The things we do to watch hedgehogs

When we first found we had hedgehogs in the garden, we were watching them through a night vision scope. It was great to see them, and totally enthralling when they arrived. But they might not arrive until after midnight, and they stayed till dawn. We had many late and even a few sleepless night. So, we got the infra-red cameras and the recorders, to watch from the comfort of the living room, and catch up with the night's happenings during the day.

We have now found we have hedgehogs visiting the front of the house, as well as the back, so we have an "emergency" camera set up in the letter box, with a cable running down the hall to a PC. But it's always nice to watch the hedgies "live", so we are now resorting to laying on the hall floor, peering through the letterbox... but what a thrill to see a hedgie feeding 18 inches from you, totally unconcerned.

Here's a clip of one of tonight's visitors. You can see it hear me open the inside flap of the letter box part way through as it prickles up.



Tonight has been quite busy, but seems to be all babies. No sign of the adults at all. It turns out that Nightshift didn't stay the day - what we thought was a hedgie in 9c was actually a hole she'd made in the straw. Nightshift did visit 9c twice overnight, but only for a few minutes, followed by her regular visit to check 9d was in order before she left.

There was a lovely moment as she was heading for 9c as a baby which was also on the patio tagged along. It looked to be heading straight for 9c - until it noticed the bowl of mealworms and got sidetracked.



There was also a great moment with another of the babies. Unfortunately, this camera is not very clear, and the cobweb over the lens doesn't help, but at the very beginning you can just make out baby jumping down the steps. We don't know how she got off the patio - we assume she found the ramp, as the steps look way too high for her.



We did have at least two babies in 9a during the day - two came out in quick succession. They are gradually clearing the straw from the hall, so we can see them as they move in and out now.