No hedges to hog
There’s a Hedgehog trundling down the lane. I can see it from a distance, so we shelter at the roadside and wait for it to approach. It takes an age as it snuffles along. It’s the daytime and that means if I post this on social media I will get more abuse. Last time I was told I ought to take it to a Hedgehog rescue immediately. Hahahaha. As if that’s going to happen here in a place from which other places are so remote.
Hedgehogs are meant to be nocturnal to anyone from south, but not here in Orkney, and not in Scandinavia either. Days are 18 and a half hours long here in the summer and there’s precious little true dark. That means Hedgehogs roam wild during the day.
It’s entertaining to see how poor their eyesight is. It does sense us as it comes past, and stops briefly, but then moves on. It’s gorgeous to see its spiky bottom waddle slowly away.
I saw one in the grounds of Einar many years ago:
I also took a photograph of a dead one and put it in my childhood nature notebooks in 1977.
It’s just the sort of thing I would still do now. Do you think that people fundamentally change or are we the same as we always were?
And if you ever think that Hedgehogs are to blame for anything, do check out my post here:
Let’s raise a toast to the spiky trundlers.