We've been rather busy this week, so haven't been able to post for a few days, but the hedgehogs are getting very active.
James "007" has now become a resident - he's moved into 9b. He'd been coming down on to the patio for a feed, and taking a snooze between meals under the garden seat in the the corner of the patio, but then one night he took a snooze in 9b. He obviously liked it, because he went in later and spent the day there. He wasn't in today (they all seem to have the odd awayday) but came back in about 22:00 tonight. He's just come out again.
Here he is having a little "fun" with Spot. James arives first - he has the spot on his neck, and Spot has the stripe on his rear. Sorry about the quality of the video. This is one of the older cameras and is getting very grotty. We have installed a new one with more-or-less the same view, and it is giving better pictures.
When we first checked James on 26th Match he weighed 540g. We checked him again tonight - 650g, so he seems to be doing quite well. He had one very large tick behind his ear, which we removed, and we touched up his paintwork.
The next arrival, number 8, arrived on 28th March, and weighed 710g. It wouldn't uncurl fully, so we weren't quite sure if it was a boy or girl, but the attention it has been receiving from the males makes us think she was a girl, so we called her Henrietta the Eighth, and marked her with two spots on the neck. Surprisingly, she had no ticks on her.
Here Henrietta (as yet unmarked) co-stars with James and Tog (three spots on rear). We wondered if we had mis-identified James, as Tog didn't bulldoze him, but we have confirmed that James is a boy, so maybe he's too small for Tog to worry about.
We had decided that hedgie number ten would have to be called Cameron, so when number nine turned up, we decided on Gordon - the one before Cameron. This little chap was marked with three spots on his neck, but we only saw him the one night.
Cameron showed up unexpectedly - in 9c (Nightshift's old pad) this morning. It was down on the patio eating outside 9c and popped in for a snooze. Just after five it went in for the day. There was no sign of a hedgehog on the 9c bedroom camera, but the straw seemed very tidy. About 8:30 this morning I was looking at the monitor, just in time to see a little bum disappearing into the straw.
We haven't actually checked Cameron over yet - we don't like to grab them right outside their home, and we lost track of it when it went up on to the lawn yesterday. It came out early this evening - about 20:00, just as it was dark - for a drink, and gave us a lovely close up scratch which let us see that she is a girl. We decided to stick with Cameron, instead of renaming her Samantha.
She's just been out for a feed and gone back into 9c. She had a bit of a shock earlier this evening - Tog came down on to the patio. Outside 9c his nose went up and he started sniffing - and piled into 9c. Cameron defended her honour wonderfully, and Tog was ejected after a brief scuffle.
So, apart from Gordon, who we've only seen once (but he could have come in when we weren't looking) we are still getting all of the hedgies visiting every night. Twearly is still busy - we need to get him in for a check and a touch-up. Quattro is still with us, spending two or three nights in 9f, and then one in 9a.
Spot is very active. He was tucking in to mealies on the feeder outside 9a last night when Quattro returned home. Quattro just zipped in - no fighting or anything.
The only one missing from the list is poor Alfie. He's still in the bathroom, being dosed with Baytril. He does seem better, in that his nose isn't running as much, although his breathing is still noisy sometimes. He is eating, but is only putting on weight very slowly. He was 915g yesterday and today, so he had gained from the 780g when we first took him in. His poos seem normal so we think he's hanging in there. He is quite lively when we give him the Baytril orally, so we will continue to look after him. Of course, at the moment there is a squatter in Alfie's 9b.
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Hi Twosie,
ReplyDeleteThankyou for filling me in on your hog activity! We get three hedgehogs in our garden and think ourselves extremely lucky, but to get ten! Love the little videos, it gives a fascinating insight into the lives of our spikey friends.
J
Follow me at HEDGELAND TALES
Like yours mine go AWOL occasionally - gives the early birds a good breakfast though.
ReplyDeleteAlways fascinating watching how wild creature react to each other.
Thanks, John, for your kind comments. When we started first, there were just one or two hedgies visiting our garden. Over time and with the feeding we give them, the number visiting us has increased, probably because more are surviving. For example, little Bailout was just 500g or so in mid Nov 2010 when we first became aware of her and she may not have survived had she not found the food here as there was very little else around. We are sure the number of hedgehogs in your garden will increase, just like ours did, given a little time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, re our group, they have been coming out of hibernation in recent weeks and are coming to the garden primarily for the food as it is in short supply. As the weeks go by, we know they will disperse, so we too are also extremely lucky.
Hi [Midmarsh] John, yes, you are right. They do make fascinating watching, so much so that very often these evenings, we end up looking at the cameras rather than looking at the TV as they are much more entertaining. Sometimes though, they throw a wobbly and just do not turn up until long after we have gone to bed.
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