Our little hog friend of last year hasn't reappeared

[Annie Mac]

Hi Nic

So glad hoglet is busy, can never understand the business of a hog coming out that you don’t see going in but guess the cameras aren’t that quick to go off, find the same with cats & they’re a lot bigger. Cino Cat (Nala’s sibling) took all the hog food last week & left the dish out in the rain so I’d notice it was empty! No sign of hogs yet.

The blackbird is always first on the food here every morning, still another male coming too & they’re not squabbling over the garden or the female who also visits every day.

Your thoughts on BirdWatch could well be right, extra people feeding so our regulars go elsewhere, makes no sense otherwise.

Talking of bees, I did a litter pick in a local park a week or 2 ago & the trees were covered in blossom & the air full of bees, you heard them before seeing them. It was during the very warm spell & bumbles were everywhere in my garden too. haven’t seen them in this colder spell but quite a few different flowers out the back for them to feed on when they reappear.

Read recently that people using fly paper have been finding bats dead on it, how sad & who on earth would use fly paper in 2019? Don’t have a fly problem but would never use it anyway, chase them out & put a fly screen up instead is better. Fly spray was suggested as an alternative but is a no-no too, poison has no place in my home & in any case it would also kill any spiders living here.

I’d love to have seen the birds taking horse hair, their nests would have been really strong & waterproof too.

Building set to start on 1 April, hoping to get things normal again as fast as possible.

[Nic]

Hi Annie
I still only have hoglet 0 here. I think he is going to get a bit of a shock when the others come back. Hope he manages o.k. with others around – although I’m not certain he is a he – he was around too late to see interactions with adults and any scratching in front of the camera has so far been inconclusive. He has grown such a lot and is really no longer a hoglet. I hope, really, that he is a she, because the male hoglets tend to move on, and he’s such a plucky little hog it would be nice if he stayed.

The cat deterrent is working well now – the piece of Perspex type stuff is quite close to the door of the hog food house so the cats can’t get in there. Previously one got in despite the entrance size being reduced. They have even stopped bothering trying to get underneath the Perspex to the hog food – it did look rather uncomfortable! So I have removed the extension and they still aren’t bothering to try. The little hog just manages to get into the box but the cats can’t manage – or haven’t so far!

I have finally trained hoglet to go into the hog box and he mysteriously took to the kitten biscuits after the snow episode – so the kitten biscuits go in the box and the hog food under the perspex.

Would you believe that the very night I said to you there hadn’t been any mice for a while, one appeared again! But only for a few days. Unfortunately the rat still visits from time to time, so I now put out less hog food – which the rat sometimes eats – and more kitten biscuits in the box because I don’t think the rat goes in there (it’s a very jumpy rat) – anyway there are always a few kitten biscuits left in the morning, so hoglet obviously gets enough.

There is a bit of a competition here as to who is the early bird, but I think the blackbird, mostly, wins here, too – with runners up of robin and dunnocks followed by starlings if there’s any hog food left by then. Later on, the poor old starlings have been having a bit of competition – the rooks and jackdaws have taken to visiting. I have even seen rooks on the seed feeder! I used to think it was hard enough for the wood pigeon to balance, but rooks are even bigger – not sure how they manage it. Just a bit unfortunate that they eat so much.

Everything in the garden is growing crazily fast. Lots of lovely spring flowers – always love seeing them. The lawn needs mowing again – I have noticed that hoglet isn’t foraging on it so much again – there is obviously an optimum length. I really need to get out there and do some more gardening, but have to fit it in with whatever the weather is doing, etc. Hopefully we’re in for a spell of better weather.

The horse fur the birds took was the more fluffy stuff rather than mane and tail hair, but must have made really lovely nest lining.

So sad to hear about the bats and fly paper. Why are people using it outside for bats to get caught in!? I agree, my house is full of spiders webs. I have to clear them out from time to time as they get too dusty and don’t work so well, but the spiders soon make new ones. If we kill off all the insects with fly spray what are the bats and birds going to eat! It seems some people would not be happy until there was nothing left on earth but humans and then see how they’d all get on! It’s like this business of covering hedges and trees with netting so the birds don’t nest in them. Outrageous!

Just been having the perrenial rant about marking hogs! When it comes to hogs I can’t resist defending them. I feel sure if they could talk they would say ‘please don’t mark us’. Why do humans think they have the right to mark a hedgehog. Hedgehogs do not belong to any one of us – they belong to themselves. Grrr

So not long until your building work starts now. Bet you’ll be glad when it’s done and you don’t have to worry about hogs or anything getting caught up in it. I would say hope you get some hog visitors soon, but suppose you don’t really want them too soon!

[Annie Mac]

Hi Nic

Bizarrely this topic says it’s been reported for inappropriate content, whatever that means.

This is a quickie, no hog activity at the feeding box yet but as you say better if not for a few weeks anyway.

So glad you still have hoglet 0 calling & hope very much he/she copes with the expected influx in the next few weeks.

Lots of bird activity here too, sparrows in my roof again, blackbirds first at the feeder every day, garden bursting into life. All we need is people to stop marking hogs, take better care when clearing greenery in their gardens, stop using poison of any sort, open up their fences to give them a fighting chance of accessing gardens friendly to them, watch out for them crossing roads & the hog world would be a happy one.

Maybe time to start a new topic as somebody doesn’t like this one when/if I get any visitors, can put it under hedgehog signs & sightings again. Happy Spring & will hopefully be back soon on a new posting.

[Nic]

Hi Annie

Don’t worry about the inappropriate content thing. It probably won’t be there long. It is meant for things such as people trying to use the forum for advertising, or other inappropriate behaviour. It may be that someone clicked on it by mistake. There are quite often topics which temporarily end up with the label, when they shouldn’t have. But if you want to start a new topic, might not be a bad idea as this one is quite long. I’ll leave it to you – I’ll find you.

All those things you mentioned would be good. Hogs would have a much better time!

Hoglet 0 is still has the garden to himself. I was right about the grass. I cut it on high setting and that very night he was back to foraging on it more again.

Good luck with the building work.

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