Mammals:
Not everything in the garden is as tiny as a Ladybird or Hoverfly,mammals are beginning to find life in the countryside harder and harder.Not everyone has a garden that backs onto woodland and can enjoy the sight of Badgers on their lawn, but these animals,along with Foxes,are becoming more and more common in our gardens.Sadly,i don`t live close enough to any woodland to have Badgers visiting, but probably have Foxes passing through,although i have never seen one!

Before turning over your compost,have a good look,you may find a sleeping hedgehog among the leaves and twigs.Yesterday i lifted the lid on my own compost bin(left)and disturbed a tiny mouse that was making a meal of a tomato i had discarded,don`t tell the neighbours!

When we establishing our wildlife garden, we heard about a hedgehog rescue centre near our home,and we put our name down on a list to re-home them.At the beginning of september 2002 we collected`Patrick`,and he did a marvellous job of keeping the slug and snail population down.

Patrick lived in a house that we built for him,out of wood.We placed this under a Silver Birch tree,in the corner of the garden,and covered it with leaves and soil. He went into hibernation in the first week of November,and emerged again on 14th February 2003,looking decidedly thinner than when he went to sleep!That was his first winter,and it was a big relief to see that he`d come through it ok.Slugs and Snails were still very thin on the ground,so we supplemented his diet with dried cat biscuits(not fish-based,as these upset his stomach!)and this is a good way of getting him near the house for photographs!.

Patrick stayed with us for the next 4 years,and eventually we just stopped seeing him around,so he either passed away or climbed the fence and went exploring elsewhere. After planting an organic vegetable garden in summer 2008, and seeing it decimated by slugs,we deided that we needed another hedgehog to help restore a natural balance,so in early September 2008 we contacted Cedar Wildlife Sanctuary-see the LINKS page-and returned home with not one hedgehog,but two,a male,and also a tiny female.We will have to monitor her progress carefully,as she needs to be around 500 grams in weight to survive hibernation.We have spent the week since we got these new hedgehogs,filming them,both in the nest,and out in the garden feeding.In the nest box, we use an infra red(night vision)cctv camera-see the SHOP page-and for the outdoor feeding filming we use a digital camcorder with `night shot`. Please click on the links below to see our first short hedgehog film clips.

Hedgehog film clip 1

Hedgehog film clip 2

Hedgehog film clip 3

As i write this,it`s late September,and i`ve been spending the warm evenings Bat watching. At dusk i go out into the garden and wait for the bats to emerge.We have a colony of Pipistrelle Bats,and i love to watch them flying over the garden as they hunt.Planting night flowering plants such as Evening Primrose will attract the moths and insects that they feed on.I have some short film clips of the bats feeding.With their fast,erratic flight,bats can be very difficult to film.Please forgive the occasional shaky camera or out of focus bit,as these were first attempts.Please click one the links below.

Bat film clip 1 Bat film clip 2 Bat film clip 3

2008.