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

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!

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

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)

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!

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

Baby hog on Friday night

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

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

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

Thursday night's hedgehog movie

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