Hi Annie
Two hoglets now. I thing they must be siblings. They were arriving very late – I had stayed up late after seeing the cam – but last night they turned up at a reasonably respectable time. One I was convinced was a little boy (Billy) – some of the older females were backing away from ‘him’ – but then the other night one of last year’s hoglets (now grown very big) spent a considerable amount of time circling the poor little thing. So who is the confused one? Is he really Bella? The young adult male is pretty much bottom of the pecking order and doesn’t usually get a look in with the girls, so was he just trying to practice his courting technique on a poor unsuspecting hoglet? I did feel sorry for little Billy/Bella – still not really sure which it is! – the adult must have been at least 4 times as big – a bit intimidating.
These two little hogs have turned up a month earlier than any hoglets last year. Last year all the older hogs treated the hoglets with respect. The hoglets were very good at taking over bowls from their elders, etc. These two seem to be treating the adults with more respect. It is not obvious at all who their Mum is. They have been there, at different times, when all the mature girls have been there and have not reacted any differently to any of them. The adult boys have steadfastly stayed at the dishes when approached by the hoglets. They haven’t biffed them, but also haven’t let them in to share the dish.
The little hoglets arrive separately, (last night an hour apart) but when they meet up they seem to be a bit quarrelsome, (no you’re not having that bit of food – I want it) sort of thing. They are very alike in appearance, although Billy/Bella is a bit more ‘compact’ and has a pale patch above his/her nose. The other one is called Vic – they both have a very pronounced V on their faces, especially on the cam – and Vic could be either Victor or Vicky.
Dear old Digger was back again last night, after an absence of a few days. She stayed for quite a long time eating. I suppose it is possible Bill/Bell and Vic are hers and she is on a second batch – although they don’t look at all like her, but maybe take after Dad.
Sorry to hear about the reduction of activity there. (I feel a bit mean going on about the hoglets). I don’t know what the answer is. It is very disappointing when you have gone to so much trouble. Your garden sounds really lovely. With all those flowers, there should be lots of natural food around for hogs. I do find the cams are not totally reliable. There are loads of times when I have actually seen a hog at a certain time and the cam has not picked it up. They have a bit of a time delay on them – supposedly so they don’t take too many unwanted photos/videos – but, I think the hogs are sometimes so ‘nippy’ that they have come and gone before the time delay has finished. Then when they are eating, maybe they are not moving enough to be detected.
One of the cams I have, I got from Easylife. Their catalogues are often in magazines. They seem to be almost permanently ‘half price’. They are cheaper than a lot I have seen. The first one I got didn’t work, but there was no problem getting it replaced. They take video, photo or both – although, I found, when you do both, the hog has often disappeared by the time it gets to video. The picture is not bad, but better in daylight. The infra red lights seem to be a bit bright and there is a bit of a white area where you have to tilt the computer screen to see if anything is there. If you just want it to see what is coming and going in the area, it is fine, but if you want fabulous videos, maybe not – because of the light. Having said that, maybe not all of them are as bright, or maybe I have it located too close to the ground or something. For me, it serves it’s purpose – it enables me to see the hogs coming and going. It mainly captures the hogs arriving and leaving along the path, but, the other day, it picked up a hog catching and eating a worm on the lawn, which was interesting. That cam doesn’t go through the batteries as quickly as the other one – I use rechargeable ones now – but they only really last a couple of nights. If the battery gets too low at night it still films but with no light – not what you want! – but a lesson to make sure the batteries are charged! I found some of the reviews for the more expensive cams didn’t seem to be any better than the cheaper ones, so, rightly or wrongly, that is why I went for a cheaper one.
Pleased to hear your pigeon pal is still there. I have two regular wood pigeon visitors to the hanging bird feeder, but not friendly like yours. It is amazing enough to see the collared doves balancing on the saucer, but the wood pigeons even more so. The blackbirds are getting extremely scruffy – I am surprised they haven’t deserted to moult yet. They looked very bedraggled in the rain the other day!
