Hog Blog - Hedgehog visitors to my garden

Wendy News!

2011-12-22T10:33:00.000+01:00

I received the following email this morning from Mary Lane at Spikes Sanctuary in Clunderwen:

Hi Gavin

Many thanks for the most beautiful card. Wendy is snoring her head off, as she weighs so much now and is fit and healthy, I have let her hibernate - although, typical Wendy she wakes up for the odd 'snack'!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Best wishes

Mary

Check those bonfires for nesting hedgehogs, please!

2011-11-05T15:53:00.000+01:00

There's a picture of me with Wendy the little hog I rescued recently in this week's edition of the Western Telegraph! It's not the most flattering picture of me (I'd just come in from some really ghastly weather outside and am looking somewhat "windswept". Oh well, it's a nice pic of Wendy, anyway.)

The piece in the paper is asking people to check their bonfires for hedgehogs before lighting them, something I feel that needs national exposure. The idea of poor hedgehogs being burnt alive is just too horrible to think about.

The little hog goes to Spike's Sanctuary

2011-10-24T22:13:00.001+01:00

The little hog was so lively throughout the night that I didn't have much sleep; I was overly worried and kept checking on her (yes, it turns out she is a girl) at regular intervals. She made a right mess of the pet carrier box I'd put her in, and managed to drag her bedding into the water bowl, to rip up the newspaper at the bottom of the box, splash water over it and make it into a mushy pulp, and also she seemed to be quite adept at sitting in her water bowl.

In the morning we braved the terrible weather and drove out to Clynderwen and left her in the capable hands of Mary Lane at Spike's Sanctuary. It was a pleasure to meet Mary, a lady who is so devoted to these beautiful creatures and who does so much to help this now endangered species.

Mary has asked me if I'd like to name the little hedgehog, who apparently has been eating well tonight. I'm afraid my mind is a blank at the moment. Any suggestions?

It's Autumn Juvenile time again!

2011-10-23T20:55:00.001+01:00

I've got an autumn juvenile that I just brought in. He weighs in at approx 470g when he should be at least 600g to survive hibernation.

He's currently safe in a pet carrier box with towels for warmth, a bowl of dogfood and another of water. The box has been placed in a warm, dark room. When I checked on him just now he was sleeping.

I'm planning on taking him in to a local rescue centre tomorrow. Sorry, no photos as yet (I've left my camera out in the car).

Nearly hibernation time

2011-10-15T23:15:00.000+01:00

Sorry, no pictures, but I saw a hedgehog tonight eating the mealworms I'd put down in the garden. I was beginning to wonder if they had started hibernation already and perhaps the birds were eating the mealworms. So, I think I'll continue putting food out for a while at least.

Sorry for the long break in posting...

2011-09-04T21:51:00.000+01:00

...unfortunately my trail camera has been giving me nothing but trouble and I haven't been able to use it at all. But I have been feeding the hogs each and every night, although I rarely see them these days. It's not like when I was in Oxfordshire and the hogs came right up onto the patio and I could view them through the window. The hogs here are very shy and rarely venture further than the very bottom of the garden.

I just went outside a few minutes ago and photographed this small-ish hog. It's not the best picture, I know, but I just thought it was about time I updated this blog.

Heron fishing in Newport, Pembrokeshire

2011-07-11T11:08:00.002+01:00

Here's a heron I videoed whilst on a walk yesterday.

(More hedgehogs soon - the trail camera battery takes an AGE to re-charge!)

Hedgehogs stills from Tuesday night

2011-07-06T19:05:00.001+01:00

After what I was saying yesterday, I decided last night that conditions might be right for capturing some stills using the trail camera. I put food out at one end of the lowest slate step into the back garden and the camera at the other. I'm sure the wet weather helped combat white out too! And these are the photos that resulted - only a handful, mind you, before the battery ran out (again!).

(Times removed from photos because the time setting on the camera was wrong!)

Monday night's hedgehog

2011-07-05T13:26:00.000+01:00

Apologies if this blog has been a little video-heavy recently. In previous years I liked to vary the posts some more, so sometimes we had photos, sometimes videos, and sometimes slideshows. Alas, I can't seem to get decent stills from my trail camera at the moment. I find that the infrared is just bouncing back and whiting out the whole picture. Some of you will remember I took various measure to combat this in the past in the previous location by laying down black non-reflective rubber mats on the ground, taping up the LEDs on the camera, etc. Well, I've used the tape on the camera again, but the mats would seem a little incongruous here, I feel. Still, here's a colour photo I snapped last night. I don't like to do too many of these because of having to use the flash. I don't think the hedgehogs get too spooked by the flash, but nevertheless I prefer not to use it.

Hedgehogs and other animals on the bottom step

2011-07-04T12:09:00.000+01:00

Last night I put a bowl of food on the bottom slate step leading into the lower garden, partly to see if the hedgehogs were willing to roam around the garden a bit more and not just stay in the bottom left corner by the compost heap, and partly because I thought the video would be better with the slate beneath them rather than grass and without foliage causing infrared light bounce-back to the camera.

Come the morning a number of birds also make an appearance, as does Elsa.

Hedgehogs courting

2011-07-03T15:43:00.000+01:00

You have to feel sorry for the female hedgehog... the male's idea of "foreplay" is hardly the most romantic!

Hedgehogs videoed in our garden in Pembrokeshire, Wales, on Friday night, 1 July 2011.

Of Mice and Hedgehogs

2011-06-18T10:56:00.000+01:00

Last night I set up the trail camera in a different position, in an attempt to get some variation between these videos, and also because I thought the hedgehogs would show up better against the dark background of the soil in this position.

I put food and water out in the usual position, but also scattered a few handfuls of mealworms down in this new place. I had been putting a small amount of mealworms here for several nights already, encouraging the hedgehogs to move around the garden a little.

I was quite surprised at how many mice turned up in the resulting footage. It's no wonder that Elsa likes being out in the garden so much.

Hedgehogs on Wednesday night

2011-06-16T23:00:00.000+01:00

The latest hog movie from here in Pembrokeshire. Also features to now usual mouse and robin!

Bee hotel

2011-06-11T19:28:00.000+01:00

Here's my "bee hotel" which I finished putting together earlier today. Instructions on how to build one are freely available on the internet. Mine was cobbled together from scrap pieces of wood - mainly from an old piece of skirting board, a handful of nails, and sections of bamboo and dried Japanese knotweed (because I ran out of bamboo).

The idea is that you hang them in a warm place that catches the sun, and mason bees populate it and lay their eggs inside the tubes. It's all about encouraging bees to your garden and giving them a helping hand, especially considering that bees have been dangerously in decline in recent years.

I'm not 100% certain that hanging the bee hotel on a tree is a good idea. They may prefer it to be on a wall, but I put it on a tree because we didn't really have any suitable walls that catch the sun for a large period of the day. I'll leave it up on the tree for a while and see if any bees take up residence. If they don't, then I'll see about relocating it to somewhere they might find preferable.

Hedgehogs... and a mouse... and a robin

2011-06-09T22:00:00.000+01:00

It's not only hedgehogs that are partial to mealworms, it seems!

Solitary hedgehog(s) on Tuesday night

2011-06-08T15:00:00.000+01:00

All last night's video captures where a hedgehog was present showed just a solitary hedgehog. Whether they all show the same individual or if a number of different hedgehogs were visiting at different times, I do not know.

It's interesting to note that whereas on previous nights there are no video captures of hedgehogs past 11:30pm, last night there were hogs still showing up at gone 3:00am. I wonder if the rain had anything to do with it?

By the way, there were mealworms scattered all over the grass; they weren't just in the white bowl (which was just as well, because in some shots you can see it's full of rainwater). I scatter mealworms on the ground because it makes for more interesting viewing to see a hedgehog snuffling about than one sitting with its nose stuck in a bowl.

There must have been a few mealworms left over by daylight, because of the presence of the robin, who we see in the final couple of scenes of this video.

Bad bad behaviour!

2011-06-07T12:29:00.000+01:00

Hedgehogs engaging in a bit of rough and tumble! Note that in the penultimate sequence, a third hedgehog turns up. And then there were three!

Picky eaters?

2011-06-02T15:37:00.001+01:00

Last night I tried giving the hogs dog food to eat. I don't think they were keen. All you see them eating in the above video are the mealworms that I also put down. These were all gone by 11:30pm and then there were no more hog visits. I had a couple of captures of my cat Elsa trying the dog food, but that was the only interest, I'm afraid.

Introducing the bowl hog!

2011-05-31T10:15:00.001+01:00

Here's my second hedgehog video from Pembrokeshire. As you will see the picture quality is a marked improvement on yesterday's video. This was achieved by the extremely high-tech method of sticking a couple of pieces of black electrical tape over half of the infrared LEDs on the trail camera!

Note how when the second hedgehog comes along the first sits in the food bowl and hogs it! It was just as well I also scattered some mealworms on the ground for the other hog (which also encourages more activity for the purposes of the video).

Ahh... it's good to be back blogging about hedgehogs and showing my videos and photos.

The first hedgehog video from our Pembrokeshire garden

2011-05-30T10:44:00.000+01:00

As you will notice from the first sequence in this video we have hedgehogs, plural! So, we have at least two. I wonder how much of a population there is here?

Apologies for the lack of quality - I'm getting that old infrared glare problem again which is usual when setting up the trail camera somewhere new for the first time.

The hog's back again

2011-05-27T22:31:00.000+01:00

Look who's back. I'm sure this is the same individual that I saw on Tuesday night because of the colouration.

My first Pembrokeshire hedgehog!

2011-05-24T22:06:00.000+01:00

I can't tell you how pleased I am to see another of my spiky friends at long last. I was thinking I wouldn't get to see a hog down here, what with the number of badgers locally. One or two neighbours, however, had mentioned that they had seen hedgehogs and so I persevered in putting food and water out just on the off-chance that a hog might come this way. The food has been disappearing over the last couple of weeks, and I believed I saw some hog poo recently. But tonight I went out to put some mealworms down and I saw this little fellow. I took a couple of quick photos and then left it alone. I don't think these countryside hedgehogs are quite as used to people as those in the town where I used to live.

At last! A badger caught on video!

2011-03-11T14:10:00.000+01:00

I suspected there was a badger visiting up at the top of the graveyard because of all the animal tracks. After weeks of leaving out the infrared motion detector trail cam and having caught footage of foxes, rabbits and squirrels, finally I get these few fleeting seconds of a badger.

It's Samson the Seal

2011-03-02T15:42:00.001+01:00

OK, so this wild animal isn't exactly in my back yard, but it is an example of local wildlife - you just need to get to certain places on the coast in order to see it. I was walking with a friend on a section of the coastal path in Abercastle, Pembrokeshire, when we saw this face watching us from the sea. The seal seemed just as curious about us as we were of it. It was particularly exciting because neither of us had seen a seal in the wild before. We saw three more a little later from the top of the cliffs, but obviously not as close up as this.

Oh, we called him "Samson" as we were walking to the nearby ancient burial chamber known as Carreg Samson.

As ever, click the photos to enlarge.

These photos were taken on Saturday, 26 February 2011.

Pheasant gets to grips with a fat ball

2011-01-23T22:29:00.001+01:00

We've been putting lots of food out for the birds in the garden, including a couple of fat balls which we've hung in the trees. This morning there were tidings of magpies (apparently that is the correct collective noun) and I think one of them must have plucked one fat ball from the tree. This hen pheasant, another visitor who has been frequenting the garden recently, seemed to be getting great pleasure from the fat ball, flipping it up in the air by the surrouding netting and pecking at it. It was quite comical to watch.

Another seasonal bird: the Redwing

2010-12-26T19:15:00.002+01:00

This Redwing was outside my grandmother's flat this afternoon. There seem to be lots of thrushes in general around at the moment, including blackbirds, of course, and seasonal visitors in shape of fieldfares and redwings.

A Christmassy Robin

2010-12-25T14:02:00.002+01:00

Some festive pics of our robin, taken on Christmas Day.

The final hedgehog photos from my garden in south Oxfordshire

2010-11-01T16:52:00.001+01:00

I've now been in Pembrokeshire, Wales, for a few days and am still setting in. The last couple of weeks have been hectic, but on my last night in the old house I did put the infrared camera out. Looking at the captured images today I am quite surprised to see quite a lot of activity because the impression I had was that hedgehog visits had dropped to a mere trickle each night.

This will certainly be the end of the hedgehog photos on this blog for this year. Perhaps next Spring I might find a local population here in Pembrokeshire.

Another cold October night

2010-10-22T12:15:00.002+01:00

Thursday morning was really frosty and it felt so cold all day. I had to wonder how the hedgehogs were coping. Looking out into the garden in the evening I didn't see much activity, although just before 11pm I went to check if more food was needed and saw this juvenile hedgehog (pictured above and below). Last year I got all indignant when I saw that one of "my hogs" had been marked with a little white paint. This time it made me pleased. It means that someone else in the neighbourhood is keeping tabs and is watching out for them, and most likely feeding them too. That doesn't make me feel quite so bad about leaving them behind when I move out at the end of the month.

Let's now look at the best of the night's photos from the infrared motion-detector camera:

Here's an adult hedgehog...

...and for size comparison, here's a juvenile in the same position:

I love how this little one is perched on the edge of the food bowl. If an adult tried this it would upturn the bowl.

Lots of hedgehog activity from Wednesday night

2010-10-21T11:07:00.000+01:00

...so much, in fact, that I've decided to put all the photo captures into a slide show:

More about the autumn juveniles

2010-10-20T22:30:00.000+01:00

I know some of you have been concerned about the size of the autumn juveniles I've had visiting in the garden. Tonight, I managed to weigh two of them and they were both around 400g. I'm not sure what the recommended weight this winter is. Last October 2009, Tiggywinkles were quoting a figure of 600g. By November they had revised this to 500g. I think if these little hogs are going to be around for best part of another month yet, and they keep eating at the rate that they have been, then they stand a good chance of getting to at least 500g. I think perhaps a call to Tiggywinkles to check the recommended weight for hibernation might be in order.

Hedgehogs on a cold October night

2010-10-19T11:18:00.001+01:00

So about a week ago I was thinking that hedgehog visits had really dropped off and perhaps some had started hibernating already, but these last few nights have been really busy again hog-wise. Last night I put the infra-red camera out, partly because I wanted to record whether the juveniles were still coming.

Notice the time on the last photo here: 06:09 AM. That is very late for hedgehogs to still be out, at least going by past appearances. I do have another capture timed at 06:44 AM, although this was not a very photogenic shot - just a little hog can be seen in the grass in the background of the photo. I guess they are just trying to take all opportunties to fatten themselves up for hiberation.

I made sure to put down some chopped nuts along with the mealworms last night. It's funny that in two of the bowls these were all eaten, but in the bowl you see in these photos, the hogs had thrown all the nuts out and made a right old mess. Does that indicate that certain hogs visit particular feeding bowls? I'm not sure.

On another note I have some news that does sadden me. For reasons I'd rather not go into here, I will be moving out of this house at the end of next week. In many ways I will be happy to leave and to make a new start. However, it breaks my heart to think I will be leaving my beloved hedgehogs behind. Obviously, they are wild animals and I can't take them with me. I just hope that over these last few years I have done my bit for the population here and have given them a boost.

However, there was always a population here - I remember encountering a hedgehog in the rubbish bag (I thought it was a rat for one horrible moment) shorty after moving in 18 years ago. Another time I watched in amusement as a hedgehog was pushing an upright milk bottle (full) around on the road outside - I think it was trying to knock it over.

I didn't actually begin to put food out specifically for the hedgehogs until about 3 or 4 years ago. There was an established population before then, and I expect they will continue to thrive.

I'm hoping that this Winter 2010 will not be the end of the Hog Blog. There will be other animals - and hopefully other hedgehogs - to encounter where I am going. But I am going to have to say goodbye to my prickly friends here and that is more upsetting than many people would appreciate.

More photos of the autumn juveniles from last night

2010-10-17T18:14:00.000+01:00

Uh-oh! Autumn juveniles!

2010-10-16T21:09:00.000+01:00

In the last few days I've noticed a rather small baby hedgehog coming to the food bowls in the garden. Earlier tonight I went to the back door and saw an adult and a baby eating together. By the time I got my camera, however, the adult had gone and there were three babies eating together. Oh dear, I was so hoping it was just the one.

Thursday night's hedgehog movie

2010-10-08T13:00:00.002+01:00

The adult hedgehog decides to show one of the juveniles who's boss.

Fussy hedgehogs

2010-10-05T11:36:00.001+01:00

Last night I had to ration the mealworms as I am very nearly out, as is my local supplier. I figured I'd put a bowl of chicken flavoured cat food out to make up for it, but this morning shows that it has barely been touched. I feel a bit guilty that I've not been able to supply their favourite food - the mealworms - as at this time of year it's crucial that the hedgehogs build up enough weight so as to survive hibernation throughout the winter.

There didn't seem to be many visitors last night (and few decent photo captures) but this one above is unusal in the fact that it was so late at nearly 6:00am. Ordinarily there is very little hedgehog activity in this garden after 4:00am. Perhaps this hog was especially hungry seeing as I wasn't able to put many mealworms out, but you'd have thought it'd have tried the cat food at least.

Baby in a bowl

2010-09-24T22:44:00.000+01:00

Another photo of the baby, again giving a nice idea of scale.

Baby and adult hedgehog

2010-09-23T22:45:00.000+01:00

The new baby is still visiting, it seems (unless it's a different baby) and here in these photos you can get a better idea of its size when seen alongside an adult hedgehog.

Hogs on Tuesday night

2010-09-22T22:38:00.001+01:00

As you can see in these pictures from Tuesday night, the garden is still busy with hedgehogs at times!

A new baby hedgehog

2010-09-21T21:27:00.004+01:00

Look at who I saw out back tucking into the mealworms! It's another baby. It's hard to get an idea of scale in this photo, but this little hog is about the size of my hand.

I brought him inside quickly, just to make sure he was healthy. I hope he keeps coming back here to eat - he'll need to put on a lot of weight before hibernation time in just a couple of months.

Thursday night's hogs

2010-09-17T15:00:00.003+01:00

More baby hedgehogs and a busier Friday night than I expected

2010-09-11T14:42:00.006+01:00

I believe that the hedgehog seen here on the left in these two "through the cat flap" photos is one of the babies from a few months ago. It's definitely a juvenile and its especially dark face make me wonder if it's the one I called Baby #2. So the little one on the right must be from a more recent batch of babies. They're going to need to fatten up over the next couple of months before hibernation.
I had been thinking these last few days that hedgehog visits were on the decrease, partly because I had noticed that food was being left uneaten. So, last night (as well as the cat flap photos) I put the infrared motion-detector camera out. Looking back at the resultant captures this morning showed that it had been a busy night after all, with perhaps more juveniles visiting that I'd have expected. Here follows a selection of the best of the night's captures:

Hedgehogs in September

2010-09-08T20:50:00.002+01:00

I've not posted for a little while so I thought another update was due. The nights are getting longer now and the hedgehogs are appearing earlier each night. The first one arrives at around 8pm most nights. You'll notice that the above photo shows a different angle from usual. What happened was that I went to put the camera out, but there was an early hedgehog (pictured) already at the mealworms, so I put the camera down in a temporary position so as not to disturb it, then later on moved it to the usual tried and tested position. As you'll see from the rest of last night's photos, there are still a bunch of hedgehogs visiting, including a couple of the now not quite so small "babies".

I seem to have a tame hedgehog visiting

2010-08-28T15:48:00.004+01:00

I've encountered this particular hedgehog for the past two nights as I was putting food out for them to eat. He (or she) doesn't run away or curl up into a ball, but seems quite happy for me to go about my business around him (or her). Last night I opened the feeding station up to find this hog (identifiable by the blonde "fringe" of spines above the face) already in there eating the previous night's scraps. The hog watched patiently as I filled up the bowl with Iams chicken-flavoured cat food and then started eating it straight away. I even had plenty of time to go back into the house and come out again with the camera for the above photo, before putting the lid gently back onto the feeding station.

However, numbers are severely down this last week. I'm hoping it's just the bad weather that is deterring them.

Bah! Rain again...

2010-08-26T11:51:00.002+01:00

The weather has turned ghastly - in fact we've even had severe weather warnings - and the hedgehogs don't seem to like it much either, although one or two lone individuals made it out to visit the water and food bowls last night.

Baby #2 returns

2010-08-21T23:33:00.006+01:00

There's been a lot of snuffling and burbling noises in the garden, today, and when I looked out - sure enough - there were lots of hogs. Furthermore, I was pleased to see Baby #2 make a reappearance.

Such a shame that this photo is blurred, because it's a lovely grouping.

More catching up

2010-08-20T23:56:00.003+01:00

I've been quite busy going hither and thither recently and unfortunately haven't been able to update the blog, although - of course - the hedgehogs are still being fed each and every night as usual. Unfortunately, I've very cleverly mislaid the charger for the infrared camera, and so I am unable to use that at the moment. Here are a few pictures from last night and earlier tonight of some of my hedgehoggy visitors.

I thought at first that the hog in the foreground was actually Baby #2 - having grown a bit since we last saw him - but I have since seen Baby #2 for real and disproved this. Alas, I haven't seen Baby #1 (a.k.a. Itchy) for about 2 weeks now. If however, I was able to put the infrared camera out, perhaps we'd see him then. I hoping he's still about somewhere. Note the other two hedgehogs in the feeding station in this photograph. There was a lot of snuffling coming from that box!

The same juvenile again on Thursday night.

...and again, tonight.

Monday night's hedgehog movie

2010-08-10T17:57:00.003+01:00

We've not had a hedgehog movie for a while, so here's some footage from last night showing at least six different individuals. It's interesting to watch how they interact, for example how a hog will approach a foodbowl with some trepidation where another hog is already eating.

One thing that has struck me recently, especially with the babies around, is how well behaved the hogs have been towards one another. However, we see a little piece of bad behaviour here at around the 7 minutes mark.

Note the hog in the 2nd and penultimate clips looks to be quite a fatty!

Some more cat flap photos of Baby #2

2010-08-05T11:33:00.001+01:00

Hedgehogs big and small

2010-08-03T11:23:00.005+01:00

Monday night didn't seem to be as busy as the previous night, but I'd put out the infrared camera and - as these stills show - there was quite a lot of activity from hedgehogs of all sizes. It's nice to get some shots of the two babies together.

Catching up again...

2010-08-01T23:18:00.000+01:00

I've been away for the last week, although the hogs have been fed in my absense. Tonight every time I looked out the back door, there were hedgehogs everywhere. I wish I'd put out the infrared camera earlier. I did however take the above couple of snapshots through the cat flap of this pair of hedgehogs: an adult and Baby #2.

Earlier I saw Baby #1 (a.k.a. Itchy) outside and I brought him inside for a quick checkover. I'm pleased to report that all his spines have re-grown nicely and he has no bald patches on his back. His face still looks bald though. He also seems to be putting on weight - which is good news.

Baby hedgehog #2

2010-07-24T01:33:00.005+01:00

Here's another baby hedgehog, spotted drinking water in the early hours of Saturday morning. Photos taken through the cat flap.

I fancied I saw this little hog the previous night on top of the secondary feeding station at the bottom of the garden. I'd heard that hedgehogs could climb, but had never before seen any evidence of this.

Elsa and the hogs

2010-07-23T14:52:00.003+01:00

Last night Elsa was being fussy and turned her nose up at the cat food I put down for her, so rather than let it go to waste I put it outside for the hedgehogs. Of course, then she wanted it, and appeared in the photo captures throughout the night. It was almost as if she was guarding the food from the hedgehogs. Despite that, there were plenty of hedgehog visitors, including the baby.

It's that baby hog again, and a couple of mysteries

2010-07-21T11:43:00.002+01:00

I saw the baby hedgehog and brought him inside quickly so I could see if he was the same hedgehog and also to see what his condition was like.

He's a lively little fellow and definitely the same baby hog that I've been calling Itchy. I'm glad to report that the spines have been growing back on his bald patches, although his face still looks like it could do with some more fur.

Earlier in the evening when I was putting the hedgehogs' food out and cleaning out the feeding station, I discovered a whole load of these:

Hedgehog spines. I've never previously seen any loose spines like this. Does anyone know if hedgehogs naturally shed their spines? I wondered if perhaps there'd been a bit of an altercation between two hogs in the feeding station, although there was no blood. I also think the spines were too long to have been the baby's.

Later in the night, I observed - or rather heard - something else mysterious. I was letting Elsa in, and I heard this rather loud noise. I can only describe it as a "gurgling" - a bit like a prolonged tummy rumble. It was coming from a large-ish adult hedgehog who was eating from the bowl on the patio. I've never heard a hedgehog make a sound like that before. Does anyone know if this is normal? Are hedgehogs known to gurgle?

Catching up, Monday night's hedgehogs and baby confusion

2010-07-20T12:54:00.005+01:00

It's been over a week since my last post so I think it's time for an update. Elsa only stayed overnight at the vets. I had a phone call in the morning to say that her temperature had dropped, that she was eating, that she was even being a bit feisty and that I could collect her. So, I brought her home and she has been back to her old self again.

However, it was a very expensive business with vets fees, taxis, etc. And I'd need more money to take the baby hog with suspected ringworm to a hedgehog carer. Alas, it rained for a few days after I got Elsa home and I hardly saw any hedgehogs at all. I did spy the baby hog on Friday night, but as I was to be away all weekend, there was no sense in catching him. I saw him briefly late Sunday night, and again last night when I also put the infrared camera out for photos (as seen here). Pictured above, we see him at - and partially in - the food bowl.

But... Is it the same baby hedgehog?

If it is, then his spines seem to have re-grown. I went out last night with a torch and took a look at him. I fancied I saw markings where the bald patches had been. If it is the same hog he definitely looks healthier than before.

If it is a different hedgehog, then I wonder where he (possibly she) has been up until now and, for that matter, where the other baby is now? I may have to catch him and bring him inside for a closer look, because I confess that I am confused!

Anyway, here are the pick of last night's photos:

A hot Saturday night and baby hedgehog update

2010-07-11T20:34:00.003+01:00

Last night must have been the hottest night of the year - at least here. There was one hedgehog that was flaked out asleep at the foot of the hedge for at least an hour. In the above photo, we see the baby hedgehog sitting in the food bowl. I'm afraid I haven't been able to get him to a wildlife rescue centre yet. Unfortunately, my cat Elsa is very sick at the moment and is currently at the vets being treated where she can be under observation. I've had to put Elsa's welfare first. I'm hoping to get her back home tomorrow. Once I know she is alright, then I can turn my attention to the little baby hog. I will try to get him to a wildlife rescue centre in the next few days - please do not think I have forgotten him.

Baby hog needs some attention

2010-07-08T23:51:00.006+01:00

After your comments on my previous post about the baby hedgehog, I decided tonight that I needed to take a closer look at him. So, I waited quietly in the garden for a few minutes and he soon turned up. I picked him up and brought him into the house.

As you can see from these photos he does seem to be having a problem losing his spines. I'm reminded of Spud the hedgehog who lost all his spines and was treated at Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital.

Anyway, this poor little hog also had a nasty big tick behind his right ear, so I figured the least I could do for him was to remove it (using a Tick Twister). I then let him loose out in the garden again. If I need to capture him again, it should be easy enough as he is a regular visitor. Tomorrow I shall make enquiries.

Young rabbit and an unfortunate woodpecker

2010-07-08T23:44:00.003+01:00

Today, as part of my personal fitness programme I cycled from Didcot to Oxford and then back again. Along the journey I saw a lot of wildlife, although most of it moves too fast to be able to photograph. I did manage to get a shot of this young rabbit (above).

Unfortunately, on the way home I found this woodpecker lying on the path. It was an isolated path through trees with no buildings and no traffic, so it seemed very weird to find it there on the ground like that. I wasn't sure if it was just stunned or dead, so I picked it up. It was still warm, so I guess the accident had only just happened. I put the poor thing on a log surrounded by ivy away from the path. Sadly, I think it was dead.

Do you think this baby's alright, and Wednesday night's hedgehogs

2010-07-08T17:32:00.003+01:00

Before I show you the pick of last night's infra-red photos, I want to show you the above picture of the baby hedgehog that has been visiting. Now, last night Elsa got a little over-excited watching the hedgehogs; I went outside to find she had cornered the baby, who was looking a little worried. I don't think Elsa would have hurt him; I think she was just in a playful mood. Anyway, I took her inside the house and gave the baby a handful of mealworms after taking a couple of colour photos, and he was soon eating them up and looking much happier.

But have a closer look at the photo above (click on it to enlarge). You'll see that the baby has a couple of bald patches, one on his back and another behind his ear. His face also looks pretty hairless compared with, say, the hedgehog on the blog banner at the top of this page. Does anyone know, is this normal for a young hedgehog or does he need attention?

Anyway, onto last night's infra-red photos. There was certainly a lot of activity again. You'll notice Elsa in the second photo getting closer than she usually does.

Sunday night 4th July and it's Hedgehog Central!

2010-07-05T13:02:00.004+01:00

There was such a lot of hedgehog activity captured on the camera last night (as still photos) that the best way to show it to you is in the form of another slideshow video:

Video footage of the baby hedgehog

2010-07-04T23:46:00.003+01:00

These videos are from last Thursday night, 1 July 2010. It took me a few days to get around to editing them - I had so much good footage that night. We see several hogs, not just the baby (who we see is a boy). Poor thing seems to take after our old friend Scratchy. Perhaps I should call him Itchy.

Elsa makes one of her trademarked cameo appearances in Pt2. The hedgehogs really didn't seem that bothered.

More photos of the baby (and other hedgehogs)

2010-06-30T17:24:00.004+01:00

The baby hedgehog has been back each night since I first saw it. Often it seems to be with another hog - possibly the mother. I did consider that there may be more than one baby, but I've not seen two at the same time, and this one does seem to have some distinctive markings on its back. Anyway, these photos are from Tuesday night, 29 July. They are a bit more glary than usual because I forgot to put the rubber mats down again after washing them. Note also, Elsa is in a few of the photos. She loves watching the hogs - it's the highlight of her day!

Hedgehogs like banana!

2010-06-27T13:33:00.001+01:00

Video footage from last Wednesday night (I've only just found the time to edit it together).

Baby hog on Friday night

2010-06-26T01:39:00.002+01:00

Well, I've noticed one or two smaller hogs visiting recently, but none as small as this little baby. You don't get a good idea of scale in the photo, but trust me, it's a little one.

A hot Wednesday night

2010-06-24T19:55:00.003+01:00

Today I have a couple of colour photos for you. The hedgehogs don't seem to mind me being out in the garden at the same time as them - so long as I move about slowly and quietly, and don't make any sudden moves. This little one pictured above is in front of the tomato grow bags, whilst in the next picture we see another hog at the secondary feeding station at the bottom of the garden.

Hedgehogs on the summer solstice

2010-06-22T11:28:00.003+01:00

Out of curiousity, I wondered how much hedgehog activity there would be in the garden on the night of the Summer Soltice, the shortest hours of darknesss in the year. Below is a slideshow presentation showing all the night's captures.

Note, at 11:18pm Elsa gets into shot. I had just put some more mealworms down (funny that the camera didn't photograph me) and also threw down a piece of over-ripe banana, which is what Elsa was investigating and which can be seen in subsequent frames getting gradually smaller and smaller. So there we have it - proof that hedgehogs like banana!

A few hogs (and Elsa) on Saturday night

2010-06-20T13:29:00.003+01:00

Thursday night's hedgehog movie

2010-06-18T10:25:00.000+01:00

Oh dear, one little hog has a itch to scratch! (Footage speeded-up).

Monday night's hedgehogs

2010-06-15T18:32:00.002+01:00

More hedgehog photos from Friday night

2010-06-12T11:40:00.002+01:00

Friday night's early hog

2010-06-11T22:40:00.003+01:00

This hog couldn't wait for darkness to fall and was happily munching on mealworms, sunflower seeds and chopped peanuts while it was still dusk, shortly before 10pm tonight. Neither did it seem bothered by my presence nor Elsa bombing around the garden like a mad thing.

Saturday night/Sunday morning hogs

2010-06-06T12:09:00.002+01:00

Is it a sheep or is it a pig?

2010-06-06T11:36:00.001+01:00

OK, these aren't our usual kind of "hogs" on this blog and they aren't even wildlife, but I had to share these photos with you. I was in Oxford yesterday and saw these woolly pigs amongst some animals that were being shown as part of a "Garden Festival" at the Oxford Castle complex. Apparently they are a rare pedigree breed known as Mangalitza pigs.

Hedgehogs, woodpigeons, and the return of another recent visitor

2010-06-05T17:50:00.007+01:00

It was a very hot and humid night, and there were numerous hedgehog visits throughout.

As usual, the woodpigeons come down to pick over the leftovers in the morning:

But who is this in the bottom right-hand corner of the photo:

Could it be our visitor from a few days ago again?

Yes!

Conclusive evidence that we now have a squirrel visiting.

And a cheeky one at that!

At the bottom of the garden...

2010-06-03T14:26:00.002+01:00

I thought I'd try putting the camera down at the end of the garden to see what I could capture of the comings and goings at the secondary feeding station.

But, as you can see the infrared flashback causes a lot of white-out on the grass.

A great shame, but you get an idea of the activity.

Another wet night and a new visitor

2010-06-02T11:01:00.003+01:00

Wet again, and as on other such occasions, the hedgehog visits are fewer with only a handful of photos being captured throughout the night.

Come daylight some of the usual suspects come down to pick over the remains of the food the hedgehogs left behind...

...plus a visitor I very rarely see in this garden. I can only think that this is a grey squirrel.

A fearless hedgehog visits

2010-05-31T00:38:00.004+01:00

In the early hours of Monday morning, Elsa got into a very silly mood and was bombing in and out of the cat flap. I went outside for a look and saw this little hog watching us. I saw also that the food bowls needed replenishing, so filled them up with mealworms. The hedgehog was quite keen to get to the food and didn't seem to mind me being there nor Elsa dashing around like a mad thing.

200 posts already! Can you believe it?

2010-05-29T16:00:00.005+01:00

Last night was quite busy again, with often two and occasionally three hogs visiting at the same time. I'm including ALL the night's still captures in slideshow format below:

Look out for a cameo from Elsa!

A rainy break in the hot weather

2010-05-27T11:03:00.002+01:00

I had only a handful of photo captures last night, just 14 in total, whereas recently in the warm weather I've been getting sometimes up to 100 a night. I've said it before: hedgehogs do not like the rain!

Monday night's hedgehog movie

2010-05-25T11:48:00.001+01:00

...because we've not had one for a while. Contains bad behaviour from the offset.

Courting hedgehogs on a hot Sunday night

2010-05-24T10:42:00.005+01:00

For most of the night we had a courting couple of hedgehogs on the patio and around the feeding station area. At one point when I went out to replenish the feeding bowls, there was one hog in the feeding station and another two came running past my feet as if oblivious of my presence. Unfortunately, none of the photo captures show three hedgehogs together. I'll let the pick of the night's photos do the rest of the talking.

Hedgehogs on a warm Wednesday night

2010-05-20T10:17:00.003+01:00

It's been a fair while since I saw two hedgehogs sharing from the same bowl of food.

There didn't seem to be many visits last night, but it was very warm out. Perhaps there were richer pickings elsewhere. Or perhaps Elsa sitting happily on the lawn for ages was a deterrent.

The above picture illustrates quite nicely how long a hedgehog's legs are!

Hedgehog aerobics?

2010-05-15T10:13:00.003+01:00

Photos from Friday night. This hog seems to be getting into some very strange positions:

Barney's back:
And who's this?

Re-location!

2010-05-14T12:40:00.005+01:00

Yesterday we had a little tidy up in the garden, and I decided to move the hedgehog feeding station and the rubber mat "runway", because it was right in the middle of the patio and not in the most convenient position. So, it's all moved a few feet over to the right and up against the fence. In the photo below in which Elsa is checking over the new arrangement (she likes to be involved) you can see the hedge behind, and in the background of the photo to the left you can just make out the secondary feeding station at the bottom of the garden. I think I'm going to move this a little more to the right too.
We are often told that hedgehogs are creatures governed by habit and routine. I'm not convinced that this is entirely true, and anyway, they didn't seem too confused by the relocation of their facilities here in the garden.
Note the hedgehog feeding from the bowl on the rubber mat. This individual has been visiting regularly in recent weeks. He's distinguishable from the others by the two dark bars on his right shoulder. I'm trying to think of a name for him... Barney, perhaps?

I'm glad to see our blackbird is back! He's hardly had a look-in recently with the wood pigeons and the starlings.

A busy night for hedgehogs

2010-05-13T10:13:00.003+01:00

There were so many hedgehogs visiting last night. I rarely get a photo capture of more than two at the same time, but the photos below are not Photoshopped! (Although I did consider correcting the AM/PM set up incorrectly on the camera).

The photos are still coming out with too much bounce-back from the infra-red. I can only conclude this will impove as the charge in the battery weakens.

A wet but busy Friday night and the mystery of the white-tailed hedgehog

2010-05-08T13:42:00.005+01:00

When it came to reviewing the night's video footage, there was so much good material that I really was spoilt for choice. I had a real problem deciding which clips to use to show you here. We'll start off, however, with some nice close-up clips of hedgehogs eating in front of the feeding station:

In the next video, we see the hedgehogs running around a bit more and going in and out of the feeding station. After the first scene fade at around the 0.45 point notice how the hedgehog upon entering the feeding station shakes itself like a dog (it was raining outside). I noticed this behaviour about four or five times when reviewing the night's footage.

All in all, when viewing the night's footage, I believe I counted five different individuals. The hedgehog we see in the next video clip, however, left me puzzled. He (for we can see he is male) appears to have a long white "tail". My worry was that it might be some kind of injury, but I suppose it's possible that it could be a piece of litter or a feather that has become attached to the spines. I'm going to keep a lookout for this hedgehog, in case it is something that requires attention. I'm hoping that it's no big deal, and that the object will be worked loose naturally.

Little hog visits

2010-05-05T21:32:00.007+01:00

At a few minutes past 9:00PM I was just about to put the trail camera out so as to capture some video footage of the hedgehog visits overnight when I saw this little chap tucking into the mealworms and chopped nuts. I took a couple of photos through the cat flap; however this activity caught the attention of Elsa who was out in the garden and caused her to come running up to the cat flap. This flurry of activity in turn worried the hedgehog a little and he soon scooted off to the safety of the hedge.

A few moments later I saw him at the side of the patio and took this quick picture (he obviously didn't want to go too far away - not when he knows there is food nearby!). I gave him a handful of mealworms as a thank you, which he was soon yumming up.

As I type this Elsa is in the garden happily watching one hedgehog sniffing around the bike shed, whilst another hedgehog is at the secondary feeding station down at the far end of the garden.

May Day Hedgehogs

2010-05-04T12:03:00.002+01:00

These pictures from last night are very dark, because the battery in the camera was low and it gave up altogether by midnight. Ironically, the reduced power meant that the infrared was not very strong and so we ended up with some quite nice hedgehog photos with none of the dreaded white out.

The hedgehogs do seem to be very hungry at the moment. I've been having to re-fill the bowls for the last couple of nights because all the mealworms are eaten up by 11:00PM. Last night I also put a bowl of Elsa's cat food out (she's being very fussy again and refusing to eat perfectly good food), and the hedgehogs yummed that up too. I won't be able to put out Elsa's cat food rejects today, as I was trying to get her to eat some fishy cat food, and apparently fish-based cat food is not good for hedgehogs.

According to Twosie, this week is Hedgehog Awareness Week. I must confess that this is the first I had heard of it. But of course, every week is hedgehog awareness week around here!

How many hogs?

2010-05-01T11:32:00.006+01:00

Blimey, just look at this!

But no, I can't tell a lie. It's a Photoshop montage which I made from Friday night's still captures for a bit of fun. Those hedgehogs were all there, but not at the same time, and the same individuals are probably in the montage more than once.

Here are the best of the night's genuine captures:

Wet Thursday night

2010-04-30T11:53:00.003+01:00

Thursday had been very wet all day and into the night, but I decided to put the camera out to see if the hedgehogs still came despite the rain. I put all the food inside the feeding station as the hedgehogs don't tend to like it when it's turned to soup. Captures on the camera were well down with the camera only being triggered 12 times by hedgehogs throughout the night. That's compared to approximately 70 times on a warm night recently.

When daylight came, the camera was triggered a handful of times by the birds that come down to see what scraps of food the hedgehogs had left. Regular readers might remember that I had evidence of one cunning starling that had figured out that it could go inside the feeding station for, possibly, richer pickings. Well, as the following photos show, now it seems they are all at it!

Small hog on Tuesday night

2010-04-28T10:11:00.006+01:00

Tuesday night was a busy night for hedgehogs in the garden, with several showing up between 8:30PM and 5:00AM or thereabouts. On hog in particular struck me as being rather small. Too big to be a juvenile at this time in the year, I would have thought, but smaller than I would have expected to have survived the previous harsh winter. Unless possibly it lost a lot of weight during that time.

Monday night's hedgehog slideshow

2010-04-27T11:54:00.002+01:00

I set the camera up to capture stills last night, but nearly all the captures were either too reflective with hedgehogs being whited-out or else they were blurred - those hogs can move quickly. However, I've used the all the available captures to create a video slideshow so that you can see the amount of activity in a single night. It looks like there might have been a couple of altercations too when there was more than one hedgehog on the scene at the same time. It looks like there's some argy-bargy at 5:00AM.

The hedgehogs have been getting friendly again...

2010-04-21T23:23:00.005+01:00

...and this time I have some (shaky) video footage:

Apologies for the quality of the picture. It seems that the female hedgehog is lying on her back - which answers the age-old question! (Or perhaps not... see the comments!)

Here is the photo of the pair afterwards. I have a feeling the male is waiting for the female to uncurl so they can resume their earlier activity.

Tuesday night hog movie

2010-04-21T11:16:00.002+01:00

I'd accidentally set the trail camera so that it took 15 second videos (I usually set it to one minute). However, it worked out quite nicely as we get lots of little snippets of footage of hedgehogs in different positions and doing different things and which makes for quite a lively video. Watch how the first hedgehog reacts when the second one shows up towards the end of the video.

Hedgehogs getting friendly on Sunday night

2010-04-18T22:36:00.003+01:00

Uncharacteristicly, two hedgehogs were staying down at the end of the garden tonight rather than coming up to the feeding station on the patio. Here we see one of them drinking rainwater from the trug. Note in the second photo that it has a tick near its left eye. This is the hog that I brought into the house last night to treat for ticks, and that is the tick I couldn't get.

So what were they doing down the end of the garden? It seems something was afoot. Readers of a delicate disposition may want to look away for the next two photos.

I'll guess I'll have to look out for signs of little hoglets in a month or so!

Hedgehog visits on a warm April Saturday night

2010-04-18T11:22:00.003+01:00

I was happy to see the hedgehog in the next photo had returned. Earlier in the evening I had brought him into the house because I had seen that the poor thing had ticks on his head and face. Using a Tick Twister I managed to remove two of the horrible little parasites, but there was a third near his eye that I couldn't get to because the hog kept curling up whenever the tick twister went near his face (I can't say I blame him). In the end I decided just to let the hog go; there was no way it was going to let me remove that last tick. In the photo you can make out a shape near its left eye, which is - I believe - the tick. Alas, I didn't take any photos of the hedgehog whilst it was inside the house because my camera battery was being re-charged.

The hog in the next picture appears to be a different individual.

Uh-oh! This next picture shows a hog all curled up. I'd wager that it had just been headbutted by another hedgehog.

Blimey! This blackbird is an early bird!

The Avebury Hedgehogs

2010-04-18T11:10:00.005+01:00

Yesterday, I went for a long walk around Avebury in Wiltshire, taking in the now legendary standing stones, the long barrow at West Kennett, and Silbury Hill. My friend promised me that we'd see hedgehogs. However, I didn't realise that he meant these:
To the northeast of the village of Avebury are a series of barrows or tumuli surmounted with beech trees. These are known locally as "hedgehogs".

You can appreciate that the shape isn't unlike that of our spiny little friends.

Friday night's hedgehog in colour!

2010-04-16T21:15:00.005+01:00

On a blog devoted to hedgehogs it's difficult to keep things looking interesting - there's a danger of all the posts being too similar in content, but I do try to vary the content of posts as much as I can. Sometimes we have stills, sometimes slideshows and sometimes video content. This year, I'm trying not to go outside with the camera to take colour photographs of the hedgehogs as it unnecesarily scares them away, but tonight I very gently opened the cat flap and took these couple of colour photos. The hedgehog's pose in the second photo is most peculiar, don't you think? (I think it must be Scratchy scratching an itch again!)

Two hogs on Thursday night

2010-04-16T21:07:00.005+01:00

There was lots of activity in the garden again this Thursday tonight, and I have photographic evidence of more than one hog at the same time. It looks like they may have been indulging in a little pushing and shoving seeing as the one is tightly curled up.

Lots of hedgehog activity on Wednesday night

2010-04-15T10:37:00.004+01:00

All the mealworms and chopped peanuts were eaten last night, which is the first time in a long while. This suggests that there were several visitors last night and not just the one lone hedgehog. There were many camera captures from 8:44pm to 5:03am confirming that it was indeed a busy night. However, infrared flashback or white-out is again being a problem and it's very difficult to tell one hedgehog from another in the above photos. I'm pretty sure the first visitor was (new?) Scratchy, and a later one may have been Blondie. It's strange, however, that I'm not capturing a photo of two hedgehogs visiting at once.