HEDGEHOGS are in serious decline, according to copies of several of my regular newspapers. The fall in numbers is considered so serious that these charming small animals are likely to become extinct within a decade unless we take steps to halt the decline.

We can do our bit by working to provide hedgehogs with suitable habitat, especially in our gardens and in their natural surrounds, and we can also help by providing food at night – something as simple as a saucer of water (not milk) and small amount of dog food will make all the difference. Their natural food is both in short supply and dangerous for them to eat due to our use of pesticides.

Hedgehogs should be made welcome in our gardens and allotments because they destroy many pests such as slugs, snails and insects, but they do need a means of both entry and exit. They have been known to climb walls to get into a garden but once inside, sometimes there was no means of escape. No holes in the walls, and nothing to aid them to climb out. Destruction of their habitat, particularly hedgerows, has also had a serious impact of falling numbers and, sadly, their fate does not attract the same protective fervour as threats to badgers or foxes.

Hedgehogs do not exude a cuddly image like baby rabbits or fluffy fox cubs; their fearsome spines are for their protection but they do make it difficult for us to pick them up and make a fuss of them, even if they need our care. And, of course, they are wild creatures who would find great difficulty adjusting to a human domestic routine.

Nonetheless, as a child I had a pet hedgehog. His name was William and he lived in the hollow at the rear of our radio cabinet, somehow sharing the ample place with the massive speaker of the ancient and spacious radio cabinet of those times. My father had placed some suitable bedding in the base and he also provided William with suitable food.

I can’t remember how long William remained with us but I do recall him answering to his name and spending the night in his own special place in that radio cabinet. Fortunately, there was sufficient space outside the house for him to roam and hunt in safety, then one morning he disappeared and we never saw him again. His fate remains unknown.

Perhaps the most dangerous of enemies for hedgehogs are motor vehicles. While hedgehogs can run with surprising speed, they are not fast enough to outpace oncoming motor vehicles and many have met a sad end beneath the wheels. I’m sure many are also dazzled into immobility at night by the lights of moving vehicles. All we can do when driving is to remain aware and respond to their likely presence.

In wondering how to help hedgehogs, it is known they travel long distances at night, this being necessary to provide them with sufficient food of the right kind. This means that being trapped in a domestic garden can sometimes result in the end of life for a wild hedgehog – it needs to travel considerable distances to obtain enough food and shelter.

We are advised to ensure there are sufficient outlets in our gardens with sub-urban boundaries such as walls, fences, gates or even hedges permitting movements of hedgehogs. Chatting to neighbours to suggest a system of linked hedgehog-friendly gardens would be a wonderful asset and such adaptations would not affect entry by prowling cats. They are particularly adept at climbing walls and fences and will venture into your garden despite all attempts to stop them. In other words, think “hedgehog” not “cat”.

There is an old country belief that hedgehogs will never build their nests so that the entrances face the wind. Somehow, they have an uncanny ability to forecast wind direction so that their nests always face away from the blast. It is also said they will hide themselves in suitable holes if a strong wind is due, and that they can forecast oncoming storms. Some country folk of times past believed a hedgehog’s nest had two entrances, one facing south and the other north, and that the hedgehogs would block one or other to prevent the entry of stormy winds.

Thirsty birds

In the days before writing these notes, I was fortunate to witness two occasions of our wild life taking drinks of water. It might be thought there was nothing unusual about that common event but first was a jackdaw.

As I walked through our village, I was aware of a trickle of water running from a field and flowing along the road. It was very shallow and flowing slowly. The jackdaw was clearly thirsty and decided to have a drink from the trickle but it seemed impossible – it was far too shallow.

As I strode closer, the bird ignored me; it was intent of getting some water and then it crouched down and laid its head on its side in the shallow flow. With its head on one side, it opened its beak near a ripple in the tarmac and succeeded in getting the tiniest of drinks into its beak.

It was one of those occasions when I wished I’d had a camera for the bird refused to fly away at my approach; it was determined to satisfy its thirst and so I walked around it as it scooped water from the shallowest of sites. Being members of the crow family, jackdaws are noted for their intelligence and this was a splendid example.

The same day, I witnessed another curious example of the taking in of water. I was cutting the lawn with our pond on its southern edge when I became aware of four swallows flying over my head and dipping into the water. Like the jackdaw, they seemed oblivious to my presence but after only three or four forays, they departed.

Then another one came all alone and repeated the drinking.

It dipped low over the pond and I saw the ripples in the surface where it had taken in water – then I realised it wasn’t a swallow. I had no binoculars but was close enough to get a good view of the departing visitor. It was a bat, an unusual sight in broad daylight.

I felt it was rather large to be a pipistrelle, the tiniest of our bats, and when I began my research, it led me to Daubenton’s bat. This is sometimes known as the water bat because it skins low over water on fluttering wing actions as it catches flies close to the surface. It is known also to catch plankton and even small fish – which we have in our pond – as well as mayflies as they emerge from the water.

However, this was in broad daylight, not a common venture for a bat, but bats in general do sometimes emerge during the daytime hours. But it made a good impression of a dipping swallow!