23 February 2023 Hedgehog visitors are back.
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Hi Annie
Glad to hear you have lots of hogs visiting – as well as birds, etc.!
I have finally seen one hog, but my cameras have been playing up a bit. But am putting a bit of food out again and hope the rat(s) don’t catch on! It obviously isn’t all being eaten and a magpie is taking full advantage of that in the early mornings!
No frogs sighted yet this year and sadly, no tadpoles either. But I have got some tiny waterboatmen in one of the ponds.
Hope you and the hogs there have a good year.
Hi Nic
Hooray you’ve seen a hog, hopefully many more that you haven’t seen yet.
Your frogs must have gone elsewhere this year, I don’t know about your area but so many changes going on in people’s gardens round here – removing anything that’s green & laying patios & plastic grass…… No wonder wildlife is disappearing.
I’ll continue to support wildlife as long as I can & hope your rats stay away so you can do the same. Good luck with your hedgehogs this year.
Hi Annie
Thankfully the hogs have become regular vistors again. At least 3 of them – at least 2 are males (a bit of biffing and rolling going on one night), but not sure about the other one, yet. They mostly arrive one at a time.
I probably shouldn’t say it, but I haven’t seen any rats for ages. But I am spreading the food on the grass in case any turn up. That way, even if something else turns up (i.e. a cat did one night) the hogs still have a chance of finding some food. I put some in a food box (should be cat proof) as an extra supply, but the hogs have seldom gone in there. There is quite a gang of corvids on the grass in the mornings – rooks and jackdaws, mostly – finishing off any leftovers!
Not sure about the frogs – I haven’t seen any, but haven’t really looked very carefully and the pond has got quite overgrown around the edges, so there could easily be a frog or two hidden there.
I agree, it’s sad what is happening in lots of gardens. But, it’s not so much hard landscaping here, as people strimming everything in sight! I hate the sound of them! Thankfully there are also some people trying to make their gardens more wildlife friendly – just need more of those and less of the others!
But yes, looking out for the hogs, etc. for as long as possible has got to be a good thing. I hope you are still getting lots of hogs visiting there and are still enjoying their visits – as well as all the birds, squirrels etc.
Hi Nic
Great you have hogs, you must be over the moon. The last few nights have been noisy here for hours – a hedgehog huffing around the garden with a very large one in hot pursuit. Amazingly they seem to have time to eat as most food is gone & crumbs remain in the morning, sometimes you can hear long drinking sessions in the feeder between crunching at night as I leave water next to the food so they don’t have to come out for a drink. Muddy footprints in the other water dishes that I leave inside the doorways to deter cats, they must have clean feet when they leave & full bellies.
The one being pursued is coming out very early – 20.15 most nights while it’s still light, must be fed up waiting after a long hot dry day. The bigger one comes hurtling across the garden towards her, I think he must rev up along the back path to full speed before he hits the garden after coming though the hedgehog hole! Wish they’d stay in hiding later, too many people around that early.
Your rat came here if he’s rusty red, I spotted him on the path hoovering up dropped peanut granules early one morning & took the bird feeder down straight away. Never seen one here before & never a rusty red one in any case. I also found rat droppings in the bottom hog feeder the same day so took that up & just used the other one which I moved on advice to the centre of the garden away from cover & put cottonwool soaked in peppermint oil at the four corners outside it. Not a sight of one since, eventually after a few weeks I started hanging the feeder up again. Interestingly the birds (mostly sparrows) got used to no feeder very fast & just continued to come & spend hours in the shrubs & bird baths, the majority of the starlings went elsewhere though. The starlings are still around & some have returned here so no worries there. I felt terrible removing the feeder for weeks as the babies were fledging but they still are & there are a lot of them. The rat made a rush at sparrows while it was on the path so just as well it’s moved on. Maybe just passing through on his way on holiday the day I saw him!
Stopped feeding the squirrels because of cats treating the feeder as a squirrel supermarket & often see some eating dropped peanut granules including some new skinny tailed babies. Plenty of squirrels still here.
Strimmers I hate, glad you have some newly interested wildlife gardening fans.
Hi Annie
Yes, it was a relief when the hogs came back. I suspect the work on the railway line upset them. Unfortunately some more is planned, which is a bit of a worry. But there were 4 of them there together one night, although 1 or 2 at a time is more usual. They seem to be males again so lots of biffing going on. All hogs are good hogs, of course, but it would be nice to have a ‘definite’ female visiting again.
One of the hogs has taken a bit too well to the feed box, now – he has been found lots of times stretched out in there when I’ve gone to replenish the food. I suppose in the hot weather he might have felt safer in the box (for stretching out) than sleeping under a bush.
It’s good to hear you are still getting lots of hog activity there.
I don’t think any of the rats here were rusty red. Sounds like a more dapper rat than the ones round here! Glad to hear the peppermint oil worked.
Yes, I still seem to get lots of birds in the garden despite stopping feeding them. They still make good use of the bird baths, too. Mr. blackbird this year has been bald headed all season – not sure what that’s about – but he seems to have been busy feeding young ones, so presumably Mrs. blackbird didn’t mind! I just hope he gets his head feathers back after moulting time – definitely not looking his best without them. But, he is in good voice and often sings from the tree in my garden, which is nice.
Oh dear! Poor squirrels. Naughty cats! I don’t seem to get squirrels in the garden, but sometimes see one running along what I think must be an electricity cable on the other side of the road. Excellent tight rope walkers – or runners!
HI Nic
I’d love to see the stretched out sleeper, hopefully your weather’s cooler now & he’s going where he should be. Haven’t seen any early hogs since the hot weather faded away here or met any waiting in the feeder in the evening just find crumbs in the morning & a few biscuits.
Haha, yes, a dapper rat! Very strange sight he was.
Mrs Blackbird is the odd looking bird here, she’s been showing up with incredible fluffy feathery skirts as if she’s about to do the cancan & feathers sticking up at peculiar angles all over the place. Too exhausted to spend time in front of the mirror…… Hope you Mr B’s head gets refeathered by winter.
You have more hogs than I’ve been seeing, must be satisfying but hope you get a lady or two as well. Lot of work taking place on the railways very nearby here too, being electrified so night time there’s a lot going on down the bank. Think they disturb the foxes more than anybody.
Lot of bat activity here at night & I’m so happy to say that after last year seeing virtually no bees my garden is currently awash with them in all shapes & sizes & lots of other pollinators too. Escallionia Pink Elle in front & back gardens are smothered in them every day, plus lavender, fuchsia, honeysuckle, things I can’t remember & several herbs I grow to flower for the pollinators.
Squirrels are amazingly agile, fast too to escape the cats & dogs.
Hi Annie
Oh, poor Mrs. Blackbird! Doesn’t sound a good look at all. Mr. Blackbird’s head is still totally bald. Poor chap looks a bit vulturine from some angles. I wouldn’t be surprised if he stays bald now, as it’s been so long. He went through a spell of making sure I noticed he was there. I keep a small supply of those suet pellets to give him but don’t leave out them unless I see him. But he was a bit miffed once when I was out the front gardening and didn’t notice he was there until he dived straight at me! Only just missed.
Very exciting the night before last – a hoglet in the garden. Quite well grown but still cute. Such a treat! Sadly he/she wasn’t back last night, but it’s nice to know there is at least one around and therefore also a female not too far away. The others visiting still seem to be males – unless they are getting confused and biffing females as well! There are normally only 1 or two here at a time and no others were here when the hoglet visited.
The laid back hog seems to have given up on the box since it got a bit cooler. It’s good that the hogs there have reverted to more normal hours since the weather cooled down a bit, too. Hope we don’t get heat here like in southern Europe!
Good news about the bats there. I occasionally see one here, but still haven’t got round to getting a detector. I see quite a lot of moths around when I put the hog food out, so there must be plenty for the bats to eat, but I don’t seem to catch them on the hog cam so much since the camera was moved a bit. Interesting about the bees, etc. Here, I didn’t have so many earlier in the year, but there seem to be more now. I was really pleased to see a small copper butterfly in my wild flower patch the other day – one of my favourites. It seems to be buzzing with insects when the sun shines – lots of scabious out at the moment, which seem to be popular.
Glad to hear the squirrels are managing to evade the cats and dogs.
Hi Nic
This is a strange place, I already replied to your posting above a while ago but I can see it’s disappeared.
How exciting seeing a female hoglet, hoping she’s been back in the weeks since you saw her & more besides.
My visiting red rat reappeared & when I set up the camera to see what was going on it was next to the nest box each time it appeared so I cautiously removed the box to check inside only to find the newspaper lining I’ve always used & the hay absolutely saturated in stinking pee & utterly revolting. Hedgehogs don’t pee like that, it’s always quite dry when they use it & their pee doesn’t stink either. Emptied & scrubbed it but the base was falling to bits with the pee – some sort of particle board – so it’s gone & sadly so has the nest box as the walls were affected at the bottom too. No wonder no hog has used it since hibernating in it during winter. My inclination is not to replace the nestbox which is a shame. I don’t want to give a rat a cosy home again. I’ll continue to feed year round in my large hog feeder though as I’ve not seen the rat or any signs of rat poo in it at any time.
I’ve given my smaller hog feeding box to a friend as she now has hogs visiting too.
There are daily visits to the feeder, lots of muddy paw marks on the lino floor under the food & water dishes most days & loads of mud in the water dishes placed in the entrance hallways to deter cats. My hogs must leave after eating with the cleanest paws in the neighbourhood.
I’ve had the rotten picket fencing replaced across the width of my little front garden & I had the wrought iron replacement made with a custom made entry hole 5″ x 5″ next to the gate for the hogs. I know they can probably get through the fence uprights but they’d have to go up over the bottom bar & I wanted to make it easy for them & any little ones also wanted a hole near where their previous hole was at the bottom of the old gate. Judging by the huffing hubby heard last night it’s been a success.
They have another hole further down the existing side fence but traditionally that’s always been the exit for some reason with the gate hole being the entry!Hope you continue to have butterflies, bees, hogs & birds visiting.
Hi Annie
Sorry to hear your previous reply disappeared – it’s sometimes a bit of a mystery why they do that. Although I’ve found if there is more than one link in a post they seem to disappear. But seems there are other reasons, too.
The small hog didn’t come straight back, but there is a smallish one visiting now, who may or may not be be the same one. It seems to be a male and I’ve discovered one of the adults visiting at the moment is a female – finally an adult female visitor!
Sorry to hear the rat returned and made such a nuisance of himself. But don’t blame you not wanting to give him another hog box to ruin. I’ve given up using the boxes for feeding. The hogs seem happy foraging for kitten biscuits on the lawn. They still visit the water just outside the old feed box but no sign of them going in. I’ll have to give it a good clean out and hope someone uses it for hibernation – that is if it survives attacks from insects! There’s always something!
That’s nice that your friend is getting hog visits too, now. You will be able to compare notes.
I finally got a bat detector. As I thought there are a fair few bats around. My mini copse seemed particularly popular when the buddleia were in full flower and I guess lots of moths around. There seem to be a few different types, but I haven’t worked out which ones yet. It’s a fairly basic detector and only tells the wavelength. I’ve tried finding some recordings on line to compare, but haven’t found many yet. But just love hearing the sounds of them. I have seen some of them, but sometimes prop the detector on the window and wait for the sound.
I was very excited yesterday to see a fairly large grass snake curled up on my path in a patch of sun. The path is between the copse and the wild flower patch. Unfortunately it disappeared when I went to get my camera, so I don’t know which side it went to. It’s probably not surprising as I’ve seen a few frogs out there – so maybe less frogs now! I’m a bit worried for it, though, with all the strimmers being used round here.
Glad to hear you still have lots of hogs visiting. Sounds like very well behaved hogs – even washing their paws! Lucky them having special holes in the wrought iron fence. I hope you continue to get lots of visits.
Hi Nic
A female adult, long may she visit & maybe you’ll have hoglets if not this year then next year, something to look forward to. Good the little one or one of it’s friends visiting too.
Intermittent visits here, the occasional night with no hog signs but mostly the muddy footprints & mud soup foot baths lay claim to our hoggy pals being here. The camera went outside again a few weeks ago & a tiny little hog was on each night, once being well & truly biffed by a slightly larger one. The most shots however were long tailed field mice, either one very busy one or quite a few racing off with kitten biscuits & drinking lots of water.
I met a truly amazing creature at the beginning of September in my garden, an Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillar. It feeds on fuchsia which is abundant in my garden, was at least as long as my middle finger & fatter & moving very fast. Hopefully will turn into a moth which I’d love to see.
You can get a rough idea of bat species by the wavelength, we only seem to have pipistrelles here but by the river there are Daubenton’s too. It’s a wonderful sight watching them swooping over the trees & round the houses here & shooting around my garden too – the honeysuckle attracts moths as do most of the night scented flowers like the Evening Primrose that’s here too.
I’d love to see a grass snake, your garden is a bit of a paradise isn’t it. Guessing the frogs aren’t so keen though!
My friend found despite seeing signs of hog poo & sometimes a hog in her garden the animal who was enjoying her kitten biscuits in the feeder I gave her was Mr Mouse & co when she bought a camera to watch the action!
Hi Annie,
It’s good to hear about all the wildlife in your garden. I still have some hogs visiting. At least one adult and potentially 2 good sized looking hoglets. I sometimes see one with an adult, although not sure the adult is too pleased about that – but no biffing, so I suspect that adult is a female. It’s always a bit sad when they all go off to hibernate.
I still see the occasional mouse on the video, but (probably shouldn’t say it because one will probably turn up again now!) the rat has been absent for a while.
You are lucky seeing an elephant hawk moth caterpillar! I saw one many years ago and they are quite amazing. I’ve been hoping ever since to see another, but no such luck. And I didn’t ever see the moth.
I have given up with the bats now that it’s getting cold outside. I had a little card giving the wavelengths, but there seem several species on the same wavelength as pipistrelles and I’m not sure how likely it is that I’ll hear those others. I always suspected there were some sort of long eared ones as the ones on video look to be long eared, but not sure if that is too simplistic. I’ll have to check it out a bit better before the spring.
Yes, that grass snake was pretty amazing. I just hope it survived. There is a pond not far away which apparently has lots of frogs, so maybe not surprising the snake was so big. I imagine that’s where the frogs in my garden come from.
Sorry to hear your friend had only been seeing mice on her camera. Fingers crossed she’ll have better luck next year with hog videos.
I hope your tiny hog has now turned into a big enough one for hibernation and that all the hogs there and everywhere have a successful hibernation time.
Hi Nic
Hopefully your hogs are safely tucked up for winter, it appears there’s still activity here though the camera has managed to miss it so far this week when I’ve tried to see who’s visiting. Definite (but sadly not very healthy looking) hog poo appearing some nights so still someone around. I’ll continue to feed & put water out under cover as usual throughout winter in case someone needs it apart from the mice.
The bat ID I think as much as anything you look at the reading then the type of bat you’re likely to get in your vicinity & try to match the 2. Pipistrelles for sure here but all asleep I hope until next year now.
Wales banned the use of snares & glue traps in October this year which is wonderful but having found glue traps for sale in a discount shop a couple of villages away & tried very hard to report this to someone I finally found out from the Wildlife Crime police officers that the use of them is illegal while selling them is not. I bought the remaining ones from the shop yesterday, explained to the assistant why I was buying them & that they’re illegal to use & subject to a fine &/or imprisonment if used & have now destroyed them. Madness but at least it’s illegal & punishable if caught which is more than can be said for England currently though there’s campaigning going on to do the same there.
I guess it’s time to draw a line under 2023, keep our fingers crossed for all hogs to sleep well & wake healthy when it’s time again & say see you in a new thread next Spring. Have a nice whatever you do at Christmas, keep warm, stay safe & see you in the New Year.
Hi Annie
Still some hogs here not tucked up for the winter, with regular nightly visits. I saw a rat one night but found a hole coming from my neighbours so blocked that off, although it will be easy enough for it to find another route (not least where the hogs come and go). Just have to hope it doesn’t think it’s worth the trouble.
I have a friendly robin around at the moment who makes his presence known every time I’m in the garden. Plenty of starlings around, too and the corvids finish off any left over hog food in the mornings.
Those glue traps sound ghastly. Seems crazy if they’re illegal to use still being legal to sell them! Hopefully that shop will not try to sell them again after your explanation.
I hope you have a good Christmas, too. It’s nice that the days are beginning to get longer again. It will soon be Spring!
HI Nic
Covid got us both for the first time a week before Christmas & things have been ropey ever since, hubby has just been in hospital for a couple of weeks due to the aftermath of covid coupled with the negligence of 2 GP phone ‘consulatations’ which resulted in an early morning 999 call & 4 paramedics to get him to hospital. The diagnosis over the phone of a chest infection missed as you’d expect the blood clots in his lungs & pneumonia he actually had which caused him to have severe pain & breathing problems & a nightmare experience from then on. It also took up two ambulance crews who needn’t have been there if the GP had seen him face to face & sent him to hospital the previous day.
Other than that everything is fine, a massive hedgehog was spotted in my garden a fortnight ago, haven’t seen one so big since the 80’s & food is being taken every night now & poo messages left as a thank you!
Hope all is well in 2024 for you & I’m going to try to remember how to start a new thread this afternoon. The shop hasn’t had any glue traps on sale but according to the League Against Cruel Sports who became involved the parent company of the shop is advertising them online marked not for use in Wales or some such rubbish.
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