Hogs don't want to get wet on Saturday night

There was absolutely no hedgehog activity in the garden before midnight last night. I don't think they are very fond of the wet weather. It must be hunger that eventually brings them out. Because of the rain I hadn't scattered mealworms on the ground, and all food bowls were inside the feeding station. Unfortunately because of the rain drops on its surface, we are prevented from seeing inside in any of the photos captured. And because of their speed when running about, there were precious little photos of hedgehogs outside the feeding station either.

Thursday night's hedgehog videos

The above video features some particularly nice close-ups. Watch out also for Elsa, who makes a cameo appearance.

The next video shows a fuller account of the night's hedgehog visitors, albeit in speeded-up format:

Blondie puts in an appearance on a wet Thursday night

I was beginning to think that the hedgehogs might not venture out tonight in the first wet weather for a couple of weeks, but it looks like Blondie was hungry!

A snoozy hedgehog

I was filling up bowls in the garden shortly before 9pm tonight when I spied this hedgehog seemingly having a snooze in the feeding station. It probably needed a rest, for it had just been around the garden and eaten three bowls of mealworms!

Tuesday night's infrared still photos

I think we can safely say "experiment successful"! Obviously the motion-detector camera was throwing out too much infrared light and just saturating the subject. Now, in this sequence of photos we have recognisable hedgehogs! Here are the best of the bunch:

Further experiments with infrared still photography

For the purposes of gaining these still photographs I decided to move the feeding station to one side so that the infrared would not reflect off its plastic surface. I also put down a couple more rubber mats on the patio, as the paving slabs themselves can reflect the infrared from the camera. These results are much better, but as you can see in the above image, the subject of our photo - the hedgehog - is still appearing as a fuzzy white silhouette.

This second photo I'm showing you here is the best of about 40 captures. You can actually make out details of the hedgehog. I think the fact that the hedgehog is to one side of the image is telling. It's not getting the full force of the infrared.

With this in mind I have stuck some more tape over the infrared LEDs on the front of the camera so that its not going to produce such intense and focused light. I've put the camera out again, sprinkled some more mealworms on the rubber mats, and we'll see what results we get in the morning.

A fuzzy white silhouette and some starlings

Last night I thought, for a change, that I would employ the infra-red motion-detector camera to take some stills rather than movies. Unfortunately, the above is the best shot of a hedgehog that I got. The infrared created too much glare and all you can see of the hedgehog is a fuzzy white silhouette. The glare also reflects off the surface of the plastic feeding station and much of the centre of each photo is whited-out.

Last year, I did have a similar problem with glare on the movies, but after much experimentation with positioning of camera, postitioning of feeding station, use of black rubber mats on the patio, and the taping-over of some of the camera's infrared LEDs, I managed to get videos that worked quite nicely. It's weird that the same settings do not work for stills.

By way of some small consolation, I did get some nice photos of starlings this morning:

Hungry hedgehogs on Sunday night

When I'm regularly posting these hedgehog videos it's difficult to try to keep them interesting and not too samey. Last night I got such a lot of good footage, rather than try to edit it I decided to show it in speeded-up format.

Back in real time on Monday morning, and a robin and a blackbird come down to investigate what food has been left over from the previous night's hedgehog feast.

PLEASE say "NO" to Push The Button with Ant and Dec

I don't like "entertainment" TV programmes of this format and normally wouldn't bother to tune in, but I was quite literally flicking channels on the TV last night and was appalled to see a sequence with animals in boxes and contestants putting their hands into boxes trying to ascertain the identity of the animal within.

The hedgehog was quite clearly frightened. It must have been stressful enough for it being under bright lights and in a noisy TV studio environment in the first place, but to have that woman's hand come into the box and poke it and knock it flying was just too much. She was hardly being gentle.

Using animals in this way in the name of (so-salled) entertainment is barbaric. This is the 21st Century and people need to be educated about animals and taught to respect them, not to treat them as objects of fun.

Please, I urge all readers, email the ITV at viewerservices@itv.com and tell them that this kind of thing is just not acceptable.

Thank you.

Hedgehogs and other visitors on Friday night

I was quite spooked when I looked back at the videos from last night, because the cat that turns up looks eerily like my dear departed Spock. It's weird, because although there are other black cats in the neighbourhood, I haven't previously seen one with the Burmese-like pointed face and big ears like Spock had.

Anyway, note how unfazed the hedgehog is by the cheeky cat come to steal its food. It really isn't bothered.

What really surprised me is that the cat has a go at eating mealworms!

I captured so much great footage last night that I am splitting it over two videos. At the end of this second video we see a few more non-spiky visitors clearing up the leftover mealworms in the morning.