Now it’s Summer, hedgehogs are now well and truly out and about in Dunbar with sighting coming in from all over the town. This year so far, I have been excited to capture two hedgehogs together for the first time with the night-time camera in Dunbar Primary School’s Nursery sneaking in under the railings into the Beehive Garden.
Two hedgehogs have also been seen together on the videos for the first time at Lammermuir House Care Home. Even better news is that four were seen together by an adjacent neighbour!
Other news that I’m excited to hear is that at last there has been a sighting of a hedgehog around Brodie Road area which, for the last few years, has been devoid of hedgehog activity. Also at long last we have filmed a hedgehog at Belhaven Community Garden. As it’s such a wonderful natural area with so many places for hedgehogs to explore, it’s been more difficult to capture one on camera and until now we have only seen poo as evidence of their existence there.
Lots more people are getting excited about hedgehogs visiting their gardens and posting photos and videos on the Dunbar Facebook Group. If you see a hedgehog it would be great if you could get in touch to tell us where you have seen it by emailing jen@sustainingdunbar.org. In addition, it would be fantastic if you have seen one already in 2024 if you could add it to the Big Hedgehog Map to allow us to produce a hedgehog map for Dunbar again this year.
There have been lots of individuals getting in touch with the Pledgehog Project to ask for advice about how to make their outdoor area more hedgehog friendly and better for wildlife. The photo below of wildflowers is a wonderful example of the areas that are now being managed to encourage and boost biodiversity in public spaces by East Lothian Council. Click here to find out about ‘Nature Networks East Lothian‘. These areas should really benefit hedgehogs by providing more areas to search for and find their preferred natural foods like beetles, caterpillars and worms. It’s really inspiring to see this developing. Do get in touch if you would like any advice about wildlife gardening or perhaps you might like to join the Dunbar Wildlife Gardening group on Facebook.
