We too have a tame robin who hops in and out of our garage via a side door which opens into our rear garden. When I open the bedroom curtains (at back of house) at around 6.30am the birds start to assemble, by the time I open the kitchen curtains the usual suspects are sitting on a large bush under the kitchen window looking in to check when I'm bringing out their breakfast. We also have a starling with a malformed leg who is quite tame and, last year we had a pair of crows, one of whom seemed unable to forage for himself the other brought food to him and was always with him. We have also recently made tunnels under our fences to help the hedgehogs move freely between our and neighbours' gardens and planted some bee-attracting flowers.
That's good news about the tunnels - hedgehogs will travel up to 2 miles a night in search of food.
I adore hedgehogs; I sometimes foster baby hoglets for the local Hedgehog Rescue service, particularly in the winter if they are handed in when they are too small to hibernate (they need to be at least 450g if it's early autumn, and preferably 600g to survive hibernation).
Hedgehogs are becoming very scarce in the UK; lungworm, (which they catch from earthworms, slugs and snails which are carriers) is fatal to them, and of course badgers are very fond of them too (but not in a good way!).
We have a hedgehog feeding box in the garden and last year I rigged up a motion-sensitive camera inside to see who was visiting. I was astonished to count 15 separate visits throughout the night! Of course, that wasn't necessarily 15 different hedgehogs, but there were at least 3 in the box together at one point, and they got VERY aggressive with each other.
Love the story about the birds lining up for breakfast, too!
