The hog is back...

...good thing too as I've just stocked up on a whole load of mealworms.

I think I'd best clean out and refresh that water bowl tomorrow. It looks rather green, doesn't it?

A 2014 hedgehog at last!

Just when this blog seemed dead and forgotten... I know, I haven't posted for over a year. Unfortunately, it wasn't until last night that I've actually seen a hedgehog this year. I don't know where they have been but the usual signs that they were visiting the garden (i.e. hedgehog poo) were not apparent until about two weeks ago.

Really great to see this little chap.

And in other news we seem to have bats nesting in the roof!

Photographic eveidence of one of our summer visitors

I've commented earlier this year that my infrared trail cam is unfortunately out of action, but I have still been putting food and water out for the hedgehogs. Here's one such visitor photographed tonight - I didn't want to get too close and risk scaring him/her away.

Palmate Newt

I found this little critter on our kitchen floor late last night. It really was quite tiny. At first I thought it was a slug (my eyesight isn't what it used to be) then I took a closer look and saw it had legs. I then wondered if it might be some kind of lizard, but having shown this same pictures to people who can tell an amphibian from a reptile, I am reliably informed that it is a young female palmate newt.

In hedgehog news, I am putting food and water out and at least one hedgehog is visiting the garden to take advantage of this each night. I have tried resurrecting the trail camera but try as I might I cannot get the battery to charge up, so alas I have no new hedgehog images to share with you.

Developments in May 2013

It's been a long time since I last updated this blog. Unfortunately I had to stop putting food out for the hedgehogs because it was attracting rats which I believe were coming from beneath next door's decking.

Wendy vanished. I'm hoping she just moved on to new pastures.

Fast forwarding now to early May 2013, and we started to notice what appeared to be hedgehog faeces in the upper garden. This happened two or three nights in a row, although I was rather surprised by the quantity of it, and was wondering if perhaps a badger could be responsible.

Now. tonight, I was just looking outside at approx 10:30 to see where Elsa (my cat) had gotten to, when I saw a shape on the lawn. Further investigation revealed:

Yes, I did give this hog a handful of mealworms, which you'll notice in the photo.

I'm so pleased we have hedgehogs again. I'd heard that they are late this year, and that doesn't bode well for their numbers, so I'm especially pleased that we have a hedgehog presence here.

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.