Two more welcome visitors to the garden

I'd love to see a hedgehog in the garden, haven't seen one for years. Last year we had loads of baby frogs over the garden, it was impossible to mow the grass. I was surprised as we have two cats and a dog that will chase anything that moves. We had frogspawn this year, but then it disappeared, so not too sure what happened to that. Have seen some frogs though, but not in the numbers we saw last year. I love seeing the wildlife and am even starting to like watching the insects.

That's a very handsome frog. We only get toads here, small dark brown ones, not nearly as pretty as that! Its hard to imagine why it got so far into the house!

Lets hope the hedgehog decides to stay around. Like Lisam I haven't seen one for a long time, except at our local "Hogspital" where they were hand raising a family of very tiny ones. Such dedication, getting up through the night to bottle feed them!.

Lucky you! I too am still waiting for my handsome Frog! Yors is a top notch geeser, in fact I think I might have kissed him...well, you never can tell, and he did come looking for you in the kitchen! ;)

We sometimes see the baby frogs, but not in quantities like you Lisa, just the odd one here and there. Goes to prove they are breeding I suppose. They need to stay up this end, not down near the chickens as they will eat anything! I have had to rescue an adult frog when the chicken ran off with it, so baby frogs would probably get swallowed whole!
Good for you watching the insects, they really are fascinating, I have always liked the Pill bugs (wood lice), harks back to my childhood when we were fascinated that they could roll up into a ball. Sadly we are not in the area for Stag Beetles, impressive beasts!

I agree Stera, he is a pretty frog, usually they are more a boring brown, though still with the markings. If you have a look here
https://www.arc-trust.org/common-frog
and scroll to the bottom of the page, the photo No. 20 shows a red frog! Now that's special!
Why mine came indoors I can't think and did he JUST come in, or had he been lurking indoors somewhere for a while?

Karen - Kissing frogs! Umm! There's a thought, I think I'll stick with my OH. Was he looking for me or chasing the dratted flies we seem to have a lot of?

Honeysuckle, I think the fact you'd rather kiss OH than a frog is very romantic! ;) x

Wonderful to see these friends in your garden. I hope they stay around for a while :)

Thanks Karen, it made me chuckle! I love him dearly (OH not the frog) even if he isn't a gardener!

You are right Hywel, please let them stay! We were removing Docks and Nettles up on the field this morning and the number of snails was remarkable as it's so dry up there. Even dug up snails eggs while I was tackling the nettle roots, most of which are very impressive and go on for miles, or seem like it when you are trying to get them up.

I know, there are some in my garden and it is impossible to get rid of them. I don't mind because the insects like them so I always leave some.

What a welcome sight to see, I haven't seen a hedgehog in years, not even a roadkill either & no frogs round here either but then there's only the river, no ponds that I know of. Wouldn't want them in the kitchen though but I do keep finding beetles in the bathroom for some reason.

Karen you did make me laugh...

That's the trouble though isn't it Hywel - leave a few nettles for the caterpillars and they take over! We have a new sheep wire type fence between us and the Farmers field next door, usually he sprays along the 2 foot wide headland which is full of nettles, this year he hired the field out and they haven't done so. Lovely banks of nettles creeping through the wire!

It's lovely to see the hedgehog Greenfinger, perhaps you could put down a bowl somewhere for the frogs, they don't need much, I have a small pre-formed section of a waterfall dropped in the garden and there's often a frag in that when I dip my hand in to clear any debris - bit of a shock, dibbling fingers touching something that moves! As for the beetles indoors, I often bring them in with the washing, the little flower black beetles, though the washing gets a strong shake before I fold it into the basket.

I agree Stera that the image of Karen kissing frogs just doesn't bear thinking of, but who knows, perhaps there is a Prince out there just waiting?