Tuesday 29 September 2009

... and so does the late one

Having commented in the last post how early 9d and Alfie were getting up, we were caught out by them both having a lie in last night. They were nearly half an hour later getting up than the night before, as were all the other hedgehogs. It was a very quiet night to start with.

It was quite bright again, so it would have been dark around the same time as the night before, but it was possibly a little warmer, so maybe that also tells them when they should get up.

We did have a few interesting events. first of all, when 9d did finally get up, he went straight into 9c for a few minutes. Nightshift didn't react too much and throw him out, but he does seem to like trying alternative nests. He was very late in this morning - around 7 am, when it was fully light. Amazingly, he popped into 9b for a few minutes, then into 9c for a few minutes and finally into 9d. The only thing is - we aren't sure if he is the "real" 9d!

Nightshift didn't go round the front at all, and spent most of the time in the garden. She joined a couple of the youngsters on the feeders around 9a, and was happily sharing the food with them, then she got rather grumpy and started pushing.



We have really fallen for little Alfie. Yet again, he spent a few hours in and around 9b, just after he got up from 9a. He goes for a snooze in 9b, then gets up and has a feed from the mealie bowl just outside 9b, always with his back legs on the step in 9b. Then he goes for a long drink. Then he disappears for about a minute, and then back into 9b for a snooze. He repeats the whole process five of six times a night. We'll have to watch where he goes, but we suspect he just goes to spend a penny before bed.

Later on, Alfie brought another batch of leaves into 9a from under the decking.We managed to catch him from three angles:







What amazed us was that a little later, Flatmate also brought some leaves into 9a, so it would seem that the two of them are co-operating in the nest building.







What was really nice, was they then came of of the nest to share breakfast - but then Flatmate went way for the day.



There is a lot of straw outside 9a at the moment - it came out of the tunnel a few days ago when Flatmate came out when Alfie was asleep in the tunnel. They haven't bothered taking any of the straw back in, but they are bringing the leaves from about three gardens along.

Finally, on the food front, Alfie tried a few of the new hedgehog food snacks, so we've put a few more out, along with some of the other hedgehog food, in a separate bowl in front of 9c/9d again. We'll persevere!

2 comments:

  1. Lovely watching Alfie marching in with his leaf. Considering how poor their eyesight is supposed to be he knew exactly the route he was going to take.

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  2. They really look cute the way they carry the leaves. I don't know how they do find their way around, but they are very good at it.I don't think they can be following a scent, as they can quite happily run across the middle of the lawn and hit the target. Any scent trail they pick up would be very difficult to follow as when they aren't in a hurry they meander all over the place. Seeing them building or rearranging the nests inside the nest boxes in total darkness (assuming the can't see infra-red) is also rather impressive.

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