Hibernation
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Hi all, I’ve not been on for a while, due to using all my data three weeks ago! Well, I hope you all survived firework week! Most of our hogs seem to have gone to sleep now, except a very noisy night when a few appeared to eat and drink. We have Heidi, who is still coming every night to eat and drink. Poor little thing, I found a firework in the back garden right in the pathway the hogs use. Since then she has been taking a different route to get to the feeding station. We had a panic a couple of weeks ago. A plant pot on its side and packed with hey, next to the wooden hog house that Pippa is using was found to be used by a small animal. Thinking it may be Heidi I made a makeshift house from a plastic box, with wooden floor boards, bricks to form a corridor. I put hey inside, wrapped the house in bubble wrap and covered it with a tarp. It was all I had and it’s freezing cold now. I put the trail cam out (at last!) This has turned out to be a very good camera! I brought it in a few days later, it had 1,008 pictures on it….. All cats! Not a sign of what had been using the flower pot nest. All this frantic work may have been for nothing! It may be a rat. I’ve replaced the trail cam now, as something has been back in the flower pot. We had some spooky ghost birds on the cctv this Halloween, coming for a drink out of the bird bath. They didn’t set the security lights off and we spent ages trying to work out what birds were out flying in the dark and not setting the lights on…… Turned out to be bat’s! Best wishes to you all and hope all your hogs are now peacefully sleeping after the bombing raids of illegally loud fireworks.
Hi Annker
Sounds about right – 1008 pictures of cats! But where are they all when there are rats around, I wonder!
Fingers crossed for all the hibernating hogs there.
Hi Annker,
Good to hear all is well except for cats!
How lucky you are to see bats. I have never seen them where we live but a neighbour says she has seen them in the past.
Might have to get some bat boxes but they won’t come without the right food so hoping we will have the insects they like. Will have to read up on it.Hi simbo65
I used to regularly see bats on one of my hog cams (moved it a bit now). It was situated near a buddleia bush where there were lots of night time insect visitors. So if you have a buddleia, you might get bats, too, but really anything which attracts night-time insects. But if your neighbour has seen them, you will almost inevitably have them in your garden without necessarily knowing.
Hi Nic, Simbo65, hope your hogs are safely tucked up for winter. Well, still got little Heidi eating from the station. She has started using her old route now most of the fireworks have stopped. Having said that, we’ve had them going off the last two nights again. I’ve just filled in the rspca’s form for the anti firework campaign, again, and a few others I’ve come across. The last law change needs implementing as loud banging fireworks were banned in the last law change. Someone needs to get a grip on this. Yes, I put my trail camera out again, in the wrong place! So still don’t know what is using the hey filled flower pot! Now got 181 pictures of… You guessed it, cats., but success, saw 2 pics of Pippa (I guess) going back into the hog house. Never saw her come out though! There are now lots of fallen Hawthorn leaves where the house and makeshift house I made up is, but guess it’s too late as they all seem to be safely hiding away now. The bat’s have been seen before at night flying to and frow at the other side of our laurel hedge. So guess there’s insects in there. I’ve only just bought a couple of buddleia this year so hopefully there will be more insects next year. I hesitated getting them as there’s some talk about them not being too good for gardens as they are not native plants. Going back to the bat’s, they fly quite close to your head when your out at night, it can be a little disconcerting, but I’ve not known one actually hit anyone or get tangled in your hair. You just feel a swoop over your head. I’ve just had 3 teeth out at hospital, so will say night night for now. Best wishes.
Hi Annker
Is Heidi a this year’s hoglet, I can’t remember. Maybe she’s decided she on to a good thing and is not going to hibernate. I had one here last year. She is still visiting now, so I’m waiting to see whether she will decide not to hibernate again this year.
Personally, I would be much happier if fireworks were confined to properly organised displays. At least then we would have more of a chance to know when they were likely to take place. As it is, it seems it could be almost any time. But I agree the noise is the worst bit, especially as far as animals are concerned. I once spent some time in a field with 2 ponies when there were some fireworks not far away. When there were just ones with lights and fairly quiet, they stood there transfixed, but when the loud bangs went off they started tearing around in a very alarming manner. Thankfully they didn’t come to any harm, but I could see how easy it would have been for them to be hurt. But then there is also the litter which can be found around afterwards.
I’m not sure the hogs like hawthorn leaves too much for nest building. They mostly use medium sized leaves for their hibernating nests. Re. the buddleia. I know there is talk from time to time about non-native plants, but buddleia, provides a lot of nectar for all sorts of insects, so food for loads of butterflies, moths, etc. It’s good to have some things like nettles, etc. because some butterflies lay their eggs on them. But once they’re adult they don’t mind if the plant they get their nectar from is non-native. But it is, of course good to plant native plants as well.
The hedgehog that is using my hedgehog home has spent every night last week, (about 4am to 6am,) collecting leaves – and I think it’s just any leaf she can find – today, I noticed that she has tried to drag in some small branches that have fallen off my evergreen tree, as two small branches (with the evergreen foliage still on) sticking out of the tunnel.
If I didn’t have my camera, I wouldn’t have seen her carrying leaves into her home. I haven’t seen much of her the last couple of nights, so I wonder if she’s decided to hibernate now.
However, every scrap of food I put out, it all goes, although my camera only picked up one hedgehog, (it doesn’t pick all of them up, and they come in from different parts of the garden), so I wonder, if she is still up and about eating the food, and it’s just that the camera hasn’t picked her up?
When she enters her home in from the front, it picks her up, but she often takes a detor and goes under the school fence, and then back into my garden at the side of her home. When she does this, the camera doesn’t pick her up – so that’s probably the case.
I still am having problems with the fox, every single night he turns up, and he was crouched in a preditor like mode last night – I never see him, my camera always picks him up – and I can never bare to watch the videos of him, as I’d rather not know what he is trying to get up to, so I just quickly shut it down and delete.
The hedghog in my home, the video picked her up last night – but she’s removed the conifer branch from her tunnel, obviously decided it isn’t suitable.
On cold nights, I leave her a handful of straw in her entrance, and by the next morning – it has been taken inside.
So her home must be ram packed by now – but then again they compress it all don’t they.
Hi, Nic, Heidi looks like she was born this year. She looks exactly like Pippa, but slightly smaller. Heidi is now missing every other night at the feeding station. I have been worried, but she may have been supplementing her diet and actually eating good natural food and just topping up with the food I’ve put out. I’ve just tried to change my profile pic, but can’t see to do it. I will try putting them on the gallery. Pippa was the tiny hog I saw very early this year. Hubby just shouted, ones gone in feeding station now, 5-15pm! Very early tonight. I saw Pippa crunching the ends off the Hawthorn branches with flowers on and eating them! I didn’t think they ate them. The Hawthorn leaves have fallen and built up a bit of cover on the outside of the hog box. There are Beech leaves and laurel leaves I think they use. Like Hedgie Love I’ve put some hey a time or two in the tunnel and although it’s stayed there a few days, it’s been taken into the box. Regarding the buddleia, it was something about not helping native butterflies and “weeding” your neighbours garden! Well, sorry again neighbours, I’ve got three, purple, pink and white as well as the old lilac tree, which seem to get a lot of insects visiting it. Best wishes.
PS, put 2 Heidi and 2 Pippa on feeding station in Gallery, not come up yet, but it’s hard to guess the size of them from the photos. They are similar size now to Dinky Minky last year. Although I’ve not seen Dinky since she came out of hibernation this year, she made it through. The tiny whirlwind one caught on cctv the other week has not been seen since. Now that was a worry. Bless all your hogs, hope they stay safe, best wishes.
Hi Nic, I’ve just put another 2 pics on the feeding station/gallery. They were taken from cctv of Heidi at nearly 5-30pm last night. Not good pics, but you maybe able to judge the size, there is a little rock light at the side of the steps. I’ll always make sure theres food there for her, so if she doesn’t fully hibernate we should be able to keep her going. She came 3 times before midnight, but didn’t see her after that. I’ve put pictures on before but this time they don’t seem to be going on, will wait and see. Best wishes.
Hi Annker
Don’t worry too much, I was only asking because I mostly hear about hoglets not hibernating, rather than adults.
Yes, buddleias can spread their seeds around, but they’re easy enough to pull up if you don’t want them where they fall. But lucky neighbours, they might get a free buddleia! Native butterflies love them, it’s just that their catterpillars need other species of plant to eat. i.e. a few lay their eggs on nettles, but others on smaller plants like birds food trefoil, etc. birds foot trefoil are pretty and fairly low growing, but easy to grow in a garden. Yellow flowers with sometimes red patches – hence one of their common names eggs and bacon! They will scramble up through things a bit.
Hi Nic, thanks for the info about the plants. I’ve not seen the yellow plant with red on it. Strangely, we have every weed you can think of but nettles! My husband likes dandelions and says weeds are only flowers growing in the wrong place! Consequently, we were overrun with them. My beech leaves have mostly fell off, again. I thought they stayed on, looking dead. Now looking down the bottom bit of the garden where they are, I think they will have to be left, as I don’t know if any hogs are down there hibernating! I’ve reset the trail cam in the hope of seeing what’s going in the flower pot, it’s looking more likely to be a rat, which would explain why so many cats are down there. Something passed on the cctv tonight, I caught a glimpse, asked hubby what was that, he said, no idea, looked like a rabbit! Honestly… Would anything else like to come live here! I’m waiting to get a card for the second trail camera and hopefully try to catch some bat’s on it. The Tawney Owls haven’t come this Autumn. They usually come Spring and Autumn and stay for a while near a home for the elderly as there are trees there. Best wishes.
Hi Nic, sorry, regarding fireworks, which are still going on here, I’ve been saying for a long time about the poor animals. Those poor horses and I wonder about animals which are left out in fields at such times. It’s as bad for wild animals as it is for pets. I once read it wasn’t the noise that frightened birds, but the flashing lights. I made sure the curtains were drawn as we had a budgie who used to jump everytime one went off. The poor wild birds must go through it. If only people would stop and think about all these things and stop buying them, but no, “we have to enjoy ourselves by blowing our money up”. Like a neighbour, bonfire in front garden, smoke everywhere, loud fireworks exploding, first baby a few months old, now who was that for, not the child’s. Then there’s all the particles in the air…. Anyway, not seen Heidi for 2 nights, absolutely freezing cold last night, frost this morning. Still very cold but hubby just seen her near feeding station at 8-10pm. Need to get myself together here, as feeling sorry for her out in this cold, when I suppose they can put up with it. Hope yours are safely tucked up and it’s not as cold where you are. Best wishes.
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