PRICKLY PALS

This is Merrill, the latest Hedgehog to be released into the Coastal Park by our friends at Prickly Pals North East. He's been looked after by one of their dedicated volunteers over the winter period having been found poorly and underweight, conditions which meant he would never have survived hibernation. We've had close ties to Prickly Pals for a number of years now, a lot of their volunteers are members of the Coastal Conservation Group which are based here at the Coastal Park. It's a fantastic group, they take in sick, injured and orphaned hogs and nurse them back to health until they are well enough to be released back to the wild. It's not an easy job either, some hogs need round the clock assistance, even through the night. The dedication of the volunteers is incredible. When the hogs are ready they are released into as safe an area as possible, which is where the Coastal Park comes in. There's lots of areas off limits to the public so the Hedgehogs can make a home in the park with relatively no interference. There's been lots of hogs released in the past few years and we now have a fantastically healthy population on the property which is great news as their numbers have dropped drastically in the UK. Here in the Coastal Park, Hedgehogs are doing mighty fine! 

Hedgehog City!

Recent releases 

A lovely healthy wild Hedgehog 

HELPING OUT OUR SKYLARKS

The Skylark is a familiar bird in the UK, renowned for its magnificent song and display flight. Once very common, it's recent and dramatic population declines have put it on the Red List, in fact the UK population fell by 54% between 1970 and 2001. We are very lucky here at Souter as we still have a reasonably healthy population on the property, but there's no harm in trying to increase the numbers that breed here. So this past week we've been busy creating a number of Skylark Plots in the hope of extending the breeding season a little longer than usual. Skylarks occupy open fields to avoid predators. They nest on the ground, in vegetation that is no more than 50cm high. This vegetation must be open enough to give the birds easy access to the ground. In order to sustain the population they need to make 2 or 3 nesting attempts between April and August. That's where the Skylark Plots come in! What we do is cut an area of 10m x 10m and keep it short while the grassy area around it continues to grow higher. This way there is suitably short areas later in the year that Skylarks can use to breed. It's a proven technique that has worked in lots of other places, so we are very hopeful of it working here. If nothing more it will be an interesting experiment, and if we don't try these things we'll never know if they work or not. And let's face it, if we can help our feathered little friends surely it's worth a go!

Ranger Dougie mowing the lawn!

What we're hoping to achieve, lots of lovely healthy chicks!