Poo spotted despite builder's mess…
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Hi Annie
Yes, the cats, or really, one cat in particular has been an absolute pest. You wouldn’t believe the contraption I have built now. Luckily Siili (yes she is still around) can still get in, but I’ve had to resort to water trays and saucers all over the place. At the moment it seems to be working, which is just as well – Siili isn’t really helping by arriving so late! Yes, I like cats, really. I just wish they wouldn’t try to eat Siili’s food, not to mention poo-ing all over my garden. When I had a cat, he had a litter tray, which he was happy to use. He also stayed in at night, which he also didn’t mind – he was brought up like that from a kitten. I wonder how much wildlife would be saved, if only people kept their cats in at night. It’s safer for them, too. Also would be handy for feeding the hogs!
Sorry to hear about all the building round there. The only thing, from the hogs’ point of view, about it is that if all the gardens had hog holes and there was a huge hog highway, it could potentially be better for them than a field with just grass and fences round the edge. It does depend a bit on people trying to make their gardens wildlife friendly, but that does seem to be becoming a bit more popular. It’s much better, of course if the developers include hog holes in the first place. I suspect people are less likely to fill them in than to make them themselves. Then, of course there are the strimmers and slug pellets. Oh dear! But in the countryside they have cutting machines/chemicals as well and dwindling suitable habitat, it seems.
Yes, if only someone would try to sort out all the environmental problems. We can only hope. But yes, looking forward to the Spring, now, too. I haven’t seen any hogs, other than Siili, so hope they are safely hibernating somewhere and are back here fit and well in the Spring. Hopefully those there, too.
All the usual birds are still visiting, although the blackbirds here at the moment seem very shy compared to their Summer cousins. I see them early in the morning on the cameras, but not so much later. The starlings are having a lovely time on the contraption to keep the cat out – they seem to think it’s a new climbing frame for them. It’s quite fun watching them finding a way in to finish off the hog food. Some more inventive than others. One squeezed it’s way through one of the mesh segments one day – not sure it was really any quicker than going round! A bit of a tight fit, too!
Happy Christmas to you, too.
Sounds like hard work keeping the marauding cats out, I’d like to see the anti cat barriers you’ve erected! It would be very much safer for cats if they stayed in at night & hugely beneficial to assorted wildlife too I’m sure. Frankie being a feral when he moved in with us had firm ideas about when he did or didn’t go out & found ways to ensure he got his way on the subject. It’ll be forever a regret to me that I wasn’t able to keep him in safely at night, he’d learned to sleep & stay in for the majority of it but still went out for usually one brief foray if only for a quick toilet visit. He wasn’t at all impressed with the litter tray, used it only for doing No. 1’s when it was snowing & he was utterly desperate – he actually bit me the first time I put him in it to start teaching him to use it! He was scandalised at Sumo & Minx doing No. 2’s in it.
No sign of hogs here, the mice are still enjoying the food I put out. Sadly when I was out litter picking a few weeks ago one of the others found a poorly baby hedgehog in a lane nearby, it was taken to a vet but was too far gone to be saved. Hate to think what must have happened to others from it’s family as it’s unlikely to have been the only one.
Wonder if Siili is still turning up late every night in your garden. Re builders installing hedgehog holes in fencing they said they would be as a matter of course up the road but I wonder if they actually have. Those nest bricks that can be installed in new builds in the walls/roofs are also a brilliant idea, I’d like to see it made compulsory for all & any types of wildlife homes to become part of new buildings. Decided not to block my roof hole so my sparrows can return this Spring for the 3rd time, hopefully their babies will manage not to fall out & into Minx’s small area. The down pipe has a basket at the top to stop them dropping into it as it’s directly under where they nest, having to pay the window cleaner at the end of nesting to clear the mess they block the gutter with seems a small price to pay to help the little family.
Hope all is well with you. Being blind in one eye with a permanently detached retina it’s been a bit scary round here. I got a hole in the retina in the other eye 18 November & then spent weeks waiting for the hospital to offer me an appointment after the optician spoke to them on the phone. I was shopping in town then went on spec to an optician in the city centre on 28/12 to get them to do an OCT scan for me as I was getting rather worried as time went on (after giving up on the hospital ever contacting me before I ended up with another detached retina). The optician looked at the scan then rang the hospital, who arranged for eye casualty to see me straight away & they did the laser treatment after looking at my eye. Weird sort of Saturday! Check up tomorrow to see if the laser scarring has sealed the hole. Rather hope it has!!
Hi Annie
So sorry to hear about your eye problems. Sounds really frightening. Can’t believe they kept you waiting so long with such a serious problem! I hope the check up went well and that the hole has sealed up.
I haven’t managed to keep the cat out, despite so many obstacles that the camera doesn’t normally even see Siili when she’s there! There are times when I see her, but the camera doesn’t. I got a new camera, just before Christmas. I got it from the Naturespy Shop. I was really impressed. I rang up the Friday afternoon before Christmas, expecting not to get it until after Christmas, but it arrived Saturday morning with the post. They persuaded me to try some lithium batteries and so far they are working well. So much easier than changing the rechargeable ones every day!
It was so sad about Frankie, but if they are older, it isn’t so easy to train them to stay in at night. Some can be almost semi-wild animals. But you gave him a lovely life, he was lucky to find you. I love the story of the attempted litter tray training! I had a cat once who someone asked me to take on (years ago), when he was a bit older and he had always been a roamer – for miles. He was so desperate to get out (when I first had him and he was confined to quarters) that I once only just managed to catch him with about half of him already out of the top bathroom window (upstairs). Not sure where he thought he was going after that! I was so worried he was going to end up falling (he didn’t make it any easier, of course!). The poor chap was eventually run over on the nearby railway.
Sorry to hear about the poor little hog. There must be some that just don’t get seen.
Siili is keeping me worrying by not turning up every night! She had started coming earlier. The other night I was a bit late putting out the food and suddenly came face to face with her. I froze, but she still knew I was there. Her little nose went up in the air and then she turned round and dashed off into the night. I was actually quite pleased that she has got back her natural instincts and she came back about 10 minutes later, by a different route. But last night she was missing again and also no cats. Very strange that often happens that when she doesn’t visit, neither do they. But recently she usually gets here first, which is good.
I hope the builders really have installed hog holes, too. Yes, I think those nesting bricks sound brilliant too. What a difference it would make if they put those in every new house (and extension) which was built. I wish more people would decide not to block their roof holes. At least lots of people put up boxes, these days.
Won’t be long now until the boys come out of hibernation.
My hogs are back, a few weeks ago I noticed signs of activity in Frankie’s kennel, camera revealed all in the night. I’ve been putting food out through the ‘winter’ & it’s sporadically disappeared but now my little people have returned, every night. Possibly it’s been hogs as well as mice eating off & on all the season, when I put the camera out all I got was mice so I stopped for a long while. Had 2 hogs on there a week ago, appeared to be biffing going on, one even seemed to be upside down, weird shot.
The other night I was late putting the camera out & met a quite large hog who chose to play statues til I’d gone, I put some food down & it ate it in front of the camera after I’d gone back in.
Exciting about your new camera, I got another one from Lidl but took it back because it was useless for hogs.
Is Siili still around, & do you have other visitors too?Hi Annie
So pleased for you that there are hogs back there! No returners sighted here, yet. The boys could be back any time. Siili disappeared about 5 weeks ago. Hope she decided to have a bit of late hibernation and that she will eventually return safe and well. That’s the unfortunate thing about hogs – the not knowing. It probably isn’t a good idea to get too attached to any individual wild animal, but with some of them it’s difficult not to!
Unfortunately, it’s still a problem with the visiting cats. At the moment I’ve removed most of the cat deterrant and am not putting any cat biscuits out. The camera is not behaving very well, so can’t really rely on it. I think maybe they don’t work so well in the cold/damp weather. Last night there was a mouse there but the camera didn’t pick it up – normally they do. So I’m not certain whether it’s the cats eating some of the hog food, or whether the birds are tucking in, in the early morning.
I’m hoping, as you didn’t mention it, that the eye check up was o.k.
Hi Nic, yes, thanks for asking, happily the hole was confirmed to be successfully repaired. Fingers crossed for no more!!
Put food out earlier this evening, opened the curtain to look out a while afterwards & one of the lights on sensors had gone off, watched & another 2 went off & there’s my hog from last year (but larger!) heading for Frankie’s kennel for a post meal rest. He (or she) goes under the fleece cat pad & leaves a nice hog shaped tunnel when he leaves so I always know if there’s been a visitor – in fact that’s when I realised he was back a few weeks ago. He always does the same route, into the feeder, out & up a little step & across to the kennel for a bit then back out to the garden or for another top up of hog biccies.
The lights are very useful, they’re from Mr Beams – garden stake type a foot or so high & I’ve put a few round the borders & a motion sensor spotlight (not bright) on the shed so when there’s a hog I get to see it as it sets off the lights. They stay on 20 seconds or so then go out til another visitor goes by. Help me not fall over things including hedgehogs when I go out to put food there too!
Cameras can be disappointing, with ours if there’s a problem it’s usually flat or low batteries causing it. It seems to be working but badly then when you test the batteries they’re on their way out. Cold makes them go down much faster.
I hope Siili returns soon, you’re right, it’s impossible not to get attached to her or any of the other wildlife who share our gardens with us. Makes us better people that we care is all I can say, wish more folk felt the same.
Hi Annie
Really good news about your eye – must have been such a relief!
Love it that the hog is still using Frankie’s kennel. Very considerate of it to leave a sign that it’s been there!
I agree re. the cameras that it’s usually batteries that are the problem. I think they probably run out more quickly when it’s very cold. The Lithium ones were good and saved having to change them every day, but only lasted about 6 weeks. I might try some again in the Summer and see if they last any longer then. Although, hopefully, there might be more activity then – of the hog variety – so that might use the batteries up quickly too.
Just bought some calci-worms to try out. They say 3.85% calcium .55% phosphorous, so hopefully o.k. No doubt the birds will like them if the hogs don’t.
Yes, I so much hope that Siili comes back. Sadly the odds are against them all, especially individually. I keep hearing strimmer type noises, from not far away – dreadful noise.
Hi Annie
Really exciting – there was a hog here last night! Not Siili. Quite a large hog. I’ll call him a he for now, because he probably is, but his skirt was quite long so I couldn’t see underneath to be sure. He was here for quite a while foraging on the patio and ‘lawn’. Interestingly, there were no cats. The food was all gone, but I didn’t see him actually eating – that could be the camera playing up again. Hopefully more hogs will follow.
Hi Nic
The world has been turned upside down since your last message, I hope you’re OK, been a bit busy with things here.
Neil went into hospital on 11th March for the femoral artery bypass on his other leg, had it on the Thu & was discharged the following Tuesday with leg full of staples. The hospital is trying to carry out essential ops so need the beds quickly, given all that’s happening I’ll be amazed if that carries on. District nurses providing home care after I sorted it out for him though restricting visits to essential only for obvious reasons. Staples may come out later this week.
On the hedgehog front it’s been quite busy out the back with sightings by neighbours of some out the front as well. I cut a hole in the front gate as the side fence is accessible through a hole but the gate needed one so they could get out of the lane into the garden too. I hope Siili has reappeared, our last year one who uses the kennel hasn’t been using it last week or so but possibly busy elsewhere nest building.
From what you said about long skirts hiding things I think I need to brush up on sexing hogs so I can work out which is visiting here.
Take care & keep safe, stay in as much as you can unlike the absolute fools I saw on tv over the weekend behaving like irresponsible children
Hi Annie
Sounds like Neil was lucky to get that done before everything started going completely mad. Hope it was successful and all heals up well.
Yes, it’s got pretty busy here with hogs now. Lots of biffing and rolling up going on! The dreaded blobbers have been at it again, already. It always used to be the weekends that were the danger times, but now I suppose there will be no escape for the poor hogs.
No sign of Siili yet, but I wouldn’t expect her to return yet. Just really hope it is hibernation that’s keeping her away. It’s always a worry that someone else might pick her up and think that she needs ‘rescuing’ and she ends up being confined to a walled garden after all. I just hope that if someone does try to ‘rescue’ her, she ends up at the same Wildlife Hospital and they realise who she is. But, judging by how many boys there are around, any female that turns up is likely to have a hard time getting some food without having advances made! I don’t think I have seen Igel yet. I wonder whether she will have any more luck with the boys this year! That is, hoping that she comes back.
It’s usually possible to tell male from female, pretty much, from their behaviour. But if you do get a chance to see underneath, the males have a blob or extra appendage mid abdomen. Usually fairly obvious if you get a good view i.e. they conveniently scratch in front of the camera!
Yes, do take care too and stay safe.
Blast the blobbers, what idiotic people they are. I can’t tell my hogs apart but wouldn’t want to do anything to them they’re wild animals.
Lots of biffing & things going on here, haven’t been able to spot male or female yet but assume the very large one I met round the corner of the garden the other night circling a smaller one & following it around was probably male & the smaller one female. Ton of poo everywhere, also when there’s been a couple on the camera having a bit of a chat you can see pee which dries up quickly in other shots. There were a couple of quite small ones who seemed quite ok with each other being there, one was drinking water the other just seemed to be being companionable. There was one picture I couldn’t work out what I was looking at, a hog had been rolled by another & I was looking at something on it’s underside that looked for all the world like a button, guessing it was it’s nose!
Maybe there’ll be a surge in the hog population this year because of the presumably smaller number of road casualties, the traffic here is minimal despite being a very busy road normally. I’m used to the racket of traffic but it’s nice & peaceful most of the time now. They’re also predicting a people explosion of babies called Isolation in 9 months time, that would be not a good thing, too many of us already.
Hoping you’ve seen Igel & Siili, if not then you seem to have lots of other visitors.
Oh yes – I’ve perfected the feeder so Chino, Nala’s sister, can’t get in or get the dish out. At last! Few builder’s bricks I rescued last year, couple of plants in pots & hogs (&mice) get the food to themselves also it’s easy for me to take it up to clean the dish & replenish the food & remove all the poo.
Hope you’re well & stay that way.
Hi Annie
Nice to hear from you. Glad to hear you have plenty of hog activity there. So nice that hog life seems to be continuing as normal to keep us all sane.
Yes, that does sound like a male and female – the circling. The youngsters often are o.k. with each other, especially if they’re females. Some females seem to remain tolerant of some other females. Digger for instance would share a bowl with certain other females on occasion, but not others. Had to laugh at the hog with the button!
I’m a bit concerned that the traffic situation might have the opposite effect. That the hogs get used to the cars not being around so much and then they’re suddenly all back. I suppose it depends when that happens. Normally hoglet leaving home time is always a bad time and clock changing time a bit of a worry.
Yes, we could certainly do without a population explosion of the human variety! Glad to hear it’s a bit quieter there without so much traffic. I’m not far from a major A road and that is quieter, too. Driving to do the food shopping yesterday was quite strange, with so little traffic around.
Not so many hogs around the last couple of nights and I think only one last night, even though he managed to get himself onto about 32 videos in the feeding area. They were mostly males, probably all males, so I imagine that they came here to feed up after hibernation and are now exploring the rest of their ranges. There was one rather tyrranical one, so not surprising they didn’t want to be around him too much! Interestingly, he isn’t the one who was here last night. It was certainly more peaceful.
Still no sign of Igel or Siili.
Glad to hear you’ve got the feeder cat proofed. Bricks are so useful in the garden and with hogs’ paraphernalia. I never seem to have enough of them!
Yes, managed to avoid the virus, so far, thanks. That is, as far as I know. Hope you’re keeping safe and well, too.
Hi Nic
it occurred to me the traffic thing could backfire when things get going again, think that was part of Frankie’s downfall as he died at the end of the Easter weekend (2 years ago, time flies) after a few days’ quiet roads when he’d probably got used to less traffic & got his timing all wrong. We’re virtually on an A road, it was where he was killed. Be happy if it stayed as it is permanently, regarding traffic.
Anyway, back to hogs. Some very thirsty hogs visiting so much so I started a topic earlier on the forum about putting water out to make the point a bit. The ground is bone dry so food will be harder for them to dig up, slugs (which aren’t the best food anyway are they) seem to have all but disappeared with the dry weather too.
So nice to see the activity going on pretty much all night here again, takes ages going through the photos to see what to save every day, not least because they spend so long drinking it produces masses of photos because they’re in front of the camera. Gives me something to take my mind off the ghastly virus anyway. May be an idea to move the camera a bit!
Have you been watching Chris Packham live at 9 every morning (on Twitter, YouTube & things I don’t understand) quite entertaining except yesterday a little girl made a pool from a plastic container but didn’t put anything to let hedgehogs climb out. She appeared to be trying to prop a small piece of wood at the end which may have been for that (wouldn’t have been sufficient) but they really should have made the point you must have a way for them to get out. I missed the beginning today so hopefully they mentioned it then, I tweeted Megan (his stepdaughter who’s on it with him) yesterday about the lack of escape for hogs but she didn’t reply.
One poor little hog coming here has been very badly striped with something, makes it extremely visible. Sad to see, it’s a real mess.
Frankie’s kennel is being made use of, the blanket is currently covered in poo!
Hope you’re still well, what’s happening in your garden?
Hi Annie
Yes, it seems all one thing or the other with rain. It’s been very dry here, too, although there was a tiny bit of rain last night.
No, I don’t think hogs are that keen on slugs, if there’s something better around. At least they should still be able to catch beetles, even if it hasn’t been raining. The other night I saw a hog on the video seemingly regurgitating something. I had a look in the area in the morning and the only thing I could see was what looked like a slightly misshapen medium sized slug. (Reminded me of Ron Weasley in Harry Potter – if you are familiar with it). He went straight back to the food and was chomping away for quite a while and seemed o.k.
There only seem to be a couple of males visting at the moment. Last night I looked out and saw one peacefully eating, but a few minutes later I looked out and he was in a ball. I was just in time to see the other hog disappearing into the hog box. He might be the reason for not so many visits – a bit of a tyrant! The other males all seem scared of him. This one eventually unrolled and scarpered, even though the other hog was safely in the box by that time.
I found a very small frog a while ago when I was doing some edging. Luckily I was on hands and knees – he could so easily have been chopped, even with shears. I put him on the edge of the mini-pond. I think he or another one must be in there a bit, because I often hear a little plop as I approach as if something has just dived down. One time I thought I saw a little frog nose, but definitely not the bigger ones I’ve had there before.
No I haven’t seen any of the Chris Packham things. I normally have limited broadband, so got into the habit of being a bit careful, even though I probably could use a bit more, now that BT have given us unlimited broadband at the moment. Very nice of them. But I so often see things i.e. gardening programmes where they make these water features with no exits available for hogs as well as some other hog unfriendly features.
So sad about the striping. So unnecessary. Glad to hear Frankie’s kennel is still being used, although how dare they poo on the blanket!
Hope you and the hogs stay safe.
Hi Nic
Oh, lucky little frog, I had a terrible accident with a frog in the garden years ago, made me do things differently ever since.
The slug thing sounds quite funny, but probably just as well the hog brought it back up – upswallowing we call that. Ron Weasley, haha!
We had a drop of rain last night too, filled the bird dishes so must have been a goodly shower.
Striped little hog was here last night, as it’s an infrared shot can’t tell what colour it is but it’s extensive & they must have had to hold it still somehow for a while to achieve it. Wish I knew who it was, they want shooting.
There was a very odd couple of shots right in front of the camera last night, 2 hogs, one closest & with its left side & back to the camera was quite flattened out & even appeared to have a dip between where I imagine shoulder blades might be, it was partly on top of the other which was in front of it & appears to be normally shaped from what you can see. The spines on the flattened hog were all laid flat, never seen that before. If it was the other way around I’d think it was a pair making more hogs, perhaps there had been another behind which was doing just that which was off camera! Seems a bit much to believe there were 3 in a row. The next shot was of no hogs as everyone had scooted off.
The kennel this morning had the padded blanket half out of it, the newspaper that was under it is all mashed up at the back & some dragged out the front. Oh yes, & poo everywhere. Going to carefully remove the blanket with my litter picker this afternoon & replace it further back & tonight the camera is going to be aimed at the kennel. I want to know what’s going on in there!! The world of hogs is a wonderful thing. If it didn’t use so many batteries up I’d set the video on it but not so easy to get batteries right now. I’m only going shopping once a week locally if I really have to for obvious reasons, for short walks with hubby to help him recuperate & to collect litter. Since Thursday I’ve filled 3 & a half bin bag sized bags with litter, looking like it should round here now & few cars or people compared to normal which suits me perfectly.
I’d take advantage of BT’s generosity while you can, Virgin have given me things I don’t understand & won’t use too!
Stay safe Nic. x
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