Hi Annie
I was only thinking this morning that hadn’t heard from you for a while! Maybe picked up some telepathy talents from the hogs!
Igel disappeared a while ago. I thought she might be producing late hoglets, but think she’s probably been gone too long now. Then another adult hog appeared for a while, but seemed scared of Siili! The boys all disappeared a while ago. Haven’t checked last night’s video yet, but the ‘new’ hog wasn’t here the night before. So Siili was in sole occupation of the feeding area again. That is until an enterprising cat managed to squeeze under the roof. Looked thoroughly uncomfortable, didn’t eat much and didn’t stay long. Luckily Siili had already been and gone. I’ve expanded the roof area now. Hope Siili didn’t mind! I’m half hoping she doesn’t hibernate again. It will be interesting to see what happens after her interrupted year. I haven’t seen any more hoglets, since that one ages ago. Still hopeful.
It’s good to hear Frankie’s kennel is still being used. Perhaps a hog, or a mouse, has decided to use some of the newspaper in it’s nest. Lovely to hear that you still have lots of hogs visiting. And fox and mouse! I quite often have a mouse or two as well. Uses up a lot of video here, too, dashing backwards and forwards! Yes, hogs can put on a surprising spurt of speed if they want to, as well.
I think it’s a really good idea having two entrances/exits to a feed box. Much nicer for the hogs.
Re. your birds, there was an old saying – something like this: A rook on its own is a crow and crow in a crowd is a rook. (sorry if I mentioned it before!) Of course, there are always exceptions to rules! But could your birds be rooks if there are a lot of them. I get quite a few here, but usually more at certain times of the year than others. They nest nearby. But I also get jackdaws visiting – they always look so inquisitive, I think it must be those blue-ish eyes. Just looked up how long rooks live. 15 -20 years! That’s amazing. So, some of those really could be the rooks who were around years ago.
Yes, autumn is really upon us already. My garden is looking quite colourful at the moment with all the different coloured leaves, and a few flowers as well. But it won’t be long until the leaves all fall off. Only two weeks until the clocks change, so it will be a bit lighter in the mornings – for a short while, at least. I always worry about any hogs still not hibernating, though, with the change in traffic timings. Then there’s bonfire night. Oh dear, a hog lover’s worry is never done!
