Hi Annie
Good to hear from you. Great news that you have invested in a new hog house! Very exciting. Sounds as if you might get a tenant quite quickly. I’m sure the hogs will be content with the hay! If you’ve got any leaves, they would probably like those too.
Still no hogs here, but I’ve seen a couple of frogs in the pond – hiding amongst the vegetation. There are yellow irises in that one which are going a bit mad. I might have to take some out soon, before they take over the whole thing. (Not sure I’m ever going to get round to making a bigger pond!) But at the moment the frogs seem to like hiding in the sheltered spaces they make. A mouse makes an appearance on the video now and then, too.
But yes the cats are still visiting. I’ve started putting the food into the boxes, with the bricks in the corridors. The cats can obviously smell it, but can’t get in. The only problem is that some hogs don’t like going in the boxes, but just have to hope that if any hog does happen to turn up that it will smell the food, too, and the make the effort. If I leave it outside the cats would have it anyway, so seems the best solution.
Re. the hogs. I had mostly males this year, anyway and they do tend to hibernate earlier. I’m just leaving one camera on, now, in the feeding area. Just in case anyone turns up. Ever hopeful!
Yes, it’s a real treat when we see the red kites. They have been in this area for quite a while now. I used to see them first when I was driving somewhere fairly locally (I saw 4 of them at one time, once this year). I only see them occasionally from my house and the most I’ve seen here are two at a time, but it’s always exciting to see them! Beautiful birds.
Good to hear the birds there are enjoying the new food mix. Love it that they prefer to pick the small seed from amongst the pea shingle! It’s a funny thing about peanuts – the birds here have never taken to them and I used to have to throw them away because they started getting mouldy, so gave up in the end. But I have a friend who feeds them and the birds there seem to love them (likewise where we used to live). No real difference in species. Maybe the ones here just like the sunflower hearts and suet pellets even more!
Hope you stay safe and well, too.
