to investigate and under the overhangings of a shrub, there it was! A second hedgehog! Dad came over for a look at his first hedgehog in his garden for around 20 years. It looked at us as we shone the torch at it so I could try and get a photo of it. Unfortunately, the vegetation and torch light distorted the shots, so what you see here are the best I could get.


We gave them a break for a while and went back inside. We had another go later on and the one under the hedge was now more wide awake, foraging not too far away from it's nest. The sound of the second hog was somewhere in the back of the garden, so there was definately two hedgehogs in Dad's garden. He is pleased with this great piece of news. Wished they were more out in the open though for a better photograph. Badgers and hedgehogs in one week, who would have thought it.