Surprisingly, we still had two hedgehogs last night. The regular visitor actually showed up again and put in 3 appearences no less. His first visit was very brief - up the alley and in through the ATM, with a brief stop at the lawn feeder for a quick snack and a drink before heading out under the decking. His second visit was unfortunately cut short by me opening the back door. Part way through in the following video compilation of his visits, you can see him prickle up, probably at the first sound of the key in the lock. He then curls up completely, before making a hasty exit. Sorry! His third visit was also incredibly brief - he dashes in under the decking and out again via the ATM in three minutes flat.
Indy is still there, but checking the videos he was away for nearly five hours during the night. We were hoping he'd decided to hibernate in 9f, but we wonder if he's found somewhere more suitable, and is perhaps building himself a hibernaculum. Either way, I don't think we'll be seeing him much longer. This is all we saw of him, at 3x normal speed.
We'll still be looking out for autumn juveniles. Last autumn, although we didn't have anything like as many hedgehogs as we did this year, they had stopped visiting. Nightshift was hibernating in 9b, and we thought that was it. Then, a couple of weeks after the last sighting, we saw Twosie in the alley, in daylight. We don't know where he'd been hiding - perhaps he'd tried hibernating.
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It feels sad when the visits drop off. I'm already looking forward to next spring when they come out of hibernation.
ReplyDeleteYes, after all the excitement only a few weeks ago, to get down to a single hedgehog feels very empty. We still have the cameras running and every few minutes look in the hope of seeing someone, but let's hope it's not another autumn juvenile like the little chappie you took to Tiggywinkles.
ReplyDelete...and the one I took to Tiggywinkles was twice the size of some of those we saw the nurse weighing in the nursery.
ReplyDeleteThose who have been found and are in care are the lucky ones!
Yes, we wonder just how many other little ones are lost without trace. If there is one little hedgie around, there are probably more. We just hope all the visitors to our garden had eaten enough to make it. We will continue to leave some food and water around for them through the winter, just in case they do come around.
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