Winter Hummingbird in my garden

31 Mar '07 1:19 am

Hi Teejay!

Oh how lucky you are to have hedgehogs in your garden! I so wish I had them in mine, but unfortunately we're too enclosed and built-up where we live at the moment Crying or Very sad

. They're great for eating slugs and snails and are just so adorable too!

Thanks for sharing. Very Happy

31 Mar '07 3:30 am

Oh my, Teejay, they are cute and very different. I don't know much about hedgehogs. Are they related to porcupines and do they have quills? That is definitely something I will never see in my garden. My mother has Armadillos in her garden, which is not such a good thing because they build tunnels which can be damaging to the garden (and the unfortunate gardener who steps into one). They also eat grubs and earthworms, so I guess that's why they dig their tunnels.

31 Mar '07 6:36 am

That has surprised me -I thought hedghogs were everywhere ! They are nocturnal -if you see them in the daytime they could be sick .They do a wonderful job in eating garden nasties .Here ,they hibernate for winter -usually under the big barberry hedges ,where they are safe - crawl into a hollow in the ground and cover themselves with hay .They are only little and can fit into your hand .
Dixie

2 Apr '07 1:11 am

Thanks for the information Dixie. They sound so adorable. I guess they get their names from their habit of sleeping in barberry hedges hey?

We don't have them anywhere I have lived in the Eastern half of the U.S. I don't know about the Western half.

3 Apr '07 2:14 am

I was interested to hear that you had never seen a hedgehog, Faith, so I've done a little bit of digging around and found out that they only live in Europe, Asia, Africa and New Zealand. There aren't any native to Australia and no living species in North America which presumably means there were once but they're now extinct. Apparently the NZ ones were introduced, which surprised me, considering their stringent import laws, but perhaps they were introduced before those laws came into place.

They're covered in spines rather than quills (apparently there's a difference! Wink

), are primarily nocturnal and mostly insectivorous, although they will eat lots of other stuff. They're considered (well, here in England anyway) beneficial visitors to the garden because they eat slugs and snails like it's going out of fashion! You do need to be really careful though with bonfires and compost heaps because they do like to shelter/nest in these and, if you light the bonfire or stick a fork into the compost heap, you could kill one Crying or Very sad

. Also, it's harmful to them if they eat insects which are full of chemicals - yet another reason to go organic!

Anyway, I'll stop the lecture there - I could go on and on, flipping between internet pages to get more info, but I won't bore you any more! Very Happy

3 Apr '07 2:30 am

Thanks for taking the time to research this information. It's nice to learn about a creature that I have never "met" before.

3 Apr '07 10:37 pm

Hi Faith, thats no problem at all! The word research can sound boring, but when its on a subject thats close to your heart, it takes on a whole new meaning doesnt it? Plus I learned a few things I didnt know either. Very Happy

Winter Hummingbird in my garden

Hedgehogs

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Hedgehogs

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