Hi Colin
That is sad to hear about the absence of hogs there. You could be right and it is caused by fence ‘repairs’ etc. (as well as potential damages to hog habitat) during lockdown and their route to your garden could have been blocked. The timing does seem a bit of a coincidence otherwise.
Sadly, hogs are not doing so well in the wider countryside, where often the habitat is not really suitable for them. So they do rely a lot on gardens, whether in suburbia or in villages – which tend to mimic one of the hogs favoured habitats of woodland edge. It might be worthwhile trying to get a hedgehog highway going there, by encouraging your neighbours to link their gardens by making hog holes in the boundaries. Hogs need several gardens to make up their ranges, so the bigger network they have available to them, the better – and also the less need they have to cross roads with all the hazards that entails.
There is lots of material available if you want to try to encourage your neighbours to help hogs, in:
https://www.hedgehogstreet.org/my-hedgehog-street/free-downloadable-resources/
which can also be accessed via ‘My Hedgehog Street’ (top right of this page).
Fingers crossed some hogs will return. I completely understand not wanting to leave uneaten food out because of rats, but it’s a good idea to leave some water available for hogs all day every day, just in case a thirsty one should turn up. I would keep leaving the cameras out if I were you. About this time of year, sometimes some of last years hoglets (especially males) disperse, so hopefully one/some will find your garden again.
Good luck.
