Caludon Castle Park - Parks

The weather has finally decided that it is winter, all be it a fairly mild one so far. We have seasons because the earth is tilted (wonky) as it makes its yearly journey around the sun. The Earth's axis is tilted at 23.5 degrees, this means the Earth is always pointing to one side as we go around the sun. We lean towards the Sun in the summer and away from the Sun in the winter. This means with shorter days and longer nights the Earth has less chance to heat up leading to colder weather generally. Some species are still feeding and building up fat ready to survive the colder months to come. Because it has been mild you may have seen Autumn Juvenile hedgehogs still foraging, if feeding them please feed dog or cat food, not bread and milk as this can cause diarrhoea. Hedgehogs numbers are declining nationally. There are many reasons for this, More intensive agriculture – with larger fields and the loss of hedgerows and permanent grassland – has probably played a role. The use of pesticides too reduces the amount of prey available. In towns and villages, smaller and tidier gardens with fencing that prevents hedgehogs moving between gardens may have reduced suitable urban habitats. You can help by planting a hedge instead of having a fence or simply by making small holes in walls or fences so they can move freely around in search of food and mates or providing rough areas for shelter. If we all do a little we can achieve a lot for hedgehogs. More hedge planting took place with Caludon School pupils recently to further enhance the parks boundary. The wildflower area has now been cut (and collected as this reduces soil fertility which is good for wild flowers) and to reinforce this new feature it will be re-seeded in the Spring.