Advice, News & Information on Animals in our Area
Progress as of 23rd January.
The ‘Bug Snug’
We’ve started building our own Wildlife Hotel. It’s a home to many creatures, helping to provide a sanctuary for pollinators, hedgehogs, toads etc, & help with our efforts to counterbalance the decline of wildlife due to habitat loss.
Build a layer of the hotel with the kids at the weekend in the King George V park, one family at a time (as per Govt. COVID rules).
Take any precious bits you have up to the park with you. Meanwhile we are having a village wide request for materials: clay pipes, 12 old bricks, bamboo canes, straw, old plant pots, twigs, large logs for the top, bark, stones and pebbles. (We’ll avoid plastic please). Please take these up to the park and leave them by the pallets or use them of course.
We also need 6 more pallets which can be dropped off at the park or at 16 Crowe Hill. You could add wood with drilled holes, as in the photograph, for the bees.
Helping Hedgehogs
Did you know that 25% of British mammals are at risk of extinction in the UK? Amongst them is a much loved garden visitor – the hedgehog.
Originally called ‘hedge’hogs because they were found in scrub and hedgerows, a study by the British Trust for Ornithology found that 66% of the population has been lost in the last 20 years – against an already depleted baseline.
Hedgehogs need access to quite a large area to forage, mate and survive – up to 20 hectares, and they roam around two kilometres each night. It is thought that the declining number of our spiky friends is mainly due to continuing loss of habitat; reducing range, decreasing food supplies and sites for hibernation. The reasons for habitat loss range from: agricultural intensification – scrub, trees and hedgerows being removed, the use of pesticides; building development; roads; more of our gardens being fenced off, pesticides and slug pellets being used, and areas around our houses being ‘tidied-up’, patioed over or turned into drives.
What can we do as a village to help hedgehogs thrive here? Create hedgehog corridors!
We can help hedgehogs survive by making our gardens hedgehog friendly.
But individual gardens won’t help. We also need to create hedgehog corridors to connect all of our gardens. If we act as a community to ensure that hedgehogs can get from one garden to another, then we can make Limpley Stoke a hedgehog haven. The PTES are encouraging communities to work together to create ‘Hedgehog Streets’.
Hedgehogs can get through 13 x 13cm openings. If hedgehogs can’t easily get into and out of your garden, can you make a small hole in your fence or wall?
Once you have established hedgehog entrance, you can map it and any hedgehog sightings on the PTES map.
Log your hedgehog holes or any sightings go to: https://bighedgehogmap.org/
or email sarahfraser20@gmail.com and I’ll log it for you.
A Hedgehog entrance between gardens