At last! A badger caught on video!

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

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

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

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

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

The final hedgehog photos from my garden in south Oxfordshire

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

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

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

More about the autumn juveniles

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

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.