Alas no hedgehogs, but we have a toad!

Here's a toad I found in a bucket of rainwater earlier today.

Unfortunately I have not seen Wendy or any other hedgehogs in the garden for a while now. I had to stop putting out food for them because it was attracting rats. Thankfully as we're in the country there should be plenty of other things for hedgehogs to eat, but it means that don't make such regular visits specifically to the garden now. I am still putting out water for them, that is the least I can do.

A hedgehog and an univited guest too

I think we may have a problem here. As regular readers will know I "invite" hedgehogs into the garden by putting down bowls of water and scattering food (usually mealworms, sometimes peanuts) but now it seems another creature is taking advantage of the free meal and its not really the kind of creature you'd want to encourage. I'm not really sure how I can discourage the rats without also discouraging the hedgehogs. Any ideas?

Hog pictures from Wednesday night

I've reset the clock in the camera so the times at the bottom of the photos should be more realistic.

Last night's hedgehog photos (probably Wendy)

I thought I'd try to get a few still photo captures last night, just for a change. Again, I think this is Wendy because of the dark muzzle and the general size of her. (By the way, ignore the times given at the bottom of each picture - despite having set the time on the camera only the day before, somehow the time shown is wrong by about three hours).

Could this be Wendy?

I can't be 100% sure that this is Wendy, the former "autumn juvenile" hedgehog that we released back into the wild two weeks ago - but (s)he is about the right size and has a dark muzzle just like Wendy. Chances are that it is her.

Wendy meets Elsa

Elsa, my Norwegian Forest Cat, normally sleeps at the end of my bed each night but last night she snuck out for a little while in the early hours of the morning. The trail camera I left out in the garden for the purpose of hedgehog watching shows where she had gotten to. Meanwhile, Wendy the hedgehog (I'm pretty sure that's her because of the dark face) seems unfazed at Elsa's presence.

And don't you just love the way that hedgehogs shake themselves?

Video: The story of Wendy's release into the wild

Sorry they took so long coming, but the first video took all night to be processed.

Wendy is released

Wendy is being released into the wild tonight. I've left her box in a little hidden area down the bottom of the garden and have removed the door so that she can emerge at her leisure. I've been shooting video footage and have some lovely shots of her at Spikes Sanctuary (such as the above still), but I'll wait to see if we get any infra-red footage tonight of her emerging from the box and will post the video tomorrow.

Here's the video evidence that we have a hedgehog visiting

Here's the first video evidence that we have a hedgehog visiting our garden this year here in Pembrokeshire, Wales. We're shortly going to release Wendy, an autumn juvenile from 2011 who went into Spike's Sanctuary hedgehog hospital for overwintering because she was not big enough to survive hibernation - and I really wanted to check that there were other hedgehogs here first before releasing her back into the wild.

Sorry for the quality of the video. It seems that every year when I get the trail camera out, I forget how the infra-red totally whitewashes the picture.

Good News!

At approx 9:30 tonight I spied a hedgehog in the garden at the waterbowl (also where I'd scattered a few mealworms). I was beginning to think we'd get no hedgehog visitors this years. Photos to follow (hopefully)...

An Adder at Poppit Sands, Pembrokeshire

We all know that adders like to live in sand dunes, but it's rare you get to actually see one. This particular adder was crossing the path leading up to the wooden-decked footpath running alongside Poppit life boat station. I was lucky that I just so happened to have my camera on my at the time. The snake didn't hang around too long to be photographed, and slithered into the long grass of the dunes pretty sharpish.

In other news, I have been putting out some food for the hedgehogs down the bottom of the garden. Something - or several somethings - have been eating it, but I am not 100% certain that it's hedgehogs as yet. I believe they are very late in coming out of hibernation this year what with the weather conditions we've been having. Mary at Spike's Sanctuary in nearby Clunderwen says that Wendy is only just coming out of hibernation now and that we can have her back to let loose down the end of the garden soon-ish. I would like to be certain there are some other hedgehog companions for her before we have her back though!