Hedgehog populations recovering in gardens

It's always struck me as odd that when I lived on a housing estate in Torquay I saw hedgehogs regularly. They were in our back garden most nights. But since moving to the countryside years ago I have only had one sighting of these lovely little creatures.

Yes, I read in Gardeners' World that hedgehogs are making a comeback in gardens. How lovely that you had a mother and baby! We had one here last autumn, first time for many years. I fed him/her and bought a hedgehog house and filled it with leaves. We also have plenty of odd wild corners in the garden where they could snuggle up over winter.
Anxiously waiting to see if he's still around.

I have had hedgehogs in my back garden for a few years now after cutting holes in the fence to give them a little way through…?

I am a bit of a hedgehog nut case. I love the hedgehogs in my garden and feed them regularly. I think they mainly live next door . The house was lived in by an elderly man and the garden was a complete wilderness, a wildlife paradise. He has moved away. The new family have literally scythed everything down, including a large Bush that long tailed tits were nesting in. I dread to think what damage they have done.
Every year I think I will push a note through every door around our block suggesting ways of making our gardens the perfect hedgehog highway. But then I don't, for fear of sounding totally crazy ! I wish I had the nerve.

Sadly, areas of our garden are regularly being dug up by badgers. There are no hedgehogs here and we wouldn't like to encourage them.

We cut 3 holes in our fences. Suspecting Hedgehogs visited, we put out a night camera and were delighted to film our nocturnal visitors. We left the back of the garden wild and the payoff was that we had very few slugs which I guess the Hedgehogs must have eaten. I informed all our neighbours and asked them to be careful when strimming the grass.

When we first moved here we had a number of hedgehogs wandering around every night. Now we rarely see any, sadly. We used to feed them, but often the cats and foxes got there first. We have film of hedgehogs eating alongside them in a second bowl we used to hide under some pots where the cats and foxes couldn't reach. But haven't seen any for a few years now.

Oh Lizbethann55 do please do the note thing. Someone did exactly that where we used to live. He said he'd seen the hedgehogs and gave us a list of suggestions of how we could help them. He turned the whole street into hedgehog nut cases .

We had hedgehog pathways, gateways, cameras and feeding stations and even road signs asking people to slow down for hedgehogs. It was a real community affair and every evening we would see hedgehogs out on their rounds. It was such a social thing so good for humans as well as the dear little hogs.

Badgers are unfortunately predators of hedgehogs. We have badgers and I haven't seen a hedgehog in my garden for over 20 years.

We made a hedgehog feeder in much the same way as Shinamae although it's not nearly as pristine! And I had to put a barrier of bricks in front of the door and wire netting over the top to keep out cats. The bricks have proved useful as I put a trail cam out and I can tell the hogs apart from their height against the joins. One little male and a large female and a large male. I live in hope of babies! We never knew they were around until a few years ago, although perhaps the lack of slugs and snails in our garden should have been a clue. I'm dense!

We've been having one or another visit about every 7-10 days all throughout the winter. We've a pond too so they have water - I had to make a little footpath for them to get to the drink as they were flattering the plants!

We used to get them - until we had to block a small hole at the bottom of a fence, to stop a guest’s small dog getting out.

Must get dh to unblock it.
Though now I come to think of it, it must have been quite a big hole since we used to get badgers in, too.

I have hedgehog envy and am glad to see they're picking up in numbers. When driving out in the regions in Victoria, I'll always pull over if I see an echidna bustling along.

I remember seeing lots hedgehogs during my childhood.
We live in a rural area , have a large garden surrounded by hedges and backing onto fields. Despite this I have not seen a hedgehog for many years!
I leave shallow bowls of water out - just in case. Think I will now leave cat food and sit out at dusk and watch! They must be hungry now after hibernation. Fingers crossed ?

Good luck Shelflife. I hope you see some.

I put out shallow bowls of water too and my old dog goes around drinking from each one in turn despite having her own big bowl of clean water in the kitchen, so I have to top them up every day.

When we had a small dog, we used to get a hedgehog visitor, much to the dogs annoyance. But we haven't seen one for ages.
I would love for them to return.