We have been through last night's videos of Nightshift in the nest boxes. Apologies for all the rain on the cameras. This is her arriving. After a wander through the water, she goes into 9c, which was her main home.
Inside 9c, she makes a quick inspection of the renovation work and settles down for a nap. We used to use hay for bedding, but we are trying barley straw this time. We wonder if she can tell the difference. Hedgehogs do seem to be quite careful how they build their nests and Nightshift would rearrange hers every few days, but if it is just somewhere for a nap they do not seem to care. We have put a small pet blanket in as well. A lot of the hedgehog carers websites and forums say they use blankets and that the hedgehogs seem quite attached to them, so we thought we would give it a try. We put one in 9d when Nightshift was preparing it as a nursery and she seemed to like it.
After her nap she gets up for another snack and makes a snap inspection of 9d, just to check it still meets her requirements, then returns to bed.
Then she gets up for a bit more exploring. This is where we saw Nightshift in a new light. No doubt due to the wet weather, we had seen a frog hopping around the patio earlier in the evening. This may be the little chap I rescued earlier in the week. Unfortunately for him, he chose to hop along the patio at just the wrong time. Nightshift chased after him. Not only that - she caught him! I never thought a hedgehog could move so fast. We peered out of the back door and there she was, tucking into a frog. She evidently does not like foreign food as when we checked this morning there was a fine pair of frogs legs, unfortunately along with a large part of the rest of him.
I keep hearing mutterings of "murderer" from across the table...
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Blimey! I would never have expected a hedgehog to go after a frog like that. It never occured to me that they'd eat frog.
ReplyDeleteYes, we were rather shell-shocked when we saw it last night. We have seen reports that they will eat baby mice and eggs (hence all the issues on Uist) but we never rally imagined them as active hunters. She didn't eat so much of it, but compared to her it was a reasonable size - and she had spent 12 minutes scoffing mealworms. We removed the corpse this morning - I wonder if she will expect to go back to it tonight.
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