Elusive, stealthy – yet very tempting
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Spring has sprung, most of us have seen some signs of spring whether it be buds breaking, blossom, spring flowers, the birds singing, hedgehogs, however, not all have been lucky enough to see their first hedgehog yet.
Last year I was one if those, it felt like everyone had seen one bar me. This year my first signs (no sighting) were the last week of March. My first sighting came a fleeting glimpse, but a glimpse non the less. Last night after a successful days gardening and some well needed modifications to the new feeding station (the addition of a floor). The cats thought it would be a good idea to drag the biscuit bowl out the side, chuck half on the floor to get rained on and mushed and eat the other half – a floor was needed to put an end to this. I was geared up with a warm blanket, a drink and the bins ready for a sit in to watch for the hoggies to appear.
8.45pm the sensor light came on and I could see a hog trotting round having a nosy. Few mins later the lights back on and my hog is some sort of formula one hog travelling at warp speed across the garden. 9.25pm said hog reappears to inspect our modified feeding station has a quick nibble and clears off. By 9.30 the hog had gone and I was shattered and tucked up in bed.
Tonight determined to have more than I fleeting glimpse I get a cuppa tea, bins, blanket and am raring to go for a sit in. It’s now 11.20pm not a single sign of a hog all evening. I have spotted every cat in the neighbourhood, 2 hang around as a tag team and have made repeated visits to the feeding station scratching their heads trying to work out how to get in, so far without success, another stuck it’s head in the door realising it’s too small to get its body in and just smelt the biscuits from afar. Another sat on the roof waiting, for what – I have no idea. I have cats but mine are house cats – they have discovered the joys of watching bats flying round the garden, something to keep me amused whilst waiting.
Very rock n roll, its Saturday night now do I call it a night or throw caution to the wind it is after all the weekend and go get another cuppa tea and carry on looking, hmm…..
Those of you who have overwintered hogs or a plethora of spring visitors don’t know how lucky you are.
I do hope you have more success this spring evening than me and even if you are yet to see your first hog all that anticipation is well worth it. That security light came back on, cuppa tea it is then.
Hi Wildlifehaven,
All I can say is, remember that iconic Kit Kat advert, you know, the one with the guy trying to photograph the pandas at the zoo. I am sure that the inspiration for that came from a frustrated camera man (or woman!) trying to get a glimpse of the ever elusive hedgehog! You can sit there all night without as much of a glimpse, but as soon as your back is turned for 5 minutes, they’ve emptied a whole dish of food and disappeared again off into the night. And of course, there is also the controversial invisibility cloak, which some of us hardened hog watchers know only too well that they have access to. At least you got to see some bats, I am told by my other half that they are there, but they refuse to come out whenever I am about.
As for the cats, I find it very amusing to watch them trying their hardest to gain access to all those tasty biscuits, knowing full well that at last we have managed to outwit them. They may get their paws on the odd stray morsel from underneath that the hogs have thrown around, but the bowls are just that bit too tall to be dragged out…Ha! Ha! Ha! I just wish that the hogs would leave their little parcels on the lawn and not insist on leaving them all in the feeding station…the reason why ours doesn’t have a floor.
Oh, I almost forgot last night’s antics; one of the hogs was caught on camera actually moving the dish on the doorstep well out of range, so the only footage after that was a continuous procession of cats past an empty bowl. The little beggars are determined not to let us into their world…Happy hog watching! 🙂
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