Palmate Newt

I found this little critter on our kitchen floor late last night. It really was quite tiny. At first I thought it was a slug (my eyesight isn't what it used to be) then I took a closer look and saw it had legs. I then wondered if it might be some kind of lizard, but having shown this same pictures to people who can tell an amphibian from a reptile, I am reliably informed that it is a young female palmate newt.

In hedgehog news, I am putting food and water out and at least one hedgehog is visiting the garden to take advantage of this each night. I have tried resurrecting the trail camera but try as I might I cannot get the battery to charge up, so alas I have no new hedgehog images to share with you.

Developments in May 2013

It's been a long time since I last updated this blog. Unfortunately I had to stop putting food out for the hedgehogs because it was attracting rats which I believe were coming from beneath next door's decking.

Wendy vanished. I'm hoping she just moved on to new pastures.

Fast forwarding now to early May 2013, and we started to notice what appeared to be hedgehog faeces in the upper garden. This happened two or three nights in a row, although I was rather surprised by the quantity of it, and was wondering if perhaps a badger could be responsible.

Now. tonight, I was just looking outside at approx 10:30 to see where Elsa (my cat) had gotten to, when I saw a shape on the lawn. Further investigation revealed:

Yes, I did give this hog a handful of mealworms, which you'll notice in the photo.

I'm so pleased we have hedgehogs again. I'd heard that they are late this year, and that doesn't bode well for their numbers, so I'm especially pleased that we have a hedgehog presence here.