Louise Coster-Mills has lived here for close to a decade, and she feels right at home here in heavenly Hook. Accrediting her feeling of wellbeing to Hook Runners with whom she started running and discovering the local people and area by foot, something her husband does at a slower pace with their dog on their walks, Louise says we’re blessed to have “such beautiful places on our doorstep”.
CommunityAd had the privilege of a chat with her about how Hook is not only a nice community to call home for us humans but also the local hedgehog community, largely down to her efforts in homing them.
“Hedgehogs are vulnerable to extinction so that certainly played a big part in wanting to help them. I have always loved animals and I wanted to encourage them to our garden so they could have some extra help. It’s important to remember they are wild animals and need to be left alone, I don’t interact with them, I just go out in the evening to put food and cameras out and then in the morning to collect the cameras and look at what they have been up to while I have my breakfast.
“I would add it took months until I realised we had a visitor to our garden and as soon as I did, I put food and water out, only to find out the local cats were eating the food! I built a brick feeding station which was modified several times until it was cat proof.
“I also built a brick sleeping house which has since been replaced by a wooden one, in fact, I now have 3 sleeping houses and a wooden feeding stations. Unfortunately, the hedgehogs don’t sleep where you want them to, and I think our visitors are under our shed!”
You’re lucky enough to have cameras monitoring the visitors and you’ve been kind enough to share them with the community on Facebook; have you been surprised by the outpouring of affection towards the posts at all or any of the reaction?
Who couldn’t say nice things about hedgehogs! The aim of my posts was to make people aware that they are in our area and to be mindful of this and to do what they can to support them.
When I first was looking into getting hedgehogs in our garden, I looked at Hedgehog Street, which is where people can record their sightings, sadly this includes dead ones too. There were very few near me so I wasn’t confident about seeing them myself. With them being nocturnal it is likely there could be nearby, we just don’t realise.
What would you say to readers who might be tempted to build or buy a hedgehog home for their own garden? Why should they and how can they do so?
Go for it! If you are going to buy one, please do your research, there are some that are not safe and can cause injury or worse. This is mostly the igloo houses where their spikes can get stuck and no-one wants to cause that. A great source of information is the British Hedgehog Preservation Society, or there are some very helpful Facebook groups. Here are some links:
British Hedgehog Preservation Society
Louise, despite claiming that she is still learning about these fascinating creatures, seems to be a font of knowledge informing us that weed killer can be harmful to hedgehogs and certain birdfeeder seeds can also do damage to our prickly friends. Also note that if a hedgehog is out in the day, it can mean they need help and the most important thing is to get them to a rescue, rather than a vet. Here’s a link to our local rescue here in Hartley Wintney – Hedgehog Cabin.