Hi Penny
I thought I saw a suspicious looking blob underneath the hog on your video. I guess it’s nice to have someone back, whoever it is!
I think we had a bit more snow here than you did. I cleared the path for hoglet on Thursday night but it was beginning to fill again as fast as I cleared it. By the next day it was a foot deep in some places. So I cleared a path again, but it was quite deep every where else and I’m not sure where he is nesting during the day now. No sign of poor hoglet for 2 nights. Thank goodness he was back last night. My feed box camera was malfunctioning, again, and took over 500 videos (5 with hogs on!), but ran out of batteries soon after 10, so I don’t know how long he stayed. He was seen going into the nest box some time after 8. There was a shadowy image of a hog leaving down the garden about 5. That camera was producing a foggy picture (or maybe it really was foggy).
The poor little chap was looking very insecure – misjudged the entrance to the feed box and then later came out and immediately dashed round the back out of sight. He was looking very wary, not at all his usually confident self. I wasn’t totally sure that the hog who I saw a bit later was him – it seemed a bit bigger. Last year the first of the boys came back from hibernation on 3rd March, so it’s possible there is another around as well. I will have to start keeping a better look out. It was unfortunate that none of the cams were working at their best – typical when it was just the night I wanted to make sure hoglet was ok. I am so relieved he made it back. The bowl of food was completely emptied and thank goodness there was plenty of unfrozen water around. On one of the really cold nights the water bowl from his box in the morning was uneven, as if he had been eating the ice before it got really hard. Fingers crossed for no more cold spells like that. At least it only lasted a few days, not all winter as per the Express!! It’s just started pouring with rain, so hopefully it will wash the rest of the snow away.
Loved the video of your arctic hog. He must have got a cold tummy squeezing into your ceramic feeder! The blackbird was looking a bit miffed. Couldn’t quite work out what she was up to. Did she want to go into the feeder too?
Won’t be long, now, until more hogs return.
