I do love it when I can bring you a story from someone else, rather than me wittering on each week. I know I get very excited about garden wildlife, so to find others getting similarly gripped is always comforting!
This time it was my colleague Jenny, who is one of the RSPB's Volunteer Officers (helping to look after the 13,000 of you that provide the RSPB with its incredible army of support).
Here's her email:
"Adrian, not had the chance to tell you yet but THE most exciting news is that I’ve discovered we have a little prickly visitor coming to our garden! At last!
"Here are some pix of, firstly, the hole we cut in the back gate (though we did this well over a year ago now)
"...and here is the much more recent hog feeding station.
"Water bowls also left out for the birds and hog.
"Each morning all the food is eaten and always a hedgie ‘calling card’ is left in the box! I’ve seen the little chap (or chappess) about six times now (I go out with a torch each night, trying not to disturb but equally very keen to see him/her!)
"I've also got an RSPB hog house in the log pile under the magnolia tree, filled with straw, so am hoping (a) the little one reaches hibernation weight (he's not tiny but not that big either) and (b) he uses the box! "I could hardly breathe with excitement first time I saw him/her, it's been my holy grail for so long!"
Given that Jenny and her husband Mark have filled their garden with wildlife-friendly plants, don't use slug pellets and don't use garden chemicals, I think we can say that they have ticked off almost every box in the list of Hedgehog Home Needs. And I love their simple storage-box-feeding-station, complete with brick to hold down the lid and stave off the attention of Foxes.
Of course, now is a really critical time of year when, just as Hedgehogs are settling down to hibernate, we all have a pyromaniac ritual and build bonfires everywhere, just the kind of home Hedgehogs are looking for (pre-burning, of course!).
If you are having a bonfire at home on or around 5 November, do try your best to ensure Hedeghogs aren't under the pile. The best course of action is to gather all your materials together, but only build them into a pile where the fire will be on the day of the conflagration.
Like Jenny and Mark, I'm sure many of you have happy Hedgehog experiences to share.
And if you're in the Midlands/Welsh Borders area, you might also like to go to the People's Trust for Endangered Species Hedgehog Conference on 21 November in Telford run by my good friend Henry
Yes, it feels like there is a real groundswell of Hedgehog Hope these days.
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw