The whole walk was spent looking out for hedgies - we've never seen any hedgehogs in the rest of the village, but they are such secretive little creatures, it's no real surprise. Needless to say, I was disappointed - until I walked up our front path, and there was a hedgehog standing in the middle of it!
My arrival had startled the poor thing, but fortunately there was a plant right next to it, so it hid there. I crept past, opened the front door and called for mealworms and camera, which were duly handed over. A few seconds after depositing the mealworms there was a reassuring crunching sound. We put a saucer full out as well. There was already a tray of water (laziness at clearing up old plant trays!) so we sat and watched. After a few minutes munching the hedgie wandered under the lilac at the front of the house and all went quiet.
15 minutes later it wandered out of the boiler room just behind the lilac. This is a small brick appendage on the house, about 3ft square, containing the wall mounted boiler. There was a bucket and a pack of potting compost on the floor. The door catch has gone, so it gapes open about 6 inches most of the time. Hedgie had another munch and went back in. We left it alone, but checking back an hour later it was still in there.
We started to wonder if it's been staying there regularly. I peered in through the partially open door this morning, and as far as I can see it has gone - along with most of the mealworms in the saucer.
It just shows how you should keep your eyes open for wildlife. We've known about hedgehogs in the back garden for over a year, but never really checked the front, although we did start to have our suspicions last week when we found what looked very much like a hedgie poo on the front lawn. We said we should put a camera out to monitor the front, so it looks like that's the task for today. Fortunately, we live on a cul-de-sac, with houses on one side of the road and trees on the other, so there isn't much traffic, but we did find a poor hedgie had been run over on the road last year, a couple of months before we found the first one in our garden. I hope we don't find too much activity along the road.
The next question is... is it one of the regulars who visits the back garden? There's no access from the front of the house to the back, so it would have to go to the end of the row of houses to get to the back. We've been talking about doing a hedgie watch sitting in the car, looking out for them. I fear that has come a step nearer. What will the neighbours think? Do we care?
My hogs seem to have gone off mealworms recently. It is a new batch from a different source. I still have some from my original source so I must try those tonight and see what happens. Even the birds are ignoring the new batch.
ReplyDeleteLovely Photos of your visitor.
That second photo made me laugh. I have a couple of near identical pictures! It must be a common hedgehog pose - checking to see if the coast is clear!
ReplyDeleteJohn, we've never seen the hedgies go off mealworms - it's all they will eat regularly.
ReplyDeleteHowever, we have had a couple of "iffy" batches - very powdery and a bit strong-smelling, as if they were end of the batch. This has happened with several different suppliers, and I must admit they were given to the starlings, while we kept the good stuff for the hedgies. The starlings weren't as keen, but we mixed a little in with the good stuff and it went - mealies are too expensive to throw away.
I just ordered a 10kg pack today... let's hope they are nice!
We've tried quite a few brands of dog and cat food, which all the advice says hedgehogs love, but ours have one sniff and move on. The same with the special hedgehog food. One brand we put out 15 pieces, to see how well it was liked. Next morning - 14.5 pieces left!
I feel they should have more variety, so I've been putting out some sunflower kernels. They are going, but it could be the birds. Little Twosie did like a bit of turkey and steak now and again.
We were careful about putting cat food out as it attracted the local cats(!) as we had open bowls, but we recently made a plastic box feeder as featured on Hog Blog, and that's been very successful, as only the hedgehogs and blackbirds go in.
"G L" - yes, the little chap does look a little furtive. It's the first time we managed to get any night photos of the hedgies - the back garden is very dark and you can't see to point the camera in the right direction. We have an outside light at the front, but it's not so bright and the camera was struggling to focus, as you can see. It does have a manual focus, but that is only on the LCD and also poor in low light. I tried once at dusk with the digital SLR, which was OK until the loud "clunk" from the mirror frightened the hedgie. What do you use? I think we'll have to increase the light levels - it doesn't seem to bother the hedgies too much.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that information. I have had the same results when I have tried varying the diet. I have two types of Hedgehog food which they ignore and the same happened when I tried cat food.
ReplyDeleteJohn, I get the feeling that once they've tried mealies they are hooked, so it's bad news if they are off them. Despite all the reports that they eat slugs, we've never seen any interest. I feel slugs are only eaten if they are very hungry.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Anyway, problem solved. Used some of the old supply and feeding was back to normal tonight.
ReplyDeleteI've never known them go off mealworm either. However I did once buy a large supply off eBay because it was very cheap that way, and the quality was no where as good as the ones I buy from Wilkinsons.
ReplyDeleteA while back I bought a big sack of Spike's Dinner which they seem to enjoy, but when it ran out I went to the pet shop and they didn't have any more in stock, so I started putting the cat's Iams food down instead. This was also popular. When I switched back to Spike's Dinner again (the pet shop having gotten some in at last) they didn't seem interested in it at first as if they'd been spoiled by the Iams. However, they seem to be tucking into it OK now.
I agree with you about the slugs. Hogs only seem to eat them as a last resort.