Hedgehog

My dog spotted this snuffling around in a clump of grass in an ungrazed field today, but wisely kept his distance. Hedgehogs were introduced to Islay in the 1970s (and possibly several years before that) when a gamekeeper, recently moved to the island, brought them in to eat the slugs in his garden, from where they steadily colonised virtually all the low ground on the island. Like virtually all introductions it was a mistake. Though not predating ground-nesting waders's eggs on the scale that has done so much damage in the Uists, hedgehogs have been caught on camera predating Lapwing nests on the RSPB's Loch Gruinart reserve.
Malcolm

Hedgehog

In wet weather (over an inch of rain since yesterday evening), what else is there to do except curl up and hope it stops. I was out because my dog needed his walk, but it was good to get back in the warm and the dry, especially after I discovered, as I waded through a foot of water where there is normally about an inch or two in a burn which crosses the track I was on, that one of my wellies has sprung a leak :-(
As The Times newspaper put it  yesterday: "There has been an Arab Spring. Now we must have a British Summer". Yes, please.
Malcolm

Hedgehog - Alistair Hutchison

Alistair found this chap in a dazed and confused state in the middle of the afternoon, so gave him a bed for a while and a good feed before setting him on his way again....

Hedgehog at An Gleann

Thanks to Jane Mitchell for sending us these pictures of a young hedgehog, originally posted on Facebook under the title '101 things to do with Bruichladdich boxes'.  Jane says the hedgehog weighs just eight ounces and will need looking after if it is to make it through the winter.

http://www.angleann.co.uk/