This evening, when it got dark, I donned my new LED head-torch, and went out to close the chicken coop. I got as far as the open garden gate, when I noticed something in the middle of the path. It was a hedgehog. But this was no ordinary hedgehog. This was the grand-daddy of all hedgehogs; it was huge! Blinking in the torchlight, it refused to budge. I decided to relocate it to one side of the path so that I could at least shut the gate. It refused to curl up, so I carefully picked it up (carefully because of the prickles!) and put it on the lawn, where it immediately waddled off into the shrubbery. Hopefully it will find lots of tasty slugs to eat.
Hedgehogs (and garden wildlife in general) have been fairly rare here until about a year after we moved in. I suspect this was due to the aged FIL’s penchant for using weed-killers, insect sprays, and all sorts of other non-ecological expensive chemicals. The aged FIL dislikes all animals, birds and wildlife, which is somewhat unusual for a farmer.