Wildlife news
As is usually the case with news, there are good (wildlife) news and bad (wildlife) news.
The good news is that while walking on the beach in front of the lodge today, we saw seals. At first I thought it was an optical illusion, with the water being somewhat choppy, but then I saw their cute little eyes and whiskers. At one point, four heads were bobbing in the water, all in a line, staring at us. I think they get attracted by the dogs' barking (seals 'bark' too). Then Ede discovered one and almost swam up to it in the water. They were about 15-20 yards away from us, and we were checking each other out. So cool!
Of course I didn't bring my camera with me today, seeing it was a grey and misty day -I guess I have to revise my photos-only-on-beautiful-days policy.
As for the bad news, while walking the little beasties last night, they found and killed a hedgehog. Of course there are no streetlamps here so essentially I'm feeling my way around the property hoping that no dog escapes. As a result, it took me about 10 seconds to catch on to what was happening when the dogs started sniffing like crazy and something was hissing. those 10 seconds spelled the demise of the hedgehog. They do curl up to protect themselves, but with two dogs tugging on each end, itwas too much. It took me another 30 seconds to slap leashes on them and get them back into the house to wipe off their bloody snouts. Then I faced the enjoyable task of finding the dead hedgehog in the dark and disposing of it somehow. I hope you'll agree that it's good I didn't have my camera for this one either.
[This is not for the faint of heart: I ended up putting it in the garbage bin, and when I checked this morning, its little leg was hanging over the edge ;-(]
When I told the lodge-lady about it this morning, somewhat apologetically, the first words out of her mouth were "Good for them!" hedgehogs aren't native to the island and they're considered quite a pest, decimating the local bird population by eating their eggs. Maybe I can hire Ede and Atze out for hedgehog culling, and they can start earning their keep.
Terriers!
The good news is that while walking on the beach in front of the lodge today, we saw seals. At first I thought it was an optical illusion, with the water being somewhat choppy, but then I saw their cute little eyes and whiskers. At one point, four heads were bobbing in the water, all in a line, staring at us. I think they get attracted by the dogs' barking (seals 'bark' too). Then Ede discovered one and almost swam up to it in the water. They were about 15-20 yards away from us, and we were checking each other out. So cool!
Of course I didn't bring my camera with me today, seeing it was a grey and misty day -I guess I have to revise my photos-only-on-beautiful-days policy.
As for the bad news, while walking the little beasties last night, they found and killed a hedgehog. Of course there are no streetlamps here so essentially I'm feeling my way around the property hoping that no dog escapes. As a result, it took me about 10 seconds to catch on to what was happening when the dogs started sniffing like crazy and something was hissing. those 10 seconds spelled the demise of the hedgehog. They do curl up to protect themselves, but with two dogs tugging on each end, itwas too much. It took me another 30 seconds to slap leashes on them and get them back into the house to wipe off their bloody snouts. Then I faced the enjoyable task of finding the dead hedgehog in the dark and disposing of it somehow. I hope you'll agree that it's good I didn't have my camera for this one either.
[This is not for the faint of heart: I ended up putting it in the garbage bin, and when I checked this morning, its little leg was hanging over the edge ;-(]
When I told the lodge-lady about it this morning, somewhat apologetically, the first words out of her mouth were "Good for them!" hedgehogs aren't native to the island and they're considered quite a pest, decimating the local bird population by eating their eggs. Maybe I can hire Ede and Atze out for hedgehog culling, and they can start earning their keep.
Terriers!
posted by Ness @ 4:34 PM
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