The last hedgehog is an old friend

Please forgive the quality of this video. It seems that the position I placed the camera in meant that quite a lot of glare was created. I have reduced the brightness in an attempt to improve the picture, but it's far from perfect.

Regular readers to this blog will know that most of the hedgehogs that had been visiting my garden this year are now hibernating; all except this one individual hedgehog that is still braving the cold weather and filling up on as much food as possible.

Studying the above video footage I now believe that this particular hedgehog is an old friend ... Scratchy!

Look at who's been eating the mealworms!

I didn't get to put the motion-detector camera out last night until very late (about midnight) because I had been re-charging the battery again. There were a couple of hedgehog visits between 9:00 and 12:00 pm, although I suspect it was the same hedgehog on each occasion. I don't think there were any more hoggy visits after that because a lot of mealworms (which I had replenished when putting the camera out) were left this morning, providing a feast for these starlings.

DON'T BURN ME!

It's the 5th November which is traditionally bonfire night in the UK.

If anyone is having a bonfire tonight, PLEASE check your bonfire stack before lighting it to make sure that there are no hedgehogs inside. Thank you!

(Photo from 13 July 2009)

Big news... videos are back!

OK, so this movie isn't the most exciting, it's just a hedgehog eating (and as it had been raining, I think that was mealworm soup!). However, there aren't too many active hogs around at the moment, I think most of them must be hibernating already. I'll have to see what other footage I can get of them with the infrared camera whilst there are some still about.

I've had the new camera battery for about a week already, but had been experiencing a few problems getting it charged up properly. Let's hope it's OK and is going to continue working properly now.

Hedgehogs in the news

There's not been a lot of hedgehog activity in the garden recently. Visits have dropped right off. Only one bowl of food was even touched last night. I guess most of them have begun their hibernation. On the upside, I'm glad to report that I have found no more autumn juveniles.

However, I have found several hedgehog stories in the news this past week or so:

Guards hired to protect hedgehogs

30 October 2009

Security guards armed with torches and chicken wire are keeping 24-hour watch to stop hedgehogs hiding in a bonfire at one of the country's largest fireworks displays.

The initiative at the Three Counties Showground in Malvern, Worcestershire, is part of a campaign to raise awareness of the danger bonfires pose to hedgehogs.

The British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS) has teamed up with cleaning company Spontex, whose mascot is Ernie Hedgehog, to promote the campaign.

Clifford Soper, from Spontex, is one of the guards hired to keep watch.

"A bonfire looks like a five-star hotel to a hedgehog searching for the perfect place to hibernate," he said.

"Most people don't think about checking a bonfire, or better still rebuilding it, before lighting which can result in the death of all sorts of unsuspecting wildlife asleep inside.

"The Three Counties bonfire has followed BHPS advice and encircled its bonfire with one-metre high chicken wire."

The Halloween bonfire and fireworks display will take place at the showground on Saturday night.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091030/tuk-guards-hired-to-protect-hedgehogs-6323e80.html

And:

Drunk hedgehog rescued in Devon

Friday, October 30 2009, 15:28 GMT
By Mayer Nissim, Entertainment Reporter

A hedgehog has been treated in an animal hospital after getting drunk on fermenting apples in an orchard.

The creature was discovered lying on its back and squealing last Wednesday and was helped by local wildlife rescue expert Ann McCormack at The Prickly Ball Hedgehog Hospital in South Devon, the North Devon Journal reports.

McCormack said: "They had placed it in a guinea pig cage and it kept going round in circles. The hedgehog kept falling over and was on its back with its legs up in the air for most of the time.

"It was legless. This is definitely the first drunk hedgehog I have found. The next morning I came in and turned the light on and she squealed really loudly. She obviously still had a big headache."

The hedgehog, nicknamed Tipsy, will be fed up to a healthy weight of 600g before being released back into the wild in the spring.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/news/a184487/drunk-hedgehog-rescued-in-devon.html

Also:

Spare a thought for a Stroud hedgehog

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Help a Hedgehog Hospital founder Annie Parfitt wants people to keep a look out for prickly creatures confused by global warming.

Annie, whose rescue centre is in Brimscombe, says milder winters and pesticide use mean hedgehogs are on the decline.

She says those that remain are getting confused about hibernation times.

At this time of year a hedgehog seen out in the day needs rescuing and taking to the hospital.

Mother hedgehogs are also having second litters late in the year due to the mild weather and the babies are unlikely to survive winter.

Annie, 41, says hedgehogs are being attacked by badgers and are vanishing from the landscape in certain areas.

She said: "They also climb into people's dustbin bags to shelter and get thrown away with the rubbish.

"Of course, at this time of year they hide in bonfire woodpiles made for Guy Fawkes' Night."

Annie has been fascinated by hedgehogs since childhood and, on turning 40, she decided to set up her hospital and do something positive to help support dwindling numbers in the Stroud area.

Annie works under the umbrella organisation the British Hedgehog Preservation Society. She can be contacted on 07867 974 525 or annieparfitt@sky.com.

http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/stroud/news/Spare-thought-little-hedgehog/article-1458097-detail/article.html

And finally:

Hedgehog triplets born in five-star luxury

Staff at Edinburgh's Prestonfield left stunned by delivery in hotel reception.

21 October 2009 14:42 PM

A choosy mother chose a five-star maternity suite in one of Edinburgh's plushest hotels - even though she was giving birth to hedgehog triplets.

Guests at the Prestonfield were stunned when the critter walked into the hotel's reception and settled on the carpet.

However, they were even more surprised when she gave birth to three spiky babies before taking a snooze behind a basket of logs beside the hotel's open fire.

Staff from the SSPCA rushed to the five-star venue to care for the creatures.

Now, the seven-week-old hoglets are said to be doing well and are living with their mum at a rescue centre in Fife.

Centre Manager Colin Seddon said: "This was a very unusual place for the hedgehog to choose to have her babies.

"She was obviously confused and knowing that she was about to give birth, decided to find the nearest warm and sheltered place, which just happened to be a very plush hotel.

"We were worried when she came in because it is not uncommon for a mother hedgehog to eat her young if she is disturbed or feels threatened, so we were obviously very keen to avoid that happening.

"Initially, we kept the family warm and dry and provided them with food and water, but we left them in almost complete isolation to minimise the risk of cannibalism.

"Thankfully this approach has proved successful and all three hoglets are now seven weeks old and ready to be released back to the wild with their mother."

James Thomson, proprietor of the Prestonfield Hotel, admitted staff had been surprised by the delivery, but said: "The wellbeing of all our visitors to Prestonfield is of the utmost importance to us and so we are all really thrilled to hear that both mother and all three hoglets are healthy and are now ready to be released back home.

"We are just glad that they checked in and enjoyed a little five-star luxury along the way."

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/east-central/131746-hedgehog-triplets-born-in-five-star-luxury/

The Cheshire Hog

Photo by Hannah Boardman

My niece Hannah has just sent me this photo of the little hedgehog that she and the family found outside their house in Cheshire last night. My sister phoned to tell me that they took him to the Lower Moss Wood Wildlife Hospital this morning, where he was weighed and found to be only 209g. Definitely an autumn juvenile, and even smaller than the first one I found last week. He is being kept at the hospital for overwintering seeing as he is too small to survive hibernation. Well done to the Boardman family for another hedgehog rescue!

Hedgehog at the waterbowl and a couple of items of news

There are still one or two hogs visiting the garden each night, and thankfully they are nice big ones that look like they're going to be able to survive hibernation. Here's another of my trademark "through the cat-flap" photographs of one of last night's hedgehogs at the waterbowl. I like how its front paw is in the water. So, that's how they manage to leave those prints everywhere.

I had a telephone call from my sister late last night. She and her family had just arrived home to their house in Cheshire after a short break in London (I went to meet up with them all on Monday) and they found an autumn juvenile trying to sleep on their driveway by the garage door. She's put it in a box with some bedding and taken it inside into the warmth and I've advised her what food she can give it. I've also given her the phone number of a local carer - who, it turns out, she believes she already knows. Hopefully, she'll get the little hog to this carer in the morning and it'll be safe and sound. It's so weird that this should happen after I was telling my sister on Monday about my own two autumn juveniles.

If anyone else out there finds an autumn juvenile and needs to find a local carer, see the list at the British Hedgehog Preservation Society.

In other news, I have at last received the replacement battery and charger for my infrared motion-sensor camera. I was hoping to make a few more videos before the hedgehogs all go into hibernation, but alas, this one does not work either. I think I'm going to have to send the whole camera back. How infuriating!

UPDATE: Wait... I think the camera is working now after all. I shall test it tonight.

Autumn Juvenile #2

Yes, I'm afraid I've found another one! Why are these juveniles only showing up now? As you can see in the picture, this one weighs 400g, so he's a bit bigger than the juvenile I found earlier in the week. He's currently safe and sound in a pet carrier box with food, water and bedding. I haven't worked out yet how I'm going to get this one to either Tiggywinkles or another hedgehog carer (I don't drive, hence the predicament). If anyone relatively local to Didcot in South Oxfordshire can help, please let me know. Email me on gl.wilson@ntlworld.com or leave a comment on this post.

UPDATE (14:45pm): I'd like to say a huge thank you to S and E from the Twosie the Hedgehog blog for coming to the rescue and getting this delightful little hog delivered to Tiggywinkles this afternoon.

A visit to St Tiggywinkles

I'll tell you about this fellow (pictured above) in a few moments. First, let's talk about the little hog I found in the garden last night and posted about yesterday. I rang St Tiggywinkles and was told that I had indeed done the correct thing in bringing the hog inside and putting it in a box with food, water and bedding. I was advised to bring it in to St Tiggywinkles as soon as possible, because at 300g it was underweight and would not be able to survive hibernation.

So, off to St Tiggywinkles we went. Thankfully, it wasn't too far a drive (and thanks to Ben for being the hedgehog ambulance man). At reception a nurse was called and she scooped the hedgehog up and took him/her off to the nursery. I asked what would happen to the hog, and was told that they'd try to fatten him/her up but it was unlikely it would reach the required weight to survive hibernation, so the most likely scenario was that the little hog would be kept in the hospital for overwintering and released in the spring when it was big enough to make its own way in the world. I felt a little sad that I didn't have the chance to say goodbye to the little hog, but was happy that it was now in safe hands.

While we were there, we thought we may as well take a look around the visitors centre. There were a fair few enclosures but the animals themselves were thin on the ground. We figured that hedgehogs, badgers and foxes would all be sleeping. Thankfully, there were a lot of birds to be seen at the pond, else we would have seen very little.

Below we see a cygnet which was sharing an enclosure with another cygnet.

I was surprised to see a few juvenile seagulls, seeing as how they are hated by so many people. It's nice to know that St Tiggywinkles doesn't discriminate.

St Tiggywinkles also has the world's first and only hedgehog museum, featuring every imaginable cultural reference to our spiky friends.







One of the staff, a very pleasant lady, asked if we'd seen any hedgehogs whilst out in the visitors centre. I told her we'd only seen those through the windows of the nursery, where we'd seen babies and juveniles like the one I brought in being weighed by a nurse. They were very cute, but unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos. We were then taken outside to see one of the permanent hedgehog residents at Tiggywinkles - this is the chap in the next two photos and the one at the beginning of this blog post.

It is believed that this poor hog had suffered some kind of head injury as his right eye was visibly bulging. He seemed very relaxed whilst being held, and it was an honour to meet him!

So, what started as an emergency visit to a wildlife hospital turned out to be a very entertaining day out. All the staff we met seemed very friendly and are obviously all animal lovers and dedicated to helping animals. They are a fantastic organisation! If you get the chance to visit, do so, and if you are able, please help them with a donation.

A little hog comes to visit

Here's a new visitor to the garden - or at least one that I haven't seen before.

I spied this little hog in the feeding station. I could make out that it was sitting in the
feeding bowl eating "Spike's Dinner" and flinging it around all over the place. I thought I should take a closer look to see how big - or little rather - it actually was.

As you can see, the hog is small enough to sit in the palm of my hand. Which doesn't bode well for surviving the winter. I weighed the hog and found it was 300g. I then put it back outside in the feeding station where it curled up and I put plenty of food down for it. I quickly checked the St Tiggywinkles website to see what weight hogs should be to survive a cold winter (600g) and was just about to ring them when I checked the feeding station again - and it was gone.

I feel annoyed that I let it leave, but to be honest I wasn't really sure what I should be doing. I shall ring Tiggywinkles tomorrow and ask for guidance should I see it again. I hope it returns!

22:48 - MORE... The little hog hadn't gone far. I found it curled up asleep with the dead leaves of a finished courgette plant barely covering it, just a few feet away from the feeding station. The poor little thing is now in a pet carrier with a towel and a blanket for warmth. I've put some food and water in the pet carrier for it. It's currently sleeping, and I'm a little concerned about it. I tried a couple of phone numbers - both Tiggywinkles and a hedgehog carer in Oxfordshire, but neither were answering. I'll try again in the morning, if the poor little thing makes it through the night.