I've signed and will forward to my wife who is responsible for the hedgehog and food. 😀 We are pleased that it has last become occupied after years without seeing it. But not the one in the shrubbery but the one on the patio! Also our first ever Robin's nest in the box which successfully fledged although not seen them back in the garden. Blue tit seems to have been feeding forever but not fledged yet which is much later than usual. Sparrows nested in my Swift box but not seen a Swift yet in the air or any hirundines really, just the odd swallow when I've been out. Pleased to see the pied flycatchers on my trip to the Forest of Dean though.

'My' Hedgehog still seems to be around. Woken last night by the small security light coming on and off at the bottom of the garden.

Couldn't see what was setting it off so I assume the wee spikey was looking for more pond pellets. Creature of habit? Not rats because if they are present they leave copious poo. Plenty of sparrows this year. Could do with rain for the sparrows... (and garden which is quite dry).

Dust  baths though good for mite reduction are not perhaps the same as a good communal water bath. You know share water with a friend and all that. The generally dry easterly has morphed into a generally dry westerly around here. Even the BBC are coming round to that. Yesterday heavy showers from midday they predicted. Today This morning will be dry and partly cloudy. In the afternoon, cloud will become more widespread, and the odd light shower cannot be ruled out. Moderate winds.

Tuesday is the next last chance saloon for rain here perhaps before it drys sic up again?

Tuesday

Tomorrow morning, early sunshine will be replaced by cloudy skies and outbreaks of rain later in the morning. In the afternoon, the rain will continue and be heavy at times. Strengthening winds.

I'm aware of the ongoing dearth over recent years, which saddens me greatly, and this might just be an anomalous spike year due to growing conditions etc, but I do feel pleased.

Incredible moment injured monkey walks into clinic in India and shows wound to vet

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/incredible-moment-injured-monkey-walks-102254340.html 

Wasn't there a video of a monkey trying to revive another in a railway station that seemed to show more than it actually did? I see accounts of animals going to vets for help too - but exclusively on SM....

All I know is when my grandmother dog was lost down a drain for two weeks (and survived...) her daughter and granddaughter must have known where she was as she was in a drain (the only drain, I forgot to look in) they passed many times every day. Well, they certainly didn't ever try to lead me there, or bark by it or even pause.  But I think dogs are quite good at looking intelligent 😂 , that or it was me.......

I've still got a hedgehog here IMBY coming around looking for snacks each night. Safer living here than going out on the road.

But yes it's invariably SM where you see these things. The ubiquitousness of phone/cameras.

Meant to add - my other half jotted down the details of the date and time. "Fox 1.51am". I misread 1.51am as "Islam"! What a twonk! 🙄😁😁😁

Fox through garden again at 11.05hrs on 2nd. [Trailcam] 🦊

My hedgehog enjoys halibut pellets more than Tetra floaters. I tried the other night and it left the Tetra ones. 

The tench prefer them too when I feed them. The goldfish are not fussy.

But a habitual hedgehog it's becoming in its nocturnal wanderings around the garden. 

I enjoyed watching Springwatch. I always notice the stark contrast between the 'mindfull moments' section where we just see the beautiful images of nature, with much of the rest of the show which is packed with the absolute brutality of nature. Infanticide, cannibalism, horror, death and murder is the everyday reality for many creatures.  

If so it gives a wrong idea imo. I'm not a big SW watcher, not sure why, I guess I've seen it before. But I don't think life is that awful - everything does die in the end though.

I have time to watch swallows and house martins lolling about on the breeze in the evening. To see some of the (too many) deer there are about. Most birds around here seem to have done well this spring. The meadow is wonderful, full of all sorts of flowers. Rain in April helped everything, drought and heat stresses everything..

As ever, all life needs is to be given a break from humans. We are the source of change on this planet and thus conflict.

The natural world is based on relationships and balances. A predator or pathogen can be a species' best friend, weeding out the vulnerable.

No predator/pathogen would benefit by wiping out its prey/host species. It is all down to the "work in progress" - the balancing act. This in turn reflects the changing nature of the natural environment. Humans are a booming plague species now, and few groups live in balance/harmony with nature. Few even try to. More often we act like rapists. Lao Tzu expressed it beautifully in the 6th Century BC.

"Do you think you can take over the universe and improve it? I do not believe it can be done.

The universe is sacred. You cannot improve it.

If you try to change it, you will ruin it. If you try to hold it, you will lose it.

So sometimes things are ahead and sometimes they are behind; Sometimes breathing is hard, sometimes it comes easily;

Sometimes there is strength and sometimes weakness; Sometimes one is up and sometimes down.

Therefore the sage avoids extremes, excesses, and complacency."

I'm afraid I have to disagree. They follow the nests of many birds and so many of them die either from being weak, snatched from the nest by predators or even eaten by their own parents. Fledglings don't fare much better, it's absolutely brutal. The same can be said for mammals, insects and plants. 

I'm sure that animals have pleasure too - the play of young foxes and badgers or the swooping flight of a swallow - but most of the time it's a struggle to survive; a day after day battle to avoid predation and starvation. The peace and tranquillity of nature exists of course but it's a veneer against the harsh reality of survival. 

I'm noticing a lot of Red Admiral butterflies today, there has been a very strong SE wind for a while so likely EU imports though maybe mainly on east side? Mind there was a few about early on this year it might be second generation emerging.

I associate them with later in the summer often in considerable number on plants like Sedums.

Can't speak with authority about foxes, but with the wolves their play is entirely built around hunting techniques! They carry that into adulthood, too; obviously captive wolves with good food and vet care have more free time, so to speak, and a good chunk of that is filled with play.

I posted this story many years ago, but it's a fun one:

Back in 2006 we had four wolf pups arrive - three sisters from Dartmoor and a boy from the Anglian Wolf Society. One of the girls sadly died, but the two others - and Torak, the boy - survived and thrived. They were happy animals, always up for a play session, and - being younger than everyone else, and with H&S not as developed as it is now - I did an experiment. 

When they were three months old, I ran away from them (in the enclosure), and of course they chased me... an innate behaviour in wolves (and most dogs). I zigged, and zagged, and they stopped, confused.

At four months old I did the same, and this time when I zigged, they followed suit, and when I zagged they zagged too. Eventually I slowed down and they "caught" me, tails waving, tongues lolling.

The final time was at six months, and this time the two girls ran away from me as I ran away from them - they soon disappeared behind some trees. Torak, meanwhile, stared right at me, and there was a quiet determination in those eyes. I stopped, and, in "stalk mode", he came up to me and proceeded to wrap himself around my legs, still looking into my eyes. While I was thinking "hmm, how do I get out of this?", there was a "whump" from behind, as the two girls pounced on me. Torak moved in an instant to the side and I fell on the ground, with all three pups happily licking me. A great day for them, and a good demonstration to me - those wolves, somehow, had communicated to each other as to who should chase and who should entangle the "prey". I wish I knew how they did it, but I never did find out, and there's precious little about it in the textbooks. 

As an aside, the full hunt procedure goes spot, stalk, chase (or herd), catch, kill (bite), eat. You can see that most working dogs will pick out bits of that - sheepdogs will do it but stop at "catch", foxhounds will do pretty much the whole sequence, police dogs will do the chase, catch, bite part and so on. I find the whole thing fascinating and realise how lucky I was to experience it in the way I did - you certainly wouldn't get away with that these days!