I'm not sure if I should write this post...

I'm not sure if I should be writing this post, following the post of G L Wilson in his lovely Hog Blog. He hasn't seen any hedgies for a few days, and the camera he uses to get his great captures has broken down. I hope this post doesn't make him more miserable. Seeing his hedgehog blog convinced me to start this one, to share the antics of these adorable creatures. It may help to cheer him up, so "GL", this is for you.

As reported last night, the was a lot of activity, mainly Nightshift-related. She was seen leading small hoglets in and out of the garden, around the garden and in and out of 9c. One tiny baby, who we think has a poorly foot, seemed to be following her a lot, but on further examination of the video clips this morning, Nightshift may have been showing more than one baby around - some clips seem to show an unmarked baby, some show quite distinct markings.

Nightshift brings the first baby:



and while Nightshift continues, baby stops for a meal. She looks very hungry:



A short while later Nightshift leaves, realises she has two in convoy, and returns them. One of the two seems to be the baby who was feeding in the previous clip.



The view from the other side:



Then she shows the way down to the patio and points out the preferred accommodation in 9c:



Nightshift lived in 9b for ages, until a squatter trashed the place (poo everywhere!) and she doesn't even look at the place now. Next back up to the water:



And here Nightshift leads her into 9c, although at first it seems Nightshift was considering 9d.



After they came up, Nightshift went out of the garden, leaving the baby exploring, It went all over the patio, behind all three nest boxes and generally getting to know its way round. It went up the ramp to the lawn and found its way back down later.

When we got up this morning we did the usual check of the accommodation. No sign of anyone in 9a, but there are triggers, so they are hidden in the straw in the bedroom. It was much colder this morning than yesterday.

9d is occupied by a baby, as we could see it on the video.

We couldn't tell with 9c, as when Nightshift went in for the first time last night she was feeling shy, and moved some straw over the camera. We expected to see the little baby with the poorly foot in there, as she had been shown 9c by Nightshift, and I saw her find her own way in about 2am. We were therefore surprised to see a trigger at about 9:30 this morning, and Nightshift came into the tunnel and lay down looking out. Apologies for the quality, but it's through the not-too-clean window (must clean it later) and getting reflections from the room. We don't know if baby is in with her. On several of the clips of baby, it seemed to be pushing its snout under Nightshift - looking to suckle, perhaps? Baby did drink an awful lot last night - about 12 minutes in one stint, and it had a good meal of mealies, too. This is the first time Nightshift has stayed for the day since July, so it may be she's returned and brought the family. We will see tonight...

Finally, a bit of technology. We have a Weather Station, which links to a PC. We are interested in something besides hedgehogs. It has three remote sensors, so we have one each in 9a, 9b and 9c. The one in 9a is on the ceiling, which is quite high, so it sort of gives the general temperature. 9b, 9c and 9d are all quite low, so the temperature sensors are on the wall in the bedroom. They do register the presence of the hedgehog quite well. This one at 9 o'clock this morning shows a fair bit of activity:

This is a capture at 12:00. Note that the graph autoscales, so the peaks are the same as the previous clip, but the temperature went up to 32 degrees C. That sudden temperature rise must mean Nightshift is leaning on the sensor.

So that's it for now. Having lots of cameras gives some great views, but on nights like this it takes two days to process one night's videos - and we have some work to do as well...Got to earn the money to buy all those mealworms.

Has anyone else seen how the mother disperses the hoglets? I have seen reports on other sites saying that the babies follow the mother for a couple of weeks, but last night was the first time we saw any following Nightshift. There have been quite a few hoglets around, but they didn't seem to have been following an adult when they first arrived.