Huffing and Puffing

It feels like I took this yesterday but in fact it was 1a.m today! I went out to put out the fox food and heard really loud huffing and puffing - like two steam trains. I followed the sound and found these two hedgehogs. They were circling round each other for ages, huffing and puffing all the time. They went into dense undergrowth and the sounds changed in speed and intensity. They might have been making babies! The photo is a bit dark - I didn’t turn the flash on and turned my head torch to its lowest brightness so as not to disturb them.

I googled their behaviour and apparently this prolonged huffing and circling is pre-mating behaviour.

Also last night, when I viewed the wildlife camera, I discovered that foxes like bananas! One of my regular foxes has mange, but there is a group on Facebook called ‘The Fox Rescuers’ and I sent them a photo of my fox with suspected mange. They agreed it was, and sent me some mange treatment - free and not even charging me postage. Already it looks as though the fox’s skinny mangy tail is regrowing!

It was a really sunny day today but with a cold wind - ideal for getting gardening done without it being too hot.