porvoon siili

I was at Porvoo this weekend (which was nice but the weather was typically Finnish. Here's a sample image of the docks).



anyway, as we were driving out to go sight seeing something shuffled across the road fast.

and we both said "hedgehog".

But this time it was a big male, and I was not going to let him get away without getting a closer look. So armed with some gloves I keep in the car I went and found him in the bush.

He immediately curled up into their distinctive little ball and was absolutely not going to come out while I was holding him (would you?)

So I put him on the grass and we sat back and waited for him to relax.

While he was waiting he seemed to be taking occasional deep breaths and releasing them slowly, just like when people are pissed off and waiting not so patiently ... sigh ...

So he sat curled up like a bundle in a sleeping bag made of prickles and waited. With his eyes tightly shut.


we thought it was best to put him back in the hedge and go back to what we were doing ... after all he might have been on his way to something important, and we wouldn't want to make him late.

little critters

I just got the call "hey, there's a hedgehog down here! Come as quick as you can"

He was crunched into a little ball of spikes, and didn't want to move. So after Anita went to work, I popped back upstairs and put my lens onto my camera. I didn't know if it'd still be there when I got down, but and got down there to find it still wandering around; although further up the hedge (who'd have thought).

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It froze as soon as I got there, but after I sat down it was quickly on the move again. So I grabbed a few 'hurried escape shots' ..

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and waited around. Sure enough someone else came back down, but headed over towards where he was and sortof 'flushed him out' towards me.
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"yes, its looking clearer ..."

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So with a sniffing of the air it seems it was going to head my way. But after I took this shot it seems that it didn't like the sound of the shutter on the camera and turned around again.

So I thought I'd let it have breakfast undisturbed and headed back up here for a coffee and to publish this.