Hi Paul,
All I can say is that this year has been a very strange year for hedgehog visibility, we’ve all been commenting on it recently. some experts have suggested the very dry weather and lack of food / water had driven numbers of them to a ‘summer hibernation’ – which would be unusual but kind of makes sense.
If you have been seeing them routinely since April – through the dry weather etc – then it sounds unlikely in your case – but then as you say later litters or second litters could be a reason. additional support from neighbours could also be a reason and they may have chosen alternative restaurants and menu for a while…….
we all just have to sit tight under these circumstances, hogs do have unpredictable habits, which I can only conclude comes down to a natural instinct we know very little about.
recommendation is to keep putting refreshed food and water out and even after many months they can and do reappear – much to our delight and relief.
I’m trying not to read too much into not seeing any of our regulars for many weeks now also – but as the ground softens locally with the rainfall we have now got – i’m keeping a beady eye out for signs they have returned at any point.
