Finding Animals

Now on the many walks I have been on, I have always struggled to find animals. They are often nervous and afraid of humans, and so it is very hard to actually find wildlife when going on a nice walk in the countryside, so today I’m going to help you track down your wildlife.

Tracks – Finding animals tracks is often easiest in places where there is wet mud or sand, the tracks stick and last for much longer. So here are some photos of animals tracks for you to use.

Common animal tracks Posters and Prints | Posterlounge.co.uk

Secondly make sure you find out when the animals you want to find comes out. For example if you want to find a fox then make sure you go looking at dusk or dawn, that’s the same for badgers and hedgehogs. So make sure you know when these animals appear.

Stay quiet!! Make sure you keep quiet, although it may seem obvious, animals are incredibly timid, and so make sure you keep still and quiet, sudden movements or loud noises will frighten animals, so choose a quiet place and wait for your animal to appear, you may want to tempt the animal with a few snacks, but make sure you find out what is healthy first!!

That’s it for today, happy 2021 everybody. I hope you enjoyed this post and if you liked it please lease a like, also if you want to see more posts like this then definately subscribe. If you have any questions ideas or general comments, comment down below, and I will see you next week!

The Truth of Hibernation

With the winter months truly setting in as December becomes January, we are definitely in the grip of the icy cold, however many animals aren’t. Hibernation is a tac -tic used by many creatures from tiny dormice to massive bears, it is incredibly common through out the animal kingdom. Animals use hibernation to ‘sit out’ the colder wintry months, where food is scarce and predators all too hungry. Whilst many describe it as a deep sleep it is actually much much more complicated and interesting, so let’s uncover what hibernation really is.

During hibernation an animal will slow it’s breathing, heart rate and metabolism, this means that it requires far less energy to stay alive, they also drop their body temperature to save energy on heating, but by doing so they fall into a coma like state, hence why it is often called sleeping. They can not move, so this means that they need to store enough fat to be able to use as energy throughout the entire winter. You know how during summer and autumn animals are always stocking up ridiculously high reserves of food, well this is why so they can remain in hibernation throughout the winter, and not run out of energy to keep themselves alive. Over winter the fat an animal has accumulated slowly diminishes as the body uses it for energy, but if the animals has done it right they will have just enough to get them through the season.

Sleep and hibernation are two completely different concepts, in fact the brain waves during an animal’s hibernation actually resemble the brainwaves of an animal waking up and sometimes animals even come out of hibernation during the winter so that they can sleep.

How can you help? Many animals find hibernation difficult as when in it they are completely vulnerable to predators they have to find a safe place in which to hibernate. You could help by building a hedgehog house, or a bug hotel. Putting a bird feeder out, or maybe leaving hedgehog food, or general seeds and scraps, in the garden, to help animals pile on fat layers. If you are looking for more ideas on how you can help animals in you garden visit:

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/advice/gardening-for-wildlife/creating-a-wildlife-friendly-garden/

Well that’s it for today’s post I hope you enjoyed learning about hibernation if you did don’t forget to leave a like and if you want to see more content like this, subscribe! Please leave a comment below if you have any questions, suggestions or ideas and I will see you all next week.

My Top Three Nature Books

Hello everyone today we have a sequel to last weeks post, over Christmas with these new lockdown restrictions in place there will plenty of time to settle down with a good book and so here are my top three suggestions for nature books .

3. The science of animals : inside their secret world

This book is incredible, it has hundreds of pages filled with information all about animals, it is from the Natural History Museum and it is amazing, I love leafing through it’s pages and finding out all about a rhino’s horn, or how a dorsal fin works, or about the life of an emperor penguin. It is all there in it’s pages, everything anyone could ever want to know about animals

2. British wildlife detectives book by Miles Kelly

I absolutely adore this book for within it’s pages you can record every animals you see on a walk, whether it’s a seal, hedgehog or vole, it has [pretty much every type of animals within it’s pages, with a few facts about it and space to write about your observation, as well as room to put a picture in. This is a wonderful book and I have spent many years filling it in, with all the animals I have found over the years.

Do Unto Animals by Tracy Stewart

This is my favourite nature book of all time. inside it’s pages you can learn not only about all kinds of animals, whether they are pets, farmed, or wild, but you can also learn how to help them. How to make a bee hotel, or a hedgehog house. This book is filled with increible illustrations and even more amazing insight into animals. If you are going to pick one book from this list, pick this one. I promise it won’t disappoint.

So there you have it my top three nature books, I really hope you get them and enjoy them as much as I have over the years, and plus they make great presents, so if there are any animal lovers in your house this is an amazing present. If you have any comments please put them down below and make sure you hit that like button. If you want more content like this then make sure to subscribe as we have loads coming your way.

River animals : Amphibians

Hey everyone welcome back to another blog post, this week I will be looking at amphibians that live in the Uk’s waterways, so let’s get right into it!

First up, one of the coolest animals, in my opinion. The newt. Newt’s come in a variety of fantastic colours , but did you know that these colours are used to warn predators of the fact they are poisonous, so don’t touch them if you find them! In fact they are found commonly across the northern hemisphere. But one of the coolest things about this animals, is that it can regrow limbs, parts of it heart, even bits of its eye!

Next up is the toad, these creatures are famous for their slightly magical associations, but they’re actually really fascinating. For example did you know that a toad makes it’s skin taste disgusting do that predators are discouraged from eating them.

Finally we have the frog, very similar to the toad the British frog is a little smaller than it’s cousin. Frogs in the UK are usually brown or green in colour, but did you know that the common frog is able to lighten and darken it’s skin to match its surroundings. Another amazing things is that the pool frog which exists only in Norfolk actually has and accent! They have a tone to their croaks that different to the common frog.

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That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed looking at the top 3 amphibians of British waterways, and I will see you next week!

River Animals: Birds

Hello again, and welcome back to my river animals series, this week I will be looking at the birds that live in and around our waterways, so let’s jump right in!

The first bird of course has to be the swan. f England swans are well known for their grace and beauty and are a common sight around English waterways, especially in rivers, but did you know there are actually three different breeds of swan in England, mute swans are the largest and the only ones that stay all year round in England, the other two breeds of swan migrate to England from the arctic, these are the Whooper swan and Bewick’s swan, which is the smallest breed of the three .

Second on our list is the Grey Heron, an incredibly tall bird, famed for its ability to stand totally still when hunting, waiting for the fish to come to it. They mainly life to live in and around lakes and ponds and they can have a wingspan of up to 195 cm, that’s almost 2 meters! Herons are actually widely spread across the world, their numbers stretch from Japan to Africa. Plus they don’t migrate so you can see this feathery friend all year round!

Finally we have the Curlew a slightly unusual bird, it’s incredibly long beak gives it quite a comical look, so here are a few facts for you about the curlew, although it is a migratory bird in the rest of the world, they live all year round in the British isles as it has a milder climate than the rest of the UK. It is actually the largest wading bird, and they mostly eat little things they dig up with their longs beaks from the mud, such as worms and crabs. The curlew is unfortunately endangered due to loss of habitat, as it lives in moorlands and grasslands.

So there you have it my top three water birds, I hope you enjoyed reading this blog as much as I enjoyed writing it and I will see you next week where I will be looking at amphibians and reptiles that live in and around our waterways. So see you next time.

River Habitats 2: Fish

Yes, today I am going to be exploring what fish you could see swimming around in you local river, so let’s jump right into it!

The eel, yes we really do have eels in our waterways, although they extremely rare, they are critically endangered on the IUCN list of endangered species. It takes them about 3 years to reach English waterways, however they can live up to 100 hundred years! If you walking or fishing in the early evening them you may see an eel, especially Gloucester and Sharpness canal.

European eel, facts and photos — An eel!

Pike – the pike is much more common fish, however I think some people don’t realise how cool this fish actually is. It’s a fierce predator, thriving in canals where the water is clear, but has lots of weed to hide in and surprise it’s prey. The pike is actually a very large fish, a record weight being 46lb and 13oz, that’s roughly the weight of 6 babies!

Catfish, yes catfish live in English waterways, although they aren’t actually native to England. They are, however, the largest freshwater fish in the UK, reaching up to 64lb. They also have an amazing lifespan of around 90 years! Unfortunately they are more active at night, preferring to hunt in murky waters at night. But if you want to see one, there is a population of catfish at Marsworth reservoir near Tring

So there you have it my top 3 fish that you can find in English waterways. Next week we will be looking at birds that you can find on the waterways of Britain, so see you next time!

River Animals part 1

Hello everyone and welcome back to another Hedgehogheaven post. Now if you’re like me then you probably enjoy walking through the countryside, rolling hill, endless fields and beautiful, big, green forests. But most of all I like to walk along the riverside. Rivers are sources of fresh water for many animals and so it often surprises me how few animals I see. Then again I do tend to stomp my way through the undergrowth. However I thought I would look into what animals do actually live by and in the river. So maybe you can watch out for them next time you walk along a river, and hopefully have more luck than me and my great big boots. So this week I am doing all the mammals that you may see whilst walking along a river.

Of course I’m sure you have all heard of this one, the otter, a very secretive mammal and definitely one which you would probably more likely find in the countryside, however if you are walking through the countryside don’t forget to watch out for their distinctive paw prints, as they use their paw prints to mark their territory.

The next animal is one which you probably won’t see, it is of course the little water vole, incredibly quick and elusive it is rare to see one, but they have their burrows under the river bank so as you walk along think about what’s happening underneath you. A little water vole may be scurry around down there.

The water shrew is one which is more numerous that the water vole , but just as elusive, surprisingly feisty this little animal has poisonous bite which subdues its prey. It eats animals like larvae, freshwater shrimp and even frogs!

And if you are very, very lucky you may even see a beaver, they were reintroduced to England after being hunted to extinction in the 17th century, the beaver is a very shy creature and build their dens under the water. But it is just great that we have these really quite large mammals back in town!

Other animals you may see whilst on you walk don’t actually live in the water, but use it for other things. Deer for example drink from the river, foxes use the river to move about their territory and hide in the trees that grow near the river, and although this one may be a little strange, rats use the river to forage too.

When you think of mammals you don’t really think of water, but this just goes to show how incredibly diverse mammals are and how they can adapt to anything. If you enjoyed this post please don’t forget to leave a like and if you have a suggestion or question please don’t hesitate to comment below. If you want to find out more about wildlife then definitely subscribe as there is going to be so much more coming out! See ya next week!

Autumn Series : Natural Preparations

Hey everyone, so this week it is a bit of a different one, I’m going to be looking at how animals prepare for Winter, subconsciously. What they do that they can’t control or help it just happens ,in order to prepare them for Winter.

Of course one of the most obvious things that happens is growing coats, many animals grow much longer coats, including dogs, horses and foxes. But did you know that some animals that live in places where is snows, for example the arctic change the colour of their coat. For example the arctic fox, has a reddish brown coat during the summer, but when Winter sets in, the coat doesn’t just grow longer it changes colour to make it white, to camouflage against the snow. So not only does a new coat provide an extra layer of insulation against the cold it actually assists the animal in catching food during the winter, or hiding from predators.

But what else happens, well you might have noticed that during autumn you can’t really see any birds, or hear them! Well this because during the autumn birds actually moult, however this moult restricts their flight so birds stay hidden for most of this change so as not to be caught by predators. They also stop singing as they only really sang to attract a mate, and since the mating has stopped they will no longer sing.

A bit of a different thing that animals do is mate. This is not exactly a preparation for Winter, but in Autumn deer, boars and even bats mate, ensuring that the young will be born in the Spring of next year. During the autumn you can often see male deer fighting each other, beware these animals they are fiercely protective of their territory, so give them a wide berth!

So that’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new. If you liked this post please leave a like and if you want more of this content them please subscribe! Also if you want to suggest some ideas or ask me a question or anything really leave a comment. I love reading them !!! So see you in the next post.

Autumn Young : Episode 3

Hey everyone and welcome back to my third episode of my All About Autumn Series and this week we are going to be discussing a very cute topic ! Baby animals.

We will be exploring how their world changes as autumn sets in and what they have to do to survive so let’s jump right in.

For many animals their first Autumn it is a time when many are alone and having to fend for themselves against the gradually changing world, young hedgehogs for example will be all by themselves when winter sets in left to gather food and build a nest alone. I often wonder what they must think of this colder harsher period as up until now they will only have experienced long hot days with plenty of food available. In fact this isn’t quite true as some hedgehogs have a second litter a later one which is usually born in the autumn around September, although this litter rarely makes it through the winter.

Foxes participate in the same thing, the cubs will usually leave around autumn time to spend the winter alone, however over the summer the parents gradually bring their cubs less food so the cubs learn to hunt for themselves.

Some animals get around the problem of fending for themselves, by staying with their mother for the first year of their life, for example a fawn will stay with it’s mother deer for around a year before finally leaving when she is about to give birth to another fawn.

Squirrels also have a different way to around the problem, baby squirrels are weaned only a few weeks after birth meaning they can get in plenty of experience of being alone before the Winter begins.

So what can you do to help these animals during the Winter, well right now many animals need to put on a lot of weight so they can get through the winter, putting food out really helps. Things like bird feeders which are really cheap and easy to set up, or just sprinkling hedgehog food on the ground, I have also seen people leave bread out for foxes, all this really helps when it comes to Winter, as food is a major priority for every animal, especially those entering their first Winter.

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you really enjoyed my blog, if you did don’t forget to leave a like and if you want to have more content like this then please subscribe! Also definitely leave a comment below with any suggestions you may have as to what I should write about, I love reading people’s comments and talking with them, so I’ll see you in the next post!

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