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I told you to stay tuned on hog developments. Photographic proof was requested (well, not proof as such, but pics were requested), but the last 48 hours have proved elusive for sighting Mr (or Ms) Hog.
It seems too early, but already we have a hedgehog in our makeshift box by our front door. It’s not the biggest hog, nor is it a baby. Em wants to get some food for it, but we have more cats in our patch of wood that you can shake a stick at. But we have a set-up that hopefully means the food will only go to the little hoggy.
I don’t know just how long through my life I have craved to be able to arise in the morning with the birds. I’ve been a night owl for many years. Mum tells me it started from the moment I was born really. I’ve had brief dalliances into the world of the lark. Mostly when it involved being awake for SSSOOO long that I was already awake the next morning! A few times it’s happened due to jet-lag. And a few times it’s been down to pure luck and I’ve “fluked” a few weeks of larkish behaviour.
At this point in time I’m further away from being a lark than I ever have been. I was in Australia for several months at the beginning of this year. It started out well. Jet-lag allowed me to be a lark for about oh…two weeks! Then the old owl crept back in, and eventually took over. This was helped greatly by some inexplicable, freakish event that overtook my nerves and made it almost impossible for me to sleep for the rest of my stay in Oz. I was like it for weeks. Most nights I wouldn’t get to sleep until around 5-6am. If you can still regard that as night? No, it isn’t, is it?! And that’s my point. I’ve always loved the idea of waking around 6am, watching the sun come up, hearing the birds wake up. But instead that’s when I’m fast asleep from only nodding off just a couple of hours before. At the moment I’m getting to sleep around 4am. Then I’m DRAGGING myself back out again around 10.30-11.00am. If I was getting my recommended 8 hours sleep, I wouldn’t get up til midday (and on the odd occasion I do, because I’m just SSOO dog-tired)! I’m a creature of habit really. And this behaviour is habitual. It’s fueled by two things. Firstly, I can never drag myself away from TV at night. I’m always finding something to watch around 10.30-11.00pm which gets me hooked for an hour or so. Also by this time (well, use to be, not so much now), Em is asleep, so then I spend some time on the Internet. Which means I go to “bed” at any time between midnight and 1.30am. Then I don’t turn in straight away, I’ll play my Nintendo DS, or play games on my mobile phone, or listen to music. So, probably by around 3am, I’m ready to turn in. I don’t know. Sometimes I get REALLY guilty for being like this (night owl) and other times I think “why do I care”? It’s not like I’m some super-fit person or something. It’s not like if I got up early, I’d be outside with the birds or anything. I just think I’d feel better being a lark. Photo supplied by: Spirit635 under creative commons (some rights reserved)
I just saw this headline on the BBC News website and thought I’d have a look.
** Fat squirrel trapped behind bars **
A grey squirrel is rescued from a bird feeder after it eats so many peanuts it is unable to get out.
(full story here)
I was just reading a story on the BBC News web site about ladybirds (700,000 of the little blighters) being sent into Manhattan on attack to kill aphids. Well I don’t want to disappoint the recipients involved in this deployment but after watching The Nature of Britain last Wednesday night, it would appear the ladybird is not the lean (well, they are not exactly “lean” anyway), mean, aphid killing machine as initially suggested. From the depiction given on the television the other night the ladybirds usually just walk past aphids and it’s only them clumsily walking over them forcing the aphids to fall off plants and get caught in spider webs do the ladybirds actually help combat aphids.
Let’s hope it works out for the people involved. Go ladybirds!! Read the full BBC story here.
We have a new little resident in our garden. On Wednesday night I was watching TV and Chrissy our cat was asleep on the lounge next to me when we both heard a noise from outside. It wasn’t a particularly breezy night, so I knew it wasn’t a gust of wind blowing something over. My partner Em went out to have a look and there, right by the front door was a little hedgehog, helping himself to what was left of the cat food put out for Kitty (one of the neighbourhood cats). Em put some more food out for him and some fresh water as well.
Last night he returned (right outside the front door again, as if demanding food!), and I went out to see him too. He’s a little one, so I hope we can help him fatten up before hibernation. He was happily munching away last night until Em opened the door. He got a little scared, but his tactics are to stay still rather than run. At least it gave us a photo opportunity.