Hi Annie
Great to hear from you. Glad you still have lots of activity there. No it’s not too late for huffing etc. – if there are still males and females around. It could either be a female who has already had an early litter which have ‘left home’, a previous failed pregnancy, etc. Some of those late Autumn hoglets are probably conceived even later.
That’s sad that the gate got blocked and sorry to hear about the poor dead hog – always sad to find one.
I have seen one or two smallish looking hogs, but sadly no obvious hoglets. But they do seem to be mostly males. I haven’t seen any really ferocious fights so far this year – they mostly seem to miss each other, but there is the occasional biffing.
I am still finding the occasional hog which has been caught out late and has spent the day in the feeding box. Today’s was lying partly over the food bowl, but I managed to ease the bowl out. Only trouble is he’ll probably trample all over the food when he gets up!
The frogs seem to have moved out of the pond. I didn’t see the cat there again. One morning I saw something moving over the edge and disappearing into the water. At first I thought it might be a small frog, but it kept moving and moving until in the end there was a tapered off tail – a grass snake! No wonder there were no frogs there! Earlier I had seen one of the frogs in one of the other ponds – standing tubs, which I don’t think the grass snake could get into. Then just after I had mown the lawn one day, a frog suddenly appeared by my feet. (I always check, before mowing, all round the edged with a stick to make sure there are no frogs, etc. hiding in the edges). It hopped off and later on I saw it sitting on a hardy geranium leaf which was quite a strange sight! I’m hoping that more of them are hiding in the borders amongst the undergrowth.
Your blackbird sounds a character. Mine seems to have disappeared and I suspect his young ones have grown and are self sufficient and I suspect he’s gone off to moult.
Yes, it was lucky that the starlings were over the bathroom – it might have been a bit annoying over the bedroom! That lot left, but there are noises back up there again now. I’m not sure whether they can be having another clutch, or whether they are just roosting up there now.
Oh, and by the way, the courgette with the copper tape around the pot was eventually completely demolished by the slugs! So it seems it’s not a lot of use in the slightly longer term. Although I suppose wider tape might work better.
