Spring has sprung, they’re back!
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The last few days have shown signs of hoggy visitors in the three feeders I put around the front & back gardens as there were crumbs in the empty dishes in the morning. Today crumbs in all empty dishes & the new purpose built feeder was full of muddy footprints & healthy hedgehog poo.
Checked the camera , one picture out of 74 was a hedgehog , about 65 were mice with me & a bird at the end!Hi Annie. Love your story ! I had 275 photos 🤔 last night on my camera mainly of 1 (or 2) mice around the hedgehog house along with the neighbours cat 😡. Eventually my hedgehog arrived and in he went for 25 minutes eating his meal – only 2 photos of him.🙁. I’m hoping he’ll find a mate and bring back his babies.
First signs two days ago … food has been taken last night.. and more signs,
I must get a camera.. but would freak out if I saw a rat.. but I guess I know they are there.
🙂Hi Annie
Good news – a hog here last night! Unfortunately I had changed cameras and it was set wrongly and only doing very short videos. Hopefully I’ll get a better view from tonights.
Hi Nic
Hooray, success for you, get that camera sorted! Hogs here every night, only very young one/s on camera, looking nicely rounded & healthy. Spotted a whopper in the front garden, it emerged from the hog house so hopefully be seeing more of him/her.
Trevathick – that’s a lot of mouse & cat pics! Hope your hog keeps coming & you get some pics of him/her & also some babies, fingers crossed.
laurabiding – sounds exciting with the food taken & presumably crumbs left plus signs in the garden, get a camera & don’t worry too much about seeing a rat. I’ve never seen any on my camera, plenty of mice & cats, lots of hedgehogs but as you say they’re around whether we see them or not.
I’ve definitely got 2 visitors possibly 3, every night, which in London is great. I had 3 every night last year, but I almost feel that one hasn’t returned but another has appeared. They are visiting my home made box for feeding, but they seem to be investigating the straw bed too. Here’s hoping two of them decide to spend the night together.
Hi Annie
The hog has been visting nightly, but so has a cat! Luckily this hog doesn’t mind hog boxes and the cat can’t get in there with bricks in the ‘corridor’. Glad to hear you are getting lots of visits.
Glad to hear you have hogs back there, too, robfenton. Hope you get some tenants soon. It’s best to keep the feeding and nesting boxes separately, though. Not all hogs will tolerate having noisy neighbours feeding nearby!
Hi Nic
Wondering how your hog is doing, glad it’s one who doesn’t mind boxes as cats eat so much of their precious food. The feeder I bought is great to use, the doorways each end are off set to the opening at the end of their hallways to the central area, the hallways have a floor which is easy to clean but the centre is open to the ground – I’ve cut a piece of vinyl flooring to fit so can remove daily to wash it. It’s positioned so it’s difficult for a cat to gain access either end & so far has been successful. Two dishes of Tesco kitten food get emptied in it most nights & one in the front garden feeder.
Both front & back garden feeders are busy every night & the house someone spent winter in is in use by somebody, maybe the patter of tiny feet this year, what a scary responsibility! There were 3 hogs out the front a few weeks ago, some of the ones I’ve seen in the gardens are huge.
Next door have removed the lawn & flower borders & replaced the grass with large slate pieces with a brick edging & the borders are shingle, no soil in sight. A couple of flowering cherry trees & a few plants miserably sitting in the shingle & that’s it. Bird baths & a feeder are the only nod to nature, the gaps under the fence the hogs used to go through have been blocked off with bricks & shingle – which is falling into my garden, it’ll help lighten the clay soil if I dig it in! Next door the other side haven’t cut the grass yet this year, it’s a glorious field of dandelions, longish grass & dog poo (yuck). Hoping they won’t get the strimmer out & cut the grass afterwards, only usually do it once a year & hack the few shrubs down to stumps but it’s the strimmer that bothers me especially as one way the hogs access my garden is via theirs as the gate blew off years ago. Obviously it’s a haven for them anyway with the long grass. The house behind me has a gravel/slabbed garden & last year they used a spray weed killer strapped to their backs to keep ‘weeds’ out of it all, few plants in a raised bed in the corner.
I made a squirrel feeder & that has customers most days, the sparrows are busily nesting in the front of my roof this year as well as the back, the feeders are doing good business, trying to make up for my neighbours’ shortcomings if I can.
Getting noisier as lockdown is lifted a little, preferred it as it was. Hope you’re well & enjoying the Spring.
Hi Annie
That Feeder sounds good. I suspect the ones who don’t like boxes might not mind so much if there are two doorways.
Glad to hear you are getting plenty of hog activity. I have two visiting here now – both males, so if they meet there’s a bit of pushing around. They don’t always visit every night and sometimes only one – maybe there are females around elsewhere! But ironically, now there are two, they don’t seem to be going into the boxes again. Maybe don’t want to get caught in there.
Oh dear, your neighbours don’t sound very hog friendly – either of them. I hate the sound of strimmers. Always imagine some poor hog getting caught up. I think I would let the shingle fall in and maybe the hole will appear again under the fence!
Yes, the birds are in my roof again, too. Starlings over the bathroom and 2 or 3 lots of sparrows. Only trouble is they get a bit noisy sometimes, especially early in the mornings. I have seen house-martins flying around a few times, but not in their normal numbers – hopefully numbers will increase. Haven’t seen the frogs in the pond yet, but saw one small one in one of the borders. I imagine there will be some in the pond when it gets warmer, although not so easy to see now, as the vegetation has grown a bit.
Yes, the roads certainly seem a lot busier again. At least the weather is nice at the moment. Although we could do with a bit of rain again now. It seems it’s all or nothing these days! But it’s nice to be able to sit in the garden now and then.
Hi Nic
Oh that’s good you have a couple of boys but some ladies would make it more interesting. You’ve beaten me hands down on nests in the roof then, wow, that’s a lot!
Last night I went out long before hogs are due to the feeders & put a dish of kitten biscuits down on the base of my home made feeder in the front garden & started filling the water dish. Then I noticed I’d left the cleaning brush there & went to pick it up but it was a massive hedgehog looking for supper. I’d touched it’s spikes & it twitched but didn’t move so I just put the roof closer to the side of the base to give hoggy some privacy & came back in the house. Opening the kitchen window I could hear the sound of happy crunching, peeped out the front door after a few minutes & there it was feasting away. The whole lot disappeared into hoggy so after it had gone I refilled the dish & put the roof back on. All gone this morning!
Just before going to bed I went out into Minx’s enclosure as she’d been watching back garden activities for hours. There was the sound of crunching from the feeder & a motion detector light came on as a huge hog went rapidly past & there was lots of huffing going on wherever he went as well as the crunching so a garden full of hogs I think. The amount & size of poo in the new feeder I need to scrub this afternoon is something Minx would be proud to have produced! Lots on the path too.
I laughed at your comment about letting the shingle fall through into my garden, as I’d considered digging a hole as well to help it on its way. They’ve put bricks to block the gap & keep the shingle in her garden but not well enough. Evil chuckle…. There are probably going to be beetles & things in the shingle & the slate pieces the lawn was replaced by so plenty for hogs to investigate if they get in there. The overgrown wildlife haven garden the other side has been razed to the ground with strimmer & lawn mower, the few shrubs have been hacked to stumps, all you can see is dog poo now where the dandelions were being pollinator food previously. No hog casualties though I think, which is just as well.
Squirrel is enjoying almonds & walnuts today as I’ve been informed peanuts aren’t very good food for them especially in any quantity. So funny watching it push up the lid flap with his/her head & rummage about inside the box selecting a nut then sitting on the platform munching away.
First group litter pick of the year tomorrow, a stream & surrounding filthy area half a mile from my house so I can walk there. Got my ticket as restricted numbers obviously, can’t wait.
Hedgehogs continue to visit & eat Tesco kitten biscuits, some of the hogs are the biggest I’ve seen since the 80’s – my neighbour said they’re more like rabbits they’re so huge. The smaller ones are still around too & it’s nice to know they can all get shelter, food & clean water here every night if they need it.
The various shelters are in use as evidenced by the poo in their entrances & the sound of crunching from the feeders late at night is very reassuring in our uncertain world.
Just last night I had my first visit of the year. I am very happy they are back at last 🙂
Hi Andius
Congratulations on this year’s first visit, lovely feeling knowing you have the privilege of having our increasingly endangered little friends in your garden. Hopefully you have fresh water out for them 24 hours a day as it’s the single biggest thing you can do to help after giving them safe access to your chemical, dog & strimmer free garden.
Hi Annie
Oh YUK next door’s garden sounds SO disgusting with all that dog poo. Just make sure you tell those hogs not to leave any poos in the one on the other side!
Glad to hear you have been getting lots of hog activity there. Squirrel sounds entertaining!
I had a third hog, but there was an almighty fight one night – coming and going out of range of the camera but went on much longer than usual. Since then I seem to be back to two – they usually manage to avoid each other.
I haven’t had much trouble with cats eating the food lately – shouldn’t say that, there’ll probably be a cat tonight – although it’s raining so maybe not. But one disgusting cat went and messed on one of my long grass patches – so disgusting – I’ll have to clear it up when it finally stops raining for long enough.
I nearly trod on an enormous frog on my front path the other day – noticed just in time, but it didn’t move, but was gone later on that day. But near one of my wild flower areas – they seem to like the long grass. Also yesterday (first time this year) there were 3 frogs in my little pond (other side of the house). One was quite tiny and seemed attached to one of the others (which also didn’t look huge but about twice the size) as if it was a male and female. But looked too small to be an adult male, even though I think they are smaller – and I think it’s too late for that with frogs. Maybe just practising hanging on for next year! Would really love to have tadpoles!
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