Hedgehogs in August – How You Can Help Britain's Favourite Garden Visitor

August is a busy month for hedgehogs. While many of us are enjoying warm summer evenings in the garden, hedgehogs are working hard under the cover of darkness, searching for food and preparing for the months ahead. Every meal they find now helps them build the reserves they'll need before winter arrives.

Sadly, hedgehogs remain one of Britain's most threatened native mammals, with numbers having declined significantly over recent decades due to habitat loss, busy roads, pesticides and the disappearance of natural garden spaces. The good news is that our gardens can play a huge role in helping them survive.

August is Feeding Time

By August, many young hedgehogs born earlier in the summer are becoming independent and beginning to forage on their own. Adult hedgehogs are also eating as much as possible to build up fat reserves before hibernation later in the year.

If you'd like to lend a helping hand, you can provide:

• Meaty hedgehog food.
• Crunchy or semi-moist hedgehog food
• Fresh drinking water every evening.

Avoid feeding milk, as hedgehogs are lactose intolerant and it can make them seriously ill. Bread also offers very little nutritional value.

Keep Gardens Hedgehog Friendly

Small changes can make a huge difference.

Leave a 13cm x 13cm gap at the bottom of fences to create a "hedgehog highway" between neighbouring gardens. This allows them to roam safely in search of food and mates without having to venture onto dangerous roads.

Leaving areas of long grass, piles of leaves, logs and wild corners provides shelter for insects, which in turn become a natural food source for hedgehogs.

Be Careful During Summer Gardening

August is often a month of trimming hedges, clearing borders and tidying the garden. Before using strimmers, mowers or lighting bonfires, always check carefully underneath.

Hedgehogs often sleep hidden in long grass, compost heaps and piles of leaves during the day. A quick inspection could save a life.

If you're planning a bonfire, build it on the day you intend to light it, or move the pile before lighting to ensure no wildlife has made a home inside.

Provide Fresh Water

During hot, dry spells, natural water sources can become scarce.

A shallow bowl of fresh water placed in a quiet corner of the garden can be a lifeline not only for hedgehogs but also for birds, frogs, insects and other wildlife.

Clean and refill it daily to keep it fresh.

Avoid Harmful Chemicals

Slugs and beetles are favourite foods for hedgehogs, but pesticides and slug pellets can poison both the insects and the hedgehogs that eat them.

Instead, consider wildlife-friendly gardening methods that encourage a healthy balance of nature.

Look Out for Hedgehogs in Trouble

If you see a hedgehog out during the daytime, particularly if it appears thin, wobbly, injured or covered in flies, it may need help.

Healthy hedgehogs are normally active after dusk. Daytime activity can sometimes indicate illness, dehydration or injury.

If you're concerned, contact a local wildlife rescue for advice as soon as possible. British hedgehog Preservation Society

Every Garden Matters

One garden alone won't save Britain's hedgehogs, but thousands of wildlife-friendly gardens connected together can create safe corridors where they can feed, breed and thrive.

Whether it's leaving a small gap in your fence, putting out fresh water or checking before mowing, every small action adds up.

This August, why not make your garden part of the growing network of hedgehog-friendly spaces? You might just be rewarded with the delightful sight of one of these charming little visitors snuffling through your garden after sunset.

Helping hedgehogs doesn't require a huge effort, just a little thought, a little kindness and a willingness to share our gardens with one of Britain's best-loved wild animals.

Please keep a close eye on what is happening in your garden – and if you have any doubts, queries or questions, I will be very happy to help you out in any way I can. You can send me your questions here.

Enjoy and take care of those wonderful hedgehogs!
Lesley                                                                                 

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How do birds fly? They flap their wings, of course! But the mechanics of how this works are actually very interesting.

If you want to understand exactly how a bird soars through the air, we’re more than happy to fill in the blanks. Every flight is the result of millions of years of evolution – not to mention a lot of effort on the bird’s part – and we think that it’s a skill worth appreciating.

How Do Birds Fly?

There are many different kinds of birds, and variations in their wing shapes mean that there are slight differences to how they fly. However, most birds use the following method:

Birds first pull their wings down towards their chest, and then unfold them upwards. Because the front of a wing is lifted higher than the back of the wing, the air moves quickly over the top of it. Air speed has an impact on air pressure; specifically, faster air has less pressure than the slow-moving air beneath the wing.

Air always moves from an area of high pressure to an area of low pressure. For instance, when a car tyre is punctured, the high-pressure air rushes out through the hole. In the case of a bird taking flight, the high-pressure air from beneath the wing is moving up to the low-pressure area above the wing. This creates lift...and up the bird goes!

Imagine placing a piece of paper on a balloon, then puncturing it. The paper would go up with the air that’s leaking out. The difference is that the paper would just move with the air, but a bird can use its tail to steer and shift directions.

So, why can’t we humans do this? Surely, if all it takes to fly is a shift in air pressure, it shouldn’t be hard to make yourself a pair of wings and take to the skies. What do birds have that we don’t?

Birds Are Built to Fly!

Here are some of the biological features (besides wings) that allow birds to fly:

• Heavier in the middle

All of the heaviest parts of a bird (including most of its organs) are in the middle of its body. This gives the bird a concentrated centre of gravity and keeps the rest of the body nice and light for flight.

• Hollow bones

Why do birds have hollow bones? To help them fly! Though not all bird bones are actually hollow, birds do tend to have lighter skeletal structures in general, so it’s easier for them to stay aloft. You’ll usually find that the bigger the bird, the more air-filled their bones are!

• Strong muscles

Oddly enough, this is the main thing that prevents people from flying like birds. We just don’t have the strong muscles that a bird uses to flap its wings so fast, for so long. Human shoulders, unfortunately, are a lot weaker (relative to our size) than the equivalent muscles on a bird.

• Tails

Most birds steer with their tails! They act like the rudder of a boat, directing the rest of the bird’s body.

• Sharp eyes

Have you ever tried to see on a really windy day? This is the challenge birds face when they are trying to navigate with air blowing into their tiny eyes. And yet, they still manage it thanks to their exceptionally keen vision.

How Do Birds Start Flying?

Some birds need specific conditions in order to actually take off. After all, generating lift from a complete standstill is difficult – there’s a reason why airports have runways!

Some birds even do the same thing that aeroplanes do, moving along the ground to gain momentum. Pelicans, for instance, will have a short run before they can start to fly. Other birds, like eagles and hawks, will use warm air currents. Rising hot air is a great way for a bird to get the altitude they need to really start flying.

Birds may have trouble flying or taking off if they are unwell, or lack energy. You can help care for birds, and keep them in the air, by providing them with nutritious bird feeds. Just like an aeroplane needs fuel, birds need food!

Click the button below to browse our selection of high-quality bird food, much of which is grown on our own farm in the UK. Our High Energy Blend™ and our Super Suet Fat Balls are particularly good for giving wild birds the energy they need to keep on flying!

Shop Bird Food

What started off as just bird friendly gardens has expanded to butterfly and even hedgehog friendly gardens; and now, in an attempt to help the dwindling population of UK bats, there are many people who are encouraging bats to be their garden guests.

As we begin to see the end of winter and the beginning of spring it is time to check our gardens are good places for birds to thrive. First on the check list is to ensure there is a suitable place for birds to eat and drink, then there is the need to provide adequate nesting boxes.

To provide suitable places for birds to eat erect a bird feeding table and position it close to cover like a bush to provide cover in case birds feel exposed to danger of attack in open spaces. Obviously once you have a good bird feeding table you need to stock up with good bird feed that attracts the right birds.

Sadly, the numbers of hedgehogs have dwindled over the years. This decline in population is mainly due to the fragmentation of their habitats and difficulty in finding food.

However, small steps on our part will surely make the life of these tiny creatures significantly easier. There are a number of things we can do to help these gardeners' friends, such as supplying food and water, providing hedgehog habitats and creating an overall hedgehog-safe environment. 

As the days turn cold, the threats that our feathered friends face increase. The food is scarce during the winter and sustenance during these times is a big issue for them. The birds need to struggle, not only for food but also for making it through the chilly season.

So where do we stand in helping our wild birds survive during these harsh conditions? Small measures by us can do their bit in helping the birds pull through the difficult times. These small measures by us can easily attract the birds to the gardens and help them to a great extent during the chilly days. But is your garden attractive enough to the wild birds?

As we know natural food is scarce during the wet and the cold days as the insect population is less. So it is important to try and create a garden which provides a rich supply of natural foods. The supplementary moist and high protein food will help the adults survive and subsequently sustain fledglings in the nest in the spring. Planting a range of native UK shrubs, trees and climbers will produce berries, seeds, fruits and nuts, nectar and pollen and will also serve as a shelter for the birds with nesting sites and nesting materials.

By simply leaving a few rotting log piles in a shady spot or an area of grass un-mown and messy will help a great deal in increasing the insect population in the garden. This tends to be a vital food source for garden birds which will help in attracting more birds into the garden.

During the freezing days it is important to supply clean fresh drinking water as the birds need to replenish their lost water. But obviously the use of salt, glycerine or anti-freeze should be avoided!

The more the variety of food, the more will be the variety of garden birds. So try offering a range of different bird food types in a variety of different types of bird seed feeders as the eating habits of different birds are different.

Apart from the early mornings, you will also need to restock food in the early afternoons to provide nourishment before dusk since birds need extra energy during the winters as they flap their wings in order to keep warm.

With these small yet vital measures of bird care, you can easily improve your chances of satisfying a variety of different species and enticing them back to your garden time after time!