Hi Annie
I wonder whether hog numbers seem quieter to some people because there are more people feeding them, in general. Your leaf pile sounds a good idea. Even if they don’t go into it, they will have easy access to lots of leaves and they should attract lots of creepy crawlies for them to eat. I don’t have huge numbers so have just been moving them to the edge of the lawn.
On a sad note, a friend of mine has seen 8 dead hedgehogs on about a half mile stretch of road this year. Two one day last week. Very upsetting. Too far away to have been any of my visitors, but a hedgehog is a hedgehog and any dead hog is one too many. I know the perceived wisdom used to be that if there were was a lot of ‘roadkill’ it indicated a good population of hogs, but what must those sort of numbers of fatalities have on a population?
I agree with you about night being a time when nasty things can happen to cats, which is why I always tried to keep mine in at night. I was lucky, having had him from a kitten, that he just was used to it. A disgusted looking Frank – that did make me laugh. Makes me think of ‘The Aristocats’.
Interesting about the blue tits – I have been seeing more blue and great tits here recently, too. Nice that you’ve seen a wren. They’re very good at staying hidden in the vegetation, but lovely little things when you see them. Sounds like the clematis netting feeder is a success. I know some people aren’t so keen on starlings, but they are good fun to watch. Good analogy, they do seem to dive down from nowhere.
Digger still visited last night. I was relieved to see her – bearing in mind bonfire night – but I last saw her at 9.45, so hopefully any bonfires would already have happened by then. A new hoglet has also been around the last few nights – not very small. That’s the first new hoglet I’ve seen since July. There was a clip on the cam of the cat staring into the usual area. When the cat moved away, there was the hoglet right in front of where it had been. It got up and walked away too – in the opposite direction. Wonder what was happening just before the clip started. The hoglet has been seen eating with Digger. That’s no guarantee it’s hers, but they have twice been seeing ‘trotting’ away together, so maybe it is. On the other hand it might just be following because she’s the only adult female still around. It bears absolutely no resemblance to her, but maybe it’s like Dad.
A cat has been coming and eating the hog food – very unusual, as most cat’s ignore it. But very annoying, especially when the hoglet needs the food. Last night I put an extra bowl in one of the hog boxes – I had seen the hoglet go in there a previous night. I left a slight trail towards it, but this morning the food was still there. The hoglet made several appearances (on it’s own) on the cam up until 6.30 this morning and drank a lot. Just wish he’d found the food. I’ll have to leave a better trail tonight – and hope the cat doesn’t eat it.
