Charlbury Hedgehogs

Sat 18 Mar, 18:18

There are several injured adult hedgehogs being fostered in Charlbury over the coming months. Please can anyone donate any soft cat food for them ?  Any brand and type but not fish.  Food or funds accepted :-). Please contact me, thank you. 

Mon 5 Dec 2022, 18:41 (last edited on Tue 6 Dec 2022, 11:17)

Flora has already met the very underweight juvenile I found on Fishers Lane today. Thank you to Jean Giles and Flora. She's with Mandy now and doing well so far. I was impressed with Mandy's work and hope we can keep supporting her. 

Mon 5 Dec 2022, 17:23 (last edited on Tue 6 Dec 2022, 14:42)

This is what Hedgehog Street says about feeding. I use hard kitten food, high in protein. 

Mandy, Hedgehog Nurse,  is on  01608 430 980. Leave her a message if the machine is on. You need to contact her before taking any hedgehogs along. Also let us know at the Charlbury Wildlife group, so we can track what is happening. Please make donations when you can to Mandy, all her work is voluntary and she looks after up to 150 hedgehogs a year.

Mon 5 Dec 2022, 15:49

Will Hedgehogs eat dog food kibble (in case we see one needing feeding up|). I'm sure I've heard cat food kibble(?) is OK, but dog food is often mixed with vegetable matter given canids' guts are longer and have some genes/enzymes enabling the gut to digest more omnivorous fare.   ??! or am I sadly mis-informed.

Putting up a contact number and address for the hedge rescue somewhere easily found on the site is good. 

Mon 5 Dec 2022, 14:21

Another juvenile hedgehog has been found near Pooles Lane. Please keep a look out for juvenile hedgehogs as they are very vulnerable and won't make it through the winter. Any hedgehogs need to speedily go to Mandy the Hedgehog Nurse at Over Norton for a health check. Once they are healthy they will be fostered through the winter - fed and kept warm,  until they are a good weight -for release in the Spring. Mandy always needs financial support, all contributions are welcome.

Hedgehogs are on the Red List. We are very lucky to have juveniles, it means that somehow a male and female hedgehog managed to negotiate their way around impenetrable Charlbury and get it together !  Please open up your gardens.  

Mon 28 Nov 2022, 10:32 (last edited on Mon 28 Nov 2022, 14:33)

HEDGEHOG FATALITY on Pooles Lane. Please drive carefully.  I think it was one of our precious juveniles :-(

Sat 26 Nov 2022, 12:01

Please keep an eye out for underweight juvenile hedgehogs (under 500g).  We are lucky that there seem to be one or two around, but they need to be looked after through the winter (fed and kept warm). 

I am receiving donations for our local hedgehog nurse in Over Norton who looks after over 150 hedgehogs a year, please contact me if you would like to contribute or indeed volunteer and help out. 

Mon 6 Jun 2022, 23:36

I've just walked home and was very pleased to find a smallish hedgehog along the way - along the Sandford Brook path. I'd guess not a juvenile, but not very big either. It headed into Sandford Park. 

Time to add a hole to my fence so they can get in and eat our slugs. 

Mon 6 Jun 2022, 22:43

If anyone is in need of dog food to feed to the hedgehogs, I have two half open bags of dry puppy food you would be welcome to (my dog has now switched to adult food but if I leave it out in my garden, she’ll get to it before the hedgehogs do). 

Mon 6 Jun 2022, 19:56

Charlbury Primary School Eco Warriors are still looking for hedgehogs. Please let me know if you see any...

Wed 4 May 2022, 12:19

Hope Bob you leave a highway in your fence(s) so the hedgehogs can get through...:-)

Sun 1 May 2022, 12:55

Yesterday my neighbour and I dug some postholes for a garden fence, leaving them open overnight. This morning a hedgehog was curled up in the bottom of one of the holes unable to climb out., We rescued it and it uncurled itself and shuffled off into some cover.

If that can happen over one night, I suspect hedgehogs in Charlbury are not all that uncommon.

Sat 30 Apr 2022, 16:19

Hi Malcolm

Certainly we can adopt hogs when Charlbury becomes more hog friendly.

Many hogs needing a good home.

We're not there yet.

Thu 28 Apr 2022, 21:55

Praise for the intent is one thing. Doing it is another and that, with dodgy health and energies, is quite another thing and that is why feeling so guilty  :-(

But it would make a really good project for some older young children (if you see what I mean, sort of older Primary School age I suppose, old enough to be able to weild some tools without fatalities) with a real benefit if some hedgehogs move in.

If anyone wants to put their efforts forward to actually do something, as opposed to a superannuated wreck spouting on about what ought to happen [looks in mirror refection of laptop screen guiltily ... again] where would "we" be able to find an insectivourist settler or few to populate the new "zone"? I haven't seen any sign of a hog since that long drought a few years back. Is there any way of a project being deemed appropriate for repopulating? That could be a hook for encouraging some young conservationists, adopting hogs?

Thu 28 Apr 2022, 16:31

That sounds brilliant Malcolm. Bin the guilt and do it !  It is the kind of thing we must do now to make sure Charlbury still has hedgehogs in the future, as they are just hanging on in there, so the sooner we all act the better ! Our hedgehogs will now be looking for food and each other, what can we do to help them ?  What kind of Charlbury do we want to leave for future generations ? :-)

Wed 27 Apr 2022, 17:10

I’ve been feeling guilty for a few years now about not doing anything to make our personal front and back gardens into a Hedgehog happy area linked in with all the other gardens on our “block”. The block consists of quite a large area of contiguous back gardens with an unknown amount of communication between front and back gardens in the various houses.

The area is potentially quite large. It consists of the back gardens of rows of houses extending from the bottom of the north side of Ditchley Road, the old glove factory site, all the way to the junction with Chartwell Drive (Chertwell?) Drive, the north side of The Green turning left of the junction, and along to the twitten through from western end of The Green into Hundley Way. Not to mention any communication onto the grounds of the houses facing onto The Slade and the end of the Banbury Hill Road where they back onto the area.

Have a look at a Google Maps image of the area and what we might think of as discreet areas turns into what must be a *significant* acreage of land where a series of hedgehog sized holes in fences and walls would make up a quite considerable acreage of habitat! Surely enough to sustain a breeding beastje or two?

Anyone living in this domain area of potential interlinked gardens interested in following this up? Anyone with school children looking for a project to make up a leaflet drop to send to every building in the “block” to promote the idea of a backyard hog heaven? Maybe make up working parties to cut through little holes in fences to make up the domain?

Wed 27 Apr 2022, 15:44

It's Hedgehog Awareness Week 1-7th May.

The Charlbury Primary School Eco-warriors  have made some lovely posters which have gone up all around town - asking us all to give a home to hedgehogs.

Reminder. Hedgehogs are on the red list headed for extinction and are not doing particularly well especially in rural towns like Charlbury. But we can all do something. 

Now the  eco-warriors are looking for hedgehogs and will be using small mammal tunnels to see if they can pick up hedgehog paw prints.  Please let us know if you see any, or traces of them this Spring, particularly around the school, along Crawborough.

Thank you. 

Thu 22 Jul 2021, 16:37 (last edited on Thu 22 Jul 2021, 17:59)

Please put out water for very thirsty Charlbury creatures including hedgehogs ! Hedgehogs drink a pint of water each day and can die of dehydration. 

www.instagram.com/charlburywildlife/

Tue 8 Jun 2021, 19:21

Frank, I hope that you will have 4 or 5 hedgehogs in your garden again. 

I may be the one making a noise about hedgehogs, but it is down to all of us  to do what we can to help them.  Without hedgehogs we are lesser as a community.  If we say we love them but can't help them thrive what does that mean ? Also they are  an indicative species.   What about all the other species ? 

I've just rescued a hedgehog that got stuck in a garden because someone put a new fence up and it couldn't get back through and to its territory.  Please think about all Charlbury Creatures when you are renovating and making changes. 

Tue 8 Jun 2021, 18:40

Flora's efforts seem to be paying off! For the first time in several years we have seen hedgehog droppings in our garden in Crawborough. The hogs have been noticeable by their noise in Crawborough late at night as well and I feel encouraged to set up a trail camera again to try and spot them at night. Maybe we will return to the days when we would watch four or five in the garden whilst eating outside in the evening.

Mon 7 Jun 2021, 23:11

Thought you might enjoy this, a camera catching a hedgehog in Kirtlington going up a specially made ramp, a part of their Hedgehog Highway https://twitter.com/hashtag/hedgehogstreet?src=hashtag_click

Amazing what can be done.

Mon 7 Jun 2021, 23:01 (last edited on Tue 8 Jun 2021, 18:55)

That's great news Helen, especially good that your gardens are interlinked and  hedgehogs are able to get around.  Be interesting to find out if there's more than one hedgehog.   Let's be in touch about that and try and find out, perhaps a camera ? 

The big question remains, how do our hedgehogs get to meet each other in Charlbury. This is breeding season, its a very vulnerable population and we need them to meet. 

If you put up a new fence or gate, think of hedgehogs and put a 13x13 cm hole in it so they can get through. If you need help to make a hole, we have someone who  has kindly offered to do that. A hedgehog can easily get stuck on the wrong side of a new fence. 

I see Eynsham now, as a part of its Nature Recovery Network,  is launching a Hedgehog Highway. 

Also - not having a hole won't deter a rat which will simply climb over your fence, but not having a hole will stop a hedgehog.  

Fri 4 Jun 2021, 18:15

We have at least one large Hedgehog visiting daily in Hughes Close, homes near the lay-by.  Our gardens are linked by small entrances in fences & hedges & have been around over the last 14 years at least.

Fri 4 Jun 2021, 15:31

That's great news thank you John !  

Also, another Hedgehog Alert ! Hundley Way ! Good News ! At least one hedgehog has been spotted. 

Please open up your wildlife friendly gardens and co-ordinate with your neighbours to do the same to support our endangered Charlbury Hedgehogs, provide (preferably) a supply of natural food - slugs, snails, worms etc and access to some fresh water. We need our few hedgehogs to thrive this year and meet each other and have hoglets !  They are teetering on the brink of extinction...

Thu 3 Jun 2021, 06:55

Flora, thank you for your faithfulness in reminding us .. keep it up!

We now have various holes through our fences in this part of the Slade, and more to come.

Wed 2 Jun 2021, 17:36

Hedgehog Alert ! Good News ! 

There are a couple of hedgehogs around the Playing Close, Brown's Lane, Crawborough. Please allow access to your and your neighbours' gardens, wild garden for natural food, a source of water to drink...

Also a couple around Church Lane and area. 

Please think about how they are going to reach each other so there are hoglets ! This is urgent as our Charlbury Hedgehog population is very low indeed, all of us can do something to help them (and ourselves) :-)

Thu 22 Apr 2021, 16:34

Dry weather ! Please put out water for Charlbury Hedgehogs and Other Charlbury Creatures :-)

Mon 29 Mar 2021, 18:29

If anyone sees one of our very rare Charlbury Hedgehogs, please let me know, I will keep mapping them this year. Also I am compiling a Charlbury Hedgehog Gallery, so please do send me your Charlbury Hedgehog Highway photos ! I am reminded that it's strimming time, so please check first for any rare Charlbury Hedgehogs before using those sharp blades. Or just leave the strimmer in the shed, even better :-)

Wed 16 Sep 2020, 18:57

Thank you to everyone who visited us at the Farmers Market and sorry we won't be seeing you at the Street Fair. 

The good news is we still have some Charlbury Hedgehogs, but unfortunately we really don't have many, so they are all very precious indeed.  

With the current dry weather please put water and dog or cat food out in your gardens to help them when they might be dehydrated. Also this will help  the vulnerable juveniles put on weight in preparation for the winter as we want them still to be with us next Spring. 

Thank you !

charlburywildlife@charlburygreenhub.org

https://www.instagram.com/charlburywildlife/