Mud, Glorious Mud!

Thank you to Cheshire Wildlife Trust for letting us know about International Mud Day.

It’s International Mud Day on 29th June so let’s dig deep and look at the wonderful, wriggly creatures that live in the soil, find out what fun can be had in mud, and look at ways for you to get stuck in. Worms are wonderful! "It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as these lowly organised creatures." Charles Darwin on earthworms Did you know...? We have 29 different species of worm in the UK. A single worm can eat its own weight in soil in one day. Worms absorb oxygen through their skin. The early bird may well catch the worm, but it’s not just our feathered friends that benefit from this amazing creature. Worms are vital food source for other wildlife like toads, beetles, shrews and badgers.

Dragon Hunters

Could you be a dragon hunter in July?

The British Dragonfly Society is in the process of launching a new citizen science project called the Dragonfly Challenge. This is a fun, educational activity to encourage people to spend more time outdoors over the summer.

Participants, known as ‘Dragon Hunters’, will have to try and find as many of the Challenge's six special species as possible within July. To do this they will have to learn about the species and their habitats, then explore different types of wetlands to find them all.

The species are: Large Red Damselfly, Blue-tailed Damselfly, Common Darter, Southern Hawker, Four-spotted Chaser, and Golden-ringed Dragonfly.

To access and download all the Dragonfly Challenge resources, and for more information, please visit the project page:

www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/content/dragonfly-challenge

Wirral Rocks at the Butterfly Park

New Ferry Butterfly Park has been hosting many pre-booked weekday and evening visits as well as being open every Sunday afternoon from noon to 4 pm.

This week 3 and 4 year olds from Small Steps Day Nursery in West Kirby came to visit.

They found this rock which had been hidden by 11th Bebington Beavers on an evening visit the previous week.

The nursery children have taken it away to hide it again somewhere else.

See Facebook Wirral Rocks for more about this idea of hiding a painted rock to be found by someone and then hidden in a new place.

Catwoman and Potter take up residence at Butterfly Park

Who are Catwoman and Potter? They sound like Batman’s archenemies. Well Catwoman is a 1,200g female hedgehog and Potter an 800g male hedgehog. They are rescue hedgehogs from Wirral Animal Rescue Centre based near Hoylake Station. Their names were pulled out of a jar when they arrived at the centre.

They were released on a fine summer evening at New Ferry Butterfly Park. They have been given their own hog house and bespoke hog feeding station just to help them get started off in their new natural habitat. Both the hog house and the hog feeder were expertly made by Martin Sharp of Wirral Animal Rescue Centre. Martin thought that the habitat at New Ferry Butterfly Park superb for hedgehogs. There are lots of mature dead wood habitat piles which they like and extensive woodland edge habitat as well as 400 metres of native laid hedgerow with dense bases. I was surprised at their limited lifespan of only two years in the wild. Martin brought leaflets about the danger of rubbish and litter causes to hedgehogs. It is good to be reminded.

At dusk with hushed excitement, we put the hogs into the hog house. We left the newly arrived hogs snuffling in the hog house and occasionally sticking their noses out to sniff the new surroundings. We will monitor them closely but it is expected that they will leave the hog house and make their own arrangements.

Martin gruesomely warned us about the increasingly cunning foxes who play the long game and lay in wait behind the curled hedgehog and until it unfurls and catches the unsuspecting hedgehog by the hind leg as it moves off.

The centre rescues about 400 hedgehogs a year! If you see a hedgehog in the day it is it definitely in trouble. They are always looking for further support, financial, volunteer time, names for the hedgehogs and welcome visitors to the centre. In spring time they are looking for suitable sites to house the rescued hedgehogs. Please get in touch with them:

https://wirralanimalsanctuary.co.uk/the-hog-centre

Paul Loughnane

For more photographs of Potter and Catwoman and their release, take a look at the Flying Canadian Photography blog:
flyingcanadianphotography.blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-wirral-animal-sanctuarys-hedgehog-centre/