If only...

Do you ever have one of the "If only..." moments? Mine for today was "If only I had looked out of the window at 6:52 this morning I would have seen a hedgehog in the garden."

We have found that the hedgehogs around us are only up and about when it is dark, as would be expected for nocturnal creatures. When Nightshift was living in 9c on the patio, she would wake up regularly during the day, and if it was warm she would even lay in the entrance tunnel of the nest box, but she would never come out. As it was getting dark she would get up and sit looking out, and when she thought it was dark enough she would start her night's work - out of the box, take a sip of water from the bowl by the entrance, nip round the back under the old pallet for a poo, and then back to the feeding bowl for a snack and a longer drink, then out of the garden.

She would always be back just as it was getting light. On just one morning did we see her late back. We always check the nest box cameras each morning to see how many lodgers we have, and we were shocked to find that Nightshift hadn't returned. We checked all the other nests - no sign. We were just getting ready to go out and check for road kill, when at about 7:30 she climbed in through the ATM, trotted across the lawn, stopped for a snack on the lawn feeder, down the ramp to the patio, another snack outside 9c and into 9c and bed - as if nothing was wrong, which it probably wasn't. This was in July (just before she moved out) so it was getting light around 4:30.

At least it gave us the chance to get a photo or two of her in daylight.



This morning I was up just after six, but instead of checking the cameras while eating my breakfast and disabling the alarms about 9:00, I dashed out to check the state of all the feeding bowls before the starlings arrived and cleaned them out. Normally there is something left in each bowl, but TinaTwo had been out from the decking and into the garden for a few minutes quite a few times last night. I had the feeling that she was just going to the nearest feeding bowl. I was right - completely empty, so we need to put more in tonight.

So, when I went back inside I turned off the alarms at about 6:30. It was only later in the morning when fast-winding the videos we found a small hedgie had gone into the garden through the ATM at 6:52 and left under the decking around 6:57. No doubt there will be more opportunities.