6
thoughts were that I had neuer heard a bird song like
that before. U/hat could it be? Was it in fact a bird?
I listened for the more familiar early bird, the blackbird,
but could hear none so the dawn chorus had not even
started, so it could not be a bird. I then remembered
the whistle of the young hedgehog I had heard two mornings
before, but that was faint and the hedgehogs were fifty
feet away from the back of the house and I was in bed in
the front of the house. Could it be that the babies were
calling to their mother? I slipped out of bed, pulled
some clothes on over my pyjamas and went out to investigate
- camera in hand. Sure enough when I got to the cold frame
I could hear the whistle coming loudly from it and also
the rapid padding of small feet as the babies ran around
their prison trying to find a way out. Nearby I heard a
rustle in the long grass An adult appeared, climbed on to
the brick edge of the cold frame and looked down at the
calling babies below. She ran very agitated along the
edge, stopped and looked again. It was then that I found
how difficult it was to focus a camera in the dark. The
adult, having explored the length of the frame, retraced
her steps and went behind the frame as if to see if there
were any other ways of getting at the babies. She totally
ignored me crouching beside the frame and passed within
two feet of me, but when she returned from behind the
cold frame the camera flash, from about six feet away
frightened her and she turned round and disappeared through
a hole in the fence into the neighbour's garden. I lifted
the babies out to freedom again. Dawn had broken and I
returned to bed.