Hi Annie
Good to hear you have got a new cam, but sad no hogs caught on it – yet. But, I’m sure Frank looked lovely in his starring role. Maybe when the hoglets start exploring they may appear in your garden again. What sort of cam did you get in the end? I would be interested to hear how it goes.
I am beginning to think there are 4 hoglets here now. They are growing enormously quickly and keep catching me out by turning up earlier and earlier. They seem to come before any of the adults turn up. It usually goes hoglets – females – males. I have seen 3 hoglets at once (but they usually arrive one at a time), but now their facial markings are beginning to develop a bit more, I am getting to recognise the individuals a bit better. They are a bit inclined to only stay for a couple of minutes at a time, though, and seem to be very good at teleporting in and out of the feeding area! I see them foraging a bit, so hope they are doing plenty of that and not relying on artificial food too much. Unfortunately, at least one of the poor things appears to have been marked.
Talking about poor unfortunate hogs on the road, a friend of mine has found about 4 this year on a fairly short stretch of road – terrible. I think it needs one of those signs. I did talk to someone from our council a while ago, but he said the parish council in the area have to ask for one and pay for it and it has to be only temporary. I think all councils are different about that sort of thing.
Don’t know if you saw elsewhere on the forum that I have been capturing videos of bats on one of the cams. It is coincidently situated near a buddleia and there are loads of moths there. I kept thinking that looks too big for a moth and then it became really obvious they were bats. One of them hovered right in front of the camera. I could see the ears and when it turned round, it’s little eyes. Really nice to see. I knew there were quite a few bats here years ago, but hadn’t seen any recently. Makes up for all the just missed hogs.
The other cam is misbehaving. I keep thinking, I hope the cam caught that and when I look in the morning, there is no sign of it. Very annoying.
Digger is looking positively portly at the moment. I hope it is because she is pregnant and not that she has been over-eating inappropriate food. She is such a lovely hog. Very tolerant of the other girls and will often share a bowl with one. They should beware, though – last night she tipped the bowl up and ended up with food all over her face! Lucky it is the sort that just falls off again. Not sure how she did it, the bowls all have heavyish flat bases. Bet that’s not on the cam – haven’t looked yet.
The water butt blackbird seems to be either ignoring the previously more dominant one or has taken over again because he is there to greet me every morning (and at frequent intervals throughout the day!). He is looking extremely scruffy and I imagine will soon disappear to moult – although I seem to have been saying that for ages! Your pigeon sounds like a real character!
