There’s an area at one end of my allotment which has got away from me; it is just a patch of nettles, perhaps 20 x 10 feet in extent. I console myself with the thought that nettles are the food of choice for some of our more prominent butterflies. Sadly there are no caterpillars; there were none last year either.
The allotment site is a strip of land that was fenced off down one side of a field. The rest of the field is grass which will be cut later for hay. It isn’t exactly a flower meadow but there are at least some flowers amongst the grass, mostly hawkbit and some sorrel. I stood looking out over the field this afternoon and in about a five minute period I saw three butterflies. And nothing else. No bees, hoverflies, beetles, flies.
On Monday morning Sue was just heading out in the car when she spotted this chap lying in the road. He was on his tummy with four legs sticking out like something from a cartoon. I picked him up and put him in a box then rang the hedgehog rescue centre near Newquay. I explained that I couldn’t bring him in straight away because I didn’t have a car and they told me to put him in a box with some bedding, water and shade, which I did. He never really settled all day, seemed agitated, was having difficulty breathing, seemed to want to get out. I took him out mid afternoon to see what he would do. He walked, somewhat drunkenly, a few feet then stopped. As soon as Sue got back I put him in the car and took him to the rescue centre. They immediately spotted that he was breathing through his mouth because his nose was completely blocked and that he was infested with tics.
I received a text message from them today. “I’m so sorry to say that the hedgehog you brought to us passed away shortly after admission. Sadly the little one was severely dehydrated and hypothermic and despite out best efforts we could do no more.”
The gulls are back nesting on our roof. We had a builder construct a wire cage behind the chimney that kept them away for the last couple of years but they look to have piled enough stuff on top of it to build a nest. Today I saw a small chick standing up on the ridge tiles. Then another, and another. We have a family of five. It’s very hard to see a family of gulls in any way offsetting the loss of other wildlife. They make it hard to love them.
garden ruminations 
Poor hedgehog, he certainly looked very distressed. As for other wildlife, I haven’t seen any butterflies this year other than a white a few weeks ago. Not many bees or hover flies this week. No swifts or sand martins so far. Just noisy rooks and crows.
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OH! That is SO saddening. That guy looks terrifying at first, but then is obviously really distressed.
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Oh, sorry to hear about the hedgehog. And sorry about the lack of insects. There are many here, but it does seem to vary quite a bit from day to day and week to week. Have a wonderful week ahead.
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I feel panicky about the lack of insects around, I don’t even kill those irritating bluebottles that buzz around the bedroom late at night. There used to be dozens of swifts screaming around the village at this time of the year. This year I have seen 5, next year I expect there will be none. But what to do about it?
Sorry about the hedgehog, but hypothermic in June? even a wet and miserable one shouldn’t cause hypothermia, surely?
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Oh, that poor little fellow, struggling for breath. How sad he didn’t make it. And even sadder that there are no insects near your allotment. My Mum (in Northants) says the same about her garden (which should be a haven for insects). I am very fortunate to live in a part of the world where there are still beetles, flies and bugs everywhere, although we have had very few butterflies this year so far too.
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