Hi Phil1
I’m not sure a female would scout for a nest that far ahead and once a mature female is out and about, they can breed. It is known that female hedgehogs will sometimes abandon their nests when they have very young hoglets, if they are disturbed, or even on occasion eat them, so that is the time to really make sure they aren’t disturbed, but I think it would be very unusual for them to have young at this time of year.
Re. the camera. Not sure how yours work, but Hogs are very good camera dodgers too – leading to jokes about teleporting hogs! If your camera is in a box, I know when a hog here made a nest, the outside of the actual nesting material wasn’t disturbed at all when he went in and out, so if it had been up against a camera it wouldn’t look any different. But, of course, I don’t know exactly what your set up is.
Your plan to check next week sounds good. Good Luck.
