Wansteadium has a special affection for hedgehogs, as longtime readers know. It’s not so much the animals themselves as the indication that living things were here when Wanstead was all woodland and fields and farms and the like.
For a number of years we’ve invited readers to send in pictures of hedgehogs, though in the past couple of years there haven’t been very many sightings of them, dead or alive. But reader Ruth King has just kicked the season off in style.
Eighteen months ago she bought a trap camera to see if she could find evidence of hedgehogs. But it wasn’t until last week that she set up a feeding station – a plastic storage box with a lid – and put some meat-based cat food and water inside. Then she waited.
For two nights.
And these photos are what she discovered in the morning (click/tap picture to enlarge).
Where do you live Ruth? (Trying to work out probability of hedgehogs in my back garden). & do foxes (have loads) eat/frighten hedgehogs?
I live in Aldersbrook, and about 10 days ago noticed hedgehog poo in the garden. I set up a feeding station, and the food has gone every morning, with lots of evidence as to who has had it. And, yes, the poo does smell somewhat fishy.
Shame more isn’t done to stop them getting run over on our crazy roads.
Delightful. When I moved to Wanstead in 1993 the garden of the old lady’s house adjoining was home to two hedgehogs. Sadly the garden is now concreted over such that no wildlife could live in it! Last summer a friend found a young, sick and motionless (but still alive) hedgehog on Christchurch Green and took it to Goddards in New Wanstead. Apparently, one of the girls there tended to it through the night and it was collected by someone from a wildlife sanctuary the next day. Hope it survived. I do my best to make my own front and rear gardens as wildlife friendly as possible with bird feeders and tables and as many insect friendly plants as I can cram in. Shame so many front gardens, in particular, are paved over.
Our Councillors are committed to protecting Green spaces. Let’s hope they honour this promise. No more front gardens turned into car parks or rubbish tips. No more encroachment on Christchurch Green. Decent rubbish bins and get rid of the tank eyesore on the Green.
Replying to Al
We are on the Nightingale estate, we have foxes in the garden as well. The hedgehogs don’t seem to be scared off by them, we’ve noticed that the foxes do try to get the food in the feeding station but have put measures in place so the foxes can’t get to it (bricks on the lid and only putting newspaper in the back half of the box)
The hedgehog doesn’t seem to be bothered by them and keeps coming back
Think domestic dogs are more of a threat to hedgehogs, foxes may attack hoglets but very rarely, where the adults are obviously protected by their spines. They can live together peacefully