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https://nature-recovery-network.org/hedgehog-highway-day/

Hedgehog Highway Day

Hedgehog_highway_signNatalie and Ashley Oman's artist-designed hedgehog hole.
Natalie writes: 'I'm over the moon.'
(I'll bet Eynsham's hedgehogs are too, ed.)
Photo, Natalie Oman

 

Rebecca Tilders Reports:
 
Last Saturday the sound of drilling and sawing resonated through parts of Eynsham; surely not another development? Yes indeed, but one that no-one could possibly object to!

This sound represented the continuing dedication of the NRN’s Hedgehog Fund (thank you Don and Judy Reid and Neil Bailey) to create a Hedgehog Highway for Eynsham.  A number of homeowners opened up their gardens to allow a team of people to drill or saw holes into stone, concrete or wooden walls and fencing. The results were fantastic!

 

hedgehogs June 21 - 14 Jez Twitchen, stonemason extraordinaire,
tunneling through the barriers for Eynsham's Hedgehog Highway.
Photo Sarah Couch.

 

Perfectly round and hedgehog sized holes are now to be found in parts of Acre End Street, Wytham View, Church Street, Hazeldene and Dovehouse Close. Huge thanks are due to Jez Twitchen, our professional stonemason who donated his Saturday morning to the NRN's super highway and to Neil Bailey who drove the highway through our wooden fences. Big thanks also to Kirtlington and Chris and Steve Powles, who provided Eynsham with the inspiration and £40 from the KWACS Hedge Fund to get us going.


 

Sarah_neilSarah Couch presents Hole-boring (not Boring), Hedgehog SuperHighway Afficionado Neil Bailey.
Photo, Catriona Bass.

 

Sarah Couch kept the drilling team refreshed with home-made elderflower juice and took some wonderful photos of the hole drilled in her stone wall while Natalie Oman applied her artistic skills to painting a hedgehog motif around the one in her wooden fence.   
 
But fun and laughter aside, this work represents the attempt to make life better and easier for hedgehogs. They need to wander freely to forage so it is vital we do everything to facilitate that and to also keep them safe and healthy.

Please contact Don and Judy Reid at don.reid130@gmail.com should you too wish to have a hedgehog hole put in your fence or wall! Please also email if you’d like join our hedgehog survey, recording your hedgehog sightings on our app.

 

HH_feederSarah Couch's and Hywel Edwards' hedgehog feeding station.
Photo, Sarah Couch.

 

Sarah writes: Just two days after the beautiful holes were made, we spotted a large hedgehog in our garden. The first time in well over a year! It must be more than a happy coincidence... So thank you for encouraging us to take action, we had been talking about it for years.