Friday, June 13, 2008

A visitor on a cloudy day


The kids found this little one wandering at the bottom of the garden. I hope that it was just the overcast day and not illness that brought it out into the daylight. It looked like it was born this year.

4 comments:

Advena said...

Is it a hedgehog? I will have to show the photo to my kids.

Valda said...

Opps, yes it is a hedgehog. They were introduced here by the English settlers and have now found their way into most gardens. I haven't worked out if they hibernate down here or not as once we get past the Autumn frosts we don't get snow.

Anonymous said...

Oh, my! I've never seen a hedgehog in real life. Do they do damage to the yard and garden? Cute little tyke!

Jean in Wisconsin

Valda said...

Hi Jean,

As far as I know they are pest (Slug and snail) control on legs so they only help keep down the insect population.

It's fairly rare even here to see a live one simply because they are fairly shy and nocturnal. Sometimes you hear them rustling about, and snuffling. I han't realized this one was living about the section.

They have a reputation for having ringworm etc and so we get warned as kids not to handle them - admittedly that's one of those things form my childhood that I have never challenged or investigated. Then again being prickly I haven't wanted to pick one up.