How is your HAW?
A busy week in a busy month!
How is your Hedgehog Awareness Week going? And did you know that it was also National Hedgerow Week?? Can you imagine how difficult it is for me to write both hedgehog and hedgerow in the same update without LOTS of correcting!
First - some more of the amazing Hedgehog Street Arts and Crafts competition - and thank you to Emily Alfreds, age 7, for illustrating this update with her hedgehog wonderland. The judges loved her attention to detail and special garden features like leaf piles and a wild corner.
What have you got up to so far? Let me know what you have done or are planning to do - it is great to share this as it will give inspiration to others.
My week has been a little odd, as they mostly are! On Tuesday I did an interview with BBC Scotland - supposedly about No Mow May … this is a very busy time for conservation groups pushing messages!! But I managed to get good hedgehog advice into that conversation. And then, well, thank you to met hedgehogging colleagues, I was bounced into taking part in a quiz on BBC Coventry and Warwickshire … each day of the week one of us is the contestant on ‘Snake Escape’ … a convoluted game with a hint of snakes and ladders.
My general knowledge, about popular culture at least, is limited, so I was fearful. But, it was multiple choice which meant that I was in with a chance! In the end I only got one question wrong - but the scoring is complex and I foolishly ‘banked’ my meagre score for fear of a question about advertising ….
Yesterday I was invited to the London School of Economics to give a talk for Hedgehog Awareness Week - the sustainability team put on the event and it was a delight to be in a packed room where people were sitting on tables at the back!
If you work in an institution or business that has that sort of team, please consider organising something hedgehog related. Even if there are no grounds to be managed with hedgehogs in mind, the individuals may have a garden - or could be persuaded to lobby their council over the management of open spaces.
To get to the LSE I was up at 0600 and caught the coach, much cheaper than the train at that time of day, and then walked the 2 miles from Victoria, taking in a stroll through St James Park … where the parakeets were not yet mugging the passersby for bits of apple. But I did catch a very calm heron taking off from the water! You can see other photos on my Instagram)
Back to the other events going on at the same time - No Mow May is such a simple idea, don’t mow your garden while the wildflowers are putting on their magic display. But why is this relevant to hedgehogs? Well, a key part of this campaign is to encourage pollinating insects to feast on the bounty of nectar you are supplying. And these insects, they lay eggs and these will turn into grubs that are hedgehog food!
Also, as the hedgehog has no fight or flight response, mowing can be a maimer or killer - a hedgehog hears a strimmer and frowns, then rolls into a ball, waiting for the intrusion to stop. You don’t need me to go into details as to how effective that strategy is!
And as for National Hedgerow (wrote Hedgehog, then corrected!) Week - well - where do you think the HEDGEhog likes to live!!! But hedgerows are more important than just being there as a habitat for hedgehogs to navigate. They are a brilliant part of our anthropogenic ecosystem.
They mimic the woodland edge, that liminal space that can be much more diverse than either the woodland or the meadow. They reduce soil erosion. They reduce the amount of agrotoxin reaching the water courses - and they reduce the need for many biocides as they harbour a range of predatory species that will target what farmers consider to be pests. They reduce flooding by slowing the movement of water. They store carbon, and can also be used as a sustainable source of wood fuel. They provide shelter for crops and stock - from cold or heat. Lets not forget the pollinators - who live and feed in hedgerows - and are vital for many crops.
I wrote a lot about hedgerows in my book Linescapes - have a read if you would like to learn more of how we have fragmented, and can reconnect, our landscape.
There are ambitious targets from the government to create 45,000 mile so new or restored hedgerow by 2050 - this would be amazing. BUT - I remain very unsure as to how this will be achieved without the investment into PEOPLE. Hedgerows need people, people with skills who can help weave a line of shrubs into a truly amazing ecosystem.
That was supposed to be a short update, sorry, got distracted!
I agree with you Mikaiya. Your updates Hugh are always uplifting. I always do no May mow and although my garden has been organic for over 35 years and I have had loads of birds , hedgehogs, toads, frogs and newts, butterflies , hover flies and bees . They seem to be less these days. I still get birds , butterflies, bees, the occasional frog, newt and hover fly. I still do not get hedgehogs. Maybe as I am the only one with a real garden at the front among other concrete front gardens of my neighbours.
I always love reading your updates Hugh, you have a big heart when it comes to the little animals, and the natural places they call home. The government could do with a whole cabinet with people like you. That are willing to say no to yet another car park or office building, to enforce a law that it's not allowed for people to cut the wild flowers and grasses during May so that the real workers who keep everything and everyone going get a helping hand in having enough food and energy to pollinate and make the honey etc.
I've always loved the grass and flowers, I remember our garden was really big and had really big areas with clover 🍀 growing in it, I would pick handfuls for our rabbits and watch them chewing the sweet stems and leaves.. they loved the flowers too and would close their eyes as if not wanting the taste to end...
I would love to go back to the day we had horses and carts to get about but still have trains and planes for further trips.. laying in a field of grass in the warm sunshine listening to a skylark somewhere up high in the blue sky, not more than a tiny black dot, but the sound is so beautiful...take me back to those days and I will be very happy...