I haven’t seen a hedgehog for several years.
So, when I saw one today (in broad daylight), I ran for my camera – which luckily had the telephoto lens attached.
I was able to grab a few shots without getting too close and scaring the poor dear. I didn’t want her (she was so pretty, I’m guessing she was a girl) rolling into a defensive ball.
I needn’t have worried. She seemed remarkably unconcerned by my presence. Sadly, I was at ‘my’ other garden today and not the Priory. A shame, as I would dearly love to have hedgehogs there.
Pointedly ignoring me she continued sniffing whatever it was she was sniffing
before ambling off, slowly, to where she belongs. The hedge.
The Anxious Gardener 
Oh, hedgehogs! We used to have them here quite a lot. Once we had five of the darlings to tend over the winter. They were brought to us by fiends and neighbours as they were underweight (less then 500 grams) in late October. So we installed them in a unused greenhouse where we could keep them separate (they don’t like company). After hibernation in March we went to great lengths to distribute them troughout the countryside. We still keep parts of our garden in an untended state to encourage the prickly friends to live there.
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Hi Zyriacus, what I didn’t realise at the time I wrote this post was that a hedgehog out and about during the day is usually having problems or is ill. Hopefully this one was OK. I am thinking about introducing hedgehogs to the Priory garden where there are none as they can’t get through the rabbit netting. Well done on looking after your strays so well. Dave
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Ha! That made me laugh Stacy. Slug-a-Moon indeed. Of course, El-ahrairah was a very wiley one. If I had a vacant researcher post, I'd snap you up!
That'd be good, Jason. Though I fear they couldn't even get into the Priory now through the rabbit netting. Not something I thought about when we had it erected. Doh!
Dave
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Brilliant hedgehog shots! So good to see one; haven't seen one myself either for a long time. He/she looks very healthy. Perhaps you've got a whole family hidden away somewhere about the Priory?!?!
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There is! It took me a while to find it, but it's in one of the stories they tell. El-ahrairah sticks rose petals all over the hedgehog's prickles and has it stand it on a box and sing “O Slug-a-Moon, O Slug-a-Moon, O grant thy faithful hedgehog's boon!” (They have to do that to make the slugs come, you know.) I'd forgotten that bit.
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Isn't she, Stacy? I love Watership Down – ever since receiving a copy for my 12th birthday. (That Bigwig – what a guy)! Isn't there something about a hedgehog singing about slugs to the moon? (My copy is still in storage).
Hey Team-Zero-Dan, Mr Marsden, eh? There's formal! They need to put a piece of floating wood in the pool, I think. Sad. Hopefully, the next one you see will be alive. I certainly hope I don't have to wait another five years before seeing one again.
Dave
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thats a beautiful hedgehog mr marsden. unluckily i had the luck of finding one yesterday at my friends house!unfortunately, we found it dead floating in his pool… and that was the first one ive seen in britain! dan.
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Oh, what a charmer. We don't have them here, but I've loved the description of them in Watership Down where even the rabbits find them sweet and harmless.
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Hi Petra, well I do hope they will come to the Priory. I love the idea that you have one living in your greenhouse border. That is just so Beatrix Potter it makes me jealous.
Hi Helen, hopefully they'll show themselves when you least expect it. The last one I saw was about 5 years ago in a pub carpark in early evening sunshine. We kept a close eye on it to ensure it didn't get squashed!
Dave
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Lovely. We dont seem to get them in Malvern but then I may have just not spotted them. Used to get them in the garden all the time in Berkshire
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Have no fear! They will come. I had never seen one, EVER, until this year. Two of them. One in the field, the other happily living in the Greenhouse border! Delighted more have seen them, hopefully they are thriving.
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