Crow On Roadkill

[flicrat]

Boxing Day morning, 9.30am, I saw a crow in the middle of our quiet deserted suburban road. It went very slowly and balefully to the gutter on the other side, as I approached, but did not fly away, as I expected.When I got level, I saw why. It was pecking at a squashed hedgehog that had been run over and flattened. When I looked back, it was on the job again.No doubt felt its Christmas had really come! What happened to hedgehog hibernation? Radio Leicester said it was 7 degrees, but hardly tropical...

[boxtops]

Overall it's mild though, and some hedgies have been born quite late in the year - they won't hibernate if they aren't fat enough.

[flicrat]

Thank you boxtops. It looked quite long, but that may have been the squash effect. Ditto it was thin - same reason. Sadly, I so rarely see them about alive in the summer and yet this is the third casualty since September.

[gen2]

I think the floods have washed some out of hibernation and drowned others.

[flicrat]

Could be, gen2. Looking out of my window into the grounds of the hall of residence, I see the trees have a small lake round the base of their trunks. Looks like a picture of the mangrove swamps. Soooo much rain and falling.

[boxtops]

Ah - they said on the radio that this is the fate of many riverbank animals too, such as voles - the floods have washed away their homes and burrows.

[flicrat]

The many people flooded out this Christmas will know the feeling I guess.