Oh Annie, that’s terrible – not fair at all. It all sounds horrid – and what a time for it to happen just when you were meant to be having a nice break. I hope you are beginning to feel a bit better from it all now and will get another chance to have your break at your friend’s sometime soon.
Interesting that Henry’s wary of Nala. Splash does that with one of the cats who visits here. Naughty Splash doesn’t seem to have learned hog etiquette – that they are gentle with hoglets – and nudges the little hoglet out of the way! The little thing doesn’t seem too bothered though, which is good. It’s such a cute little thing. Growing quickly, so I hope it will be ok for hibernation. The nice thing is that with the bit of rain we had a while back, most of the marks have disappeared. I only hope it stays that way until hibernation. Sadly still no Digger.
The releasing thing is a worry. The BHPS and others have produced a leaflet about it. https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/BHPS-Guidance-For-relasing-Rehabilitated-Hedgehogs.pdf
Co-incidentally Stef drew our attention to it not long after I mentioned the problem to you. I don’t understand the thing about honey bees not pollinating. I thought that was what they were known for. Has someone suddenly discovered that they don’t? Although I can understand it maybe not being a good idea introducing them if it’s a poor plant area.
The mice have mysteriously disappeared again. Not sure what is happening. Will have to wait and see if they re-appear now they’re being mentioned again! Although, now there are the three hogs, there isn’t so much time for them to get a look in.
Mask, who I think is a male, tears around the place and I’m a bit worried that he is wasting too much energy running everywhere rather than putting on weight for hibernation. He tears around the grass – suddenly stops, as if he’s found something – and then tears off again. Not sure if he can really have found anything moving that fast! Splash on the other hand is looking fairly portly. Mostly, they visit separately and don’t seem to be the best of buddies.
I agree, it’s almost impossible to know how much natural food versus artificial food the hogs are getting. Although you can get a bit of idea from their poos. If they have a mainly natural diet, they tend to look quite dark, with shiny beetle wings, etc. visible. But, if they eat a lot of cat or hog food they tend to look paler. Roughly the colour of whatever they eat. But then, of course, if they are eating lots of earthworms or yucky slugs(!) they would be paler too. I love it that Henry leaves you a leaf!
I was beginning to wonder whether there was a leak in the pond because the water went down so much, but now the weather is cooler, the starlings don’t seem to be bathing so much and the water is barely going down at all, which is good. I think the frogs dive down to the bottom when the pond gets invaded. I don’t see them that often, they seem to be very clever at hiding. I have been beginning to see the occasional blackbird, on the camera early in the morning when it’s barely light, but still none later on.
I hope you stay safe and make a quick recovery.
