Our little hog friend of last year hasn't reappeared
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Sad to report that as expected no sign of our Harriet, she disappeared far too early in October & no sign of her or anybody else yet. Bag of moist hedgehog food & some meat flavoured cat food waiting for a hog to eat it for me.
Hi Annie
So good to have you back! Sorry to hear no sign of Harriet. Don’t give up yet. Two of the girls have not returned here yet and I am still hoping. Last year a couple didn’t come back until early May.
I am having a slightly worrying night again here. The two girls, who have returned, have not appeared for the second night running. Very unusual for them. So far only one of last years hoglets, who went away to be overwintered, has visited tonight. Not sure why they are all suddenly deserting the hog hostelry here.
Hopefully all will return to normal soon, there and here. Fingers crossed.
Hi Annie
I’ve only had a couple of sightings this year so far, nothing recently think they’ve gone to party elsewhere or maybe into hibernation again? The weathers been yoyoing this spring so far warm and cold.
I don’t know about elsewhere but it’s very dry round us, the pond levels are dropping and my water butts are very low. Earlier on in the spring when I saw the hoggys – there was a lot of worms in the lawn coming up at night time, not seen any of those for a while either.
Hi Annie and Wildlifehaven . It has been very dry here too and like you Wildlifehaven the water butts are very low. I think we need at least a day’s rain to fill them up again. The birds will keep bathing in the water bowls and emptying them of water, so they keep needing filling as well. You would think the dry weather would attract the hogs back to our gardens for food and drink, but like you say, it has been quite cold some nights.
I’m pleased to say there have been hogs back here at a reasonable hour again tonight, after two very quiet nights. Dear old Digger – the oldest of the girls was only 15 minutes late! I went out to get the bowls in just now and could hear some courtship going on in the depths of the flowerbed.
I remember before I joined Hedgehog Street, reading about all the hogs everyone had back and none had returned here, but they did eventually and I hope some hogs visit both of you again soon. With all that food waiting for them, they’d be silly not to!
Hi Nic, Annie and Wildlifehaven,
It is dry here too, and feeling cold under a more or less clear sky. But that did not stop the male I took from the rescue centre and an unmarked female ( she a returnee to the garden )having a huffing and puffing time under the hedge. No not sure if that will lead to baby hogs.
Ten minutes after they, well the male left the scene their was fighting in the hedge-bottom……both unmarked hogs. So at least three hogs enjoying the hedge and shrubs. Hard to tell who is who in torch light when they are moving and twirling.
As I did not want to disturb them, I have left them to their own devises.Hope your hogs return Annie……fingers crossed.
Hi Nic & everybody else, thanks for the encouragement, when Harriet disappeared the weather was still mild in October so I’ve feared the worst ever since. Hopefully you’re all right & she’ll surprise me, look forward to that.
Nice to hear about the hogs who’ve reappeared in various gardens, hope lots more do & give us all a happy year of hogfullness.
Have been topping up bird dishes every day as it’s very dry here too, made a new bird feeder & lots of starlings (don’t know where they appeared from!) seem to have found it much to their joy. Plenty of dropped food for Harriet if she returns as she ate a lot last year.
Hi Annie
Am still waiting here, hopefully, for my two dear old friends to return. Meanwhile, the other two girls are not being their usual selves at all and are not visiting at their usual times. I think all the hogs here, both boys and girls are spending a lot of time rushing around looking for each other. Plenty of hogs late at night on the cams – yes I finally got some – but very quiet at civilised times of the evening.
I get a lot of starlings here, too. They are experts at splashing around and emptying the water bowls and mini ponds. They seem to like bathing together. They nest in my roof, luckily over the bathroom, so not too much disturbance, as they can get very noisy! My last year’s dominant blackbird who sits on top of the water butts and peers in at me has been demoted. He still sometimes turns up. He actually looks very sleek and handsome and the current boss bird is very scruffy!
Hi Nic
I hope your old pals reappear very soon, must be difficult knowing wild animals & all that can happen to them & waiting for them to come back for your TLC. I only knew Harriet for last summer but felt terrible when she stopped coming & still do not knowing if or when I’ll see her again.
Well done getting your cameras, we only have the one still & all we’ve seen on it is cats!
Starlings, magpies & sparrows the messiest bathers, using a lot of water in this dry weather. Your poor old blackbird, sitting there in all his glory & outdone by a scruffy version. You’ll have the joy of watching the baby starlings in your garden without being kept awake by them.
Food is out the back waiting for a hog every night, thought it was being eaten by a hog a few weeks ago but spotted a complete stranger of a cat on camera squeezing into the gap & scoffing it all with its bum in the air! Not putting cat food in the bowl just hog food & a few mealworms now.
Hi Annie
That is the trouble with wild animals. There are so many imponderables. Someone may have put up a new fence and blocked their way. Someone may be feeding them nearer to their home (if that is the case, hopefully with decent food and not just mealworms!), etc. At least one of the ones I am waiting for comes from across the road and then has to find her way through a gap in a terrace of houses. She normally comes through next door but one’s garden. They are fairly hedgehog friendly, so hopefully that should be ok. I hope she can still get under their gate. Unfortunately, next door was blocked by the previous owner, and the current owner, sadly, doesn’t seem to want to make a hog hole.
The cameras were only cheap ones, which is probably why the pictures aren’t brilliant, but you can see when there are hogs coming and going – and the cats, of course! Love your description of the cat! The hogs make me laugh – there is a gap under the gate but some of them squeeze under the lowest part of the gate only inches away. They also show a marked preference for using the path. I always thought they did, but the camera shows it. The only thing is the cams are not totally reliable. Sometimes I have seen a hog here at a certain time, but it does not appear on the camera.
I love the starlings, squabbles and all. The other bird we have a lot of here is collared doves. Also (thankfully only a couple of) wood pigeons who often make star appearances on the cameras in the early morning. The water butt blackbird actually outstared the scruffy chap once today, so perhaps the tables are beginning to turn again. I actually feel a bit sorry for the scruffy chap, he didn’t used to be scruffy – not sure what happened. He is one of those blackbirds who has a few small white feathers, so is easy to recognise.
Really hope you get some hedgehog visitors soon. They don’t know what they’re missing.
Hi Annie
Know how you feel, we’ve still no visitors either since the few sightings early spring. For now it’s just me and Bert the frog and the newts. I keep putting food out, tried every trick under the sun a plastic tub feeding station with 2 trays of water in front, bowls of food with saucers on, a feeding station with a long tunnel entrance but fat cat still gets the meat grrrrr! Keep putting spikes moist, peanuts and sunflower seeds out too in case of any visitors and of course fresh water.
So please to get the rain tonight, wasn’t enough but at least it’s a start, we really need a good few days of some decent steady rain. It’s lovely to see the worms out of the lawn whizzing back down when I shine the torch on them. Hopefully the worms have some special wormy scent and any hogs in the area will smell them and come visit!
Celebrations – found the dish empty in the morning yesterday, filled it up last night & saw a hog at 23.00 eating the food & wandering round our pots! Cleared most of the pots ready for tonight so we can get a better look & also set the camera up at a different angle. If it’s Harriet then she’s grown a bit, the hog has a couple of light patches in its spines which look suspiciously like hers so fingers crossed. Large poo in the border this morning. Putting some meaty cat food in with the hog food tonight & can’t wait to see who turns up.
This is as good as a lottery win, better in fact.
Hope everybody else’s hog families are arriving too.So pleased for you Annie. Hopefully that will be the first of many! Look forward to hearing if it is Harriet, but any hog is a good hog!
Digger was here 6 times in the space of two hours last night! – always with her current beau close at her heels. She determinedly ignored his advances whilst she ate.
Great news Harriet could be back, think perhaps worms do have some superscent, mine have reappeared too!!
Not seen them yet, but have poo all over the garden very happy. Let’s hope the visits continue and perhaps a sighting or two. Put some smelly … Chum out this evening to welcome them back, along with their Spikes and water.
Bert the frog is in the doghouse, think he’s stalking the newts whilst their egg laying hmmm.
Try not to worry mine have been missing for several weeks, then poos appeared last couple of days not seen them but they’re about. Yours hopefully will reappear soon.
Mine reappeared after that last lot of rain not a lot but it brought out the worms which may or may not be coincidental. I don’t know, I’ve put various food out regularly over the past 6 weeks or so, either mine went back for an extra snooze, they found somewhere else for dinner with a more appetising menu or they’re ‘busy’ with Spring in the air, who knows, I can tell you there’s no road deaths around us, we see quite a bit on the way to/from work but never any hedgehogs, thank goodness. Hope you get some poo soon too if not an actually sighting, least you’ll know they are out and about then.
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