They have been back a while now!!
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A few weeks ago I put the camera out for the first time. They were in!! After a HUGE “reset” of our suburban wildlife garden we are pleased to say they’re back!
Last August we had to have two huge Silver Birch trees taken down as being far too big for the area we live. Well – watching the man taking down these trees was very interesting and seeing his methodical way, we were glad he was the one doing it!!
The very old hedgehog “houses” were under these trees and I was concerned that there may be a few problems for the hedgehogs. It turns out that they never used the ones I put out, but were “resident” in the street behind under a shed!
A LARGE pond was taken out and filled in – the intention to replace it with a much smaller one.
Well – all that happened and the new pond installed, filled with rainwater from barrels off the house downpipe. Within days we had frogs, frogspawn and now tadpoles.
The hedgehogs returned and are in now as far as I have seen on camera, every night. Two nights ago we had three smaller ones and a large one. I have a video on the link to my website that I will add here – if it’s allowed?
The camera will continue to be set out and I will add another video as soon as I can!!
Bye for now
Mike
Hi Mike
Good to hear the hogs are back and not minding the alterations to ‘their’ garden. Hope you kept some of the wood from the trees for a log pile. Yes, it is interesting watching tree surgeons at work.
Sounds typical hog, nesting under a shed when there were some nice houses just waiting for them! That’s what seems to happen here, too.
Great news you have tadpoles – lucky you! I get frogs in my mini-pond but no frogspawn – yet anyway – ever hopeful!
Happy hog watching!
Hi, I am new to Hedgehog Street, so hello. Our garden is very wildlife friendly, and we are keen environmentalists. Consequently we were so happy to see late on 8th March our first hedgehog in the garden for 4 years, then on 16th March two hedgehogs together. We have been feeding them with the right dry kitten food + water in the feeding station my husband has built. Sadly no food has been taken now for 3nights, is this quite normal, am I just being impatient.
I am concerned too – reading about the dangers of peanuts and sunflowers, for hedgehogs. We feed the birds daily and get many varieties, the blue tits and great tits get very picky! selecting their nuts, and scatter them willy nilly. Incidentally our dog shouldn’t eat these either!! I am praying these nuts and seeds won’t have affected our new visitors what do you think? Thankyou I look forward to your help and advice. ValgHi I am new here too and have the same experience! A beautiful new visitor in early March has been to feed regularly every evening and in and out all night seen on our camera. The hedgehog only has one eye so we know it’s the same one. I use the she pronoun although I have no idea how to gender a hedgehog! Anyway she has just disappeared these last 3 nights and I feel very anxious that she might be hurt. Other posts on here have helped to reassure me that this is part of hedgehog behaviour so we will leave food out and hope to see her again!
Hi Sally, Thankyou for that, its very reassuring. We shall continue to put out food of course and keep fingers crossed. Strange yours is 3nights too. My husband is making a different feeding station, hopefully more hedgehog friendly. Valg
Hi valg and Sally56
Welcome, both, to the forum!
Re. what the birds spill. It really depends quite how much they spill. It’s best for the hogs not to eat sunflower hearts and peanuts, but if they only found the very occasional one, it probably wouldn’t do them too much harm. You might like to try those large saucers you can screw on to the bottom of feeders and if there is a lot, maybe have a clear up before hog arriving time. Then if you provide decent food i.e. cat/dog or good quality hog food, hopefully the hogs would choose to eat that rather than hunt around for the odd sunflower heart which got missed. But it’s unlikely that will be why they disappeared.
There are all sorts of reasons why hogs might go missing. Sadly some may come to harm i.e. roads, strimmers, etc. but sometimes they go missing for other reasons. i.e. someone on their route could have mended their fences (inadvertently blocking the hog route), someone else could have started feeding, etc. At this time of year sometimes the male hoglets initially return to the area they were born, but then gradually disperse a bit to a new area. If it was that, it does mean others may eventually disperse into your area as well. But the hogs may have stayed in your area to start with, to feed up a bit and then gone off exploring the rest of their range. The early returners are normally males and males have larger ranges than females.
Hopefully they, or some other hogs will appear. Good luck and Happy hog watching.
Hi valg and everyone, I am delighted to say our hedgehog returned for her cat food last night! It was only 3 nights away but I was feeling so anxious! Wonderful to see her back, snuffling round with her one eye 💙
By the way, I read that hedgehogs are susceptible to eye injury as their eyes protrude and vulnerable to harm from branches, wire etc. Ours seems completely oblivious to it, the socket is dry and no sign of sores or infection from what the camera shows. We just feel so Privileged to have her in our garden and hope she stays awhile now.Hi Sally and Nic,
So happy Sally, that your little hedgehog has returned, and thankyou for your information Nic.
Sadly our hedgehogs, we did have 2 one night, haven’t returned. However we know they are about and are hopeful. We will continue feeding and watering and my husband is in the process of making them a home, if they want it, which we shall place in a secluded quiet corner at the top of the garden, near the log pile and long grass.Our garden at the back has a hedge across the top and down the long side and opens on to fields at the back, but of course at the front is the dreaded road, from which I feel certain the hedgehog came, as we found him first near the side gate.
As I say we will always encourage and be hopeful. Meanwhile the frogspawn is developing slowly.Our hogs have been back for some time. I had put a fat ball in the bird ground feeding basket along with seed. We had seen field mice raiding the seed basket. But a couple of morning in a row the 6th and 7th March the fat ball was on the paving fearing rats we put the cameras out. Low and behold it was the hedgehog, who was at the fat ball. So the hog food went out. we seem to have three hogs. who have returned.
there has been one episode of fighting when two turned up at the same time to feed.
One seems to have a whistle with his breathing we noticed it last year. We wondered if it had lungworm.Hi Applesandpears
It’s good to hear the hogs are back there.
The whistle with that one’s breathing sounds a bit worrying. It sounds as if it would be a good idea to have a chat with a hog carer/rehabilitator. You can get contact details of your nearest ones from BHPS on 01584 890801.
Happy to say one of our hedgehogs has returned 3rd April after over a week of not taking any food. Last night again even though he was on the lawn at the back,no food was taken. Maybe there is enough natural food around???? He is quite a big hedgehog maybe the hole in the new feeding stationis too small??
Today we are going to site the Hedgehog Home my husband has built at the top of the garden, in a secluded corner fairly close to the compost heap and log stick piles.
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