A regular visitor to our garden, more often spotted during the evening, although when I was painting one of our garden sheds during the summer I heard a strange noise in the corner of the garden, on further examination I watched a little Hedgehog squeeze through a gap in our wooden fence and scurry along the fence bottom, I watched it for several minutes as it made its way to the base of one of our garden bird feeders, where it set about feasting itself on all the spent food the birds had scattered.  The Hedgehogs are the only British mammal with spines. When threatened they will roll into a tight ball, with the spines providing sharp protection from predators. Young hedgehogs are born with soft spines under the skin to protect mum, with a second set of spines emerging within days. One peculiarity to all hedgehogs is the way they cover their spines in foamy saliva, the reason why they do this remains a mystery although it has been suggested it might be a sexual attractant, or be used to reduce parasites, or as additional protection. Hedgehogs aren't fussy when it comes to food: worms, slugs, frogs and even bird eggs can be taken during a two kilometre nightly forage, a resistance to adder venom can also put this snake on the menu.