The return of the Hog videos!

The laptop is working again which means more Hog videos! For tonight's videos I set up the camera facing the shrub from where the little hog has been appearing for the last couple of weeks.

Except, this footage reveals two small-ish hedgehogs. The one in the clips following the first fade out has markings on its back and a bit of an itch. This little hog is a frequent visitor who I call Scratchy!

Elsa watches the hogs

Elsa has been out in the garden after dark again. I think she enjoys watching the hedgehogs as much as I do. Trouble is, she tends to follow them, and I don't think the hogs know what to make of her. The hog in the above photos was hiding by the courgettes. (And I wish I'd seen those slugs at the time!)

Look who's back, same time, same place

Sleeping hedgehog in the feeding station

I wasn't going to post again tonight, but I have just found something that worries me. At 11:30pm I went outside to check the levels of food in the feeding station before locking up and going to bed, and I noticed a large hedgehog in the feeding station. At first I thought it was eating, then I realised it was facing the doorway in the box and was very still. Looking closely, the hedgehog appears to be sleeping. I touched it gently and it lowered its brow protectively, as hedgehogs do, but I don't think it was really aware of me.

This isn't the first time I have found a hedgehog motionless in the feeding station, but at least last time the hog seemed to be awake.

I confess that I am concerned and not sure what to do. I'm thinking perhaps I should put something into the box to make it warmer for the hog. I'll wait up a little while longer and keep an eye on it. Fingers crossed that it's going to be OK.

UPDATE: I just checked again, approximately 10 minutes later, and the hedgehog is now awake and eating. I shall check again a little later.

Has anyone else out there ever experienced anything like this?

UPDATE #2: 00:08am - OK... good news. The hedgehog has left the feeding station, which implies that it is feeling alright now. Hopefully it'll find somewhere warmer next time it fancies a sleep.

Little hog by the back door again tonight

It's funny how hedgehogs get into their little routines for a few days at a time and then drift out of them. This little hog, pictured above, has been appearing in the same place near the back door shortly after 9:00pm every night now since early last week.

I leave you tonight with the following news item from The Telegraph:

The funniest joke at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe has been picked by a panel of critics.

"Hedgehogs. Why can't they just share the hedge?" won the accolade for London comic Dan Antopolski, 36, who is known for his surreal stand up routines.

Nine comedy critics sifted through more than 3,600 minutes of material to find the winner of the Dave Award for the Funniest Joke of the Fringe.

They each had a pool of around 7,200 different jokes to choose from, based on estimates of the average comedian telling two jokes per minute, organisers said.

Shortlisted jokes were put up for the public vote, with more than 3,000 comedy fans choosing the funniest.

With nearly 18 per cent of votes, Antopolski took top spot and walked away with a trophy from TV channel Dave and a £1,000 cash prize.

The joke was taken from the Perrier Award-nominee's show Silent But Deadly.

(Telegraph.co.uk)

I can only comment that if that was the funniest joke, I'm glad I missed the rest of it.

There was a noisy munching on Sunday night...

...here's the culprit!

Giant sunflowers just about to open

The blooms on these two giant sunflowers are just beginning to open up. I've had lots of sunflowers this year, but for some reason these particular two have grown very tall. The one on the left of the photo was just a few inches shy of 10 foot tall (3 metres) when I measured it yesterday.

Each evening when I nip out into the garden to check on the hedgehogs' food supplies I will often take a torch and go on a slug patrol. Those blasted things seem to love munching on my sunflowers, and you'll notice some leaf damage in the photo above.

Yes, hedgehogs are supposed to eat slugs, but it seems that slug-eating is a last resort. They far prefer other foodstuffs, such as those that I have been providing in the garden for over a year now, e.g. mealworms, unsalted peanuts, sunflower hearts, sultanas, and Spike's Dinner brand hedgehog food or Iams cat food (chicken flavour). You might say, "stop providing food and the hedgehogs will eat the slugs", but I fear that they might not visit the garden at all if I didn't put food and water out for them. I am trying to encourage the hedgehogs, after all they are now classified as an endangered species.

As to slug repellents, I have tried barriers of gel (too easily washed away), gravel, broken eggshells, etc. It seems that a determined slug will always find a way. The one thing I must stress, however, is that one should NEVER use slug pellets. If a hedgehog eats a slug poisoned by slug pellets, then the hedgehog will be poisoned in turn.

Yes, slugs are a nuisance but it you use slug pellets in an effort to control them you could be assisting in the decline of that truly unique and delightful wild animal, the hedgehog.

Friday night's first visitor

This hog turned up shortly before 9.00pm which is the earliest hog visitor to the garden that I have noted in a very long time. I fancy I detected some faint paint marks on her (his?) back, so possibly this is the same "painted hog" that I first blogged about in June.

Elsa meets the hogs

I've had Elsa just over a month now; she was destined for a cat shelter when I took her in and I'd been led to believe that she was a bit of a killer, and I've been worried about the wildlife in the garden. Tonight I absent-mindedly left her out in the garden later than usual. I went out to bring her in at approximately 9:20 to find her sitting nicely on the lawn watching a hedgehog in the feeding station. As she didn't seem to be bothering it, I stayed out and joined her in watching hogs.

A hog made a noisy entrance, emerging from a shrub and Elsa seemed very interested and followed it from the shrub to the feeding station. My worry was that she might pounce, but she was well-behaved. (Despite being told she is a killer, so far the only thing I've seen her kill is a cabbage white butterfly which she caught and ate yesterday.)

Above: Elsa watches the hedgehogs.

After about 15 minutes I decided we should leave the hedgehogs in peace and I scooped Elsa up and took her indoors.

Another Monday night visitor

I just went out into the garden to check if I needed to replenish the mealworms in the feeding station and I found this funny little chap right outside the back door of the house.