I hinted at this last update - and now I can come clean and let you know what we have been planning ... I am thrilled to announce the launch of the competition to find:

Britain's Biggest Hedgehog Street

As I am sure you are well aware, this petition sprung in part from the work I have done helping the Hedgehog Street campaign - the amazing collaboration between the British Hedgehog Preservation Society and the People's Trust for Endangered Species. The idea of the campaign is, initially, simple. Our individual gardens are not big enough to support a population of hedgehogs - but by combining gardens, by giving hogs access through small 13cm square holes, we can create the necessary area, and in the process build relationships up and down the streets on which we live.

So successful has the campaign been that we now have over 112,000 signed up 'Hedgehog Champions' - who have built over 16,000 hedgehog highways, contributed over 130,000 data points to the Big Hedgehog Map, and quite possibly are the reason that urban hedgehog number decline seems to have halted (but that does NOT mean we can relax, sorry).

To the competition - well, I have been fortunate enough to give talks all over the country and I keep finding communities of people who are doing extraordinary things. People who are working together, knitting the community into a hedgehog friendly space. The first of these was Kirtlington, Oxfordshire. Here they have worked amazingly well to give hedgehogs a delightful theme park of options - just look at this video!

Then I was giving a talk in Liss, Hampshire, and mentioned Kirtlington - which generated a declaration of intent to beat them ... thus has been born the Liss Hedgehog Superhighway!

And now you can join in! We are looking to find the highway which manages to create the most connections - linking up gardens, front and back - all the details are online as to how to enter. We will be looking not just for size, but also for skill at overcoming obstacles, and, my personal favourite, the aesthetic quality of the highway too ... just because these are functional does not mean they have to be boring! There will be more than just one winner, I am sure!

Now - update hijack time.

Tomorrow is the funeral of my friend Sally. She was part of our NCT class, we spent hours at toddler groups together, holidays, festivals - and she went on to help make the amazing Oxford City Farm amazing. And while it is not specifically hedgehog related, the ethics behind the farm are absolutely those which most of us share - and which will help hedgehogs and so much more wildlife too.

She wanted her legacy to help young people benefit from the opportunities this project presents, and asked that any money people can spare be donated to creating a physical structure in the farm to act as an outdoor space for learning. If you can - please contribute here and PLEASE do not worry if you cannot - this is a blatant hijack of your attention.