The other night late on, around midnight one of the hedgehogs was wandering around on the patio in the rain and activated the security light. My wife noticed and told me, "It's probably looking for food." I said, "There's food in the feeder.! "But it's probably all been eaten by another hedgehog!" "Well, I ain't going out in the rain at this time of night to put more out." That didn't go down too well. When I checked the following morning, as I suspected, there were still a few pellets in the feeder, as is sometimes the case. No recent updates as not a lot has been happening. It's difficult to say if we've any occupants of the three houses, as there's so much traffic in and out of the doorway in the fence. The earliest sighting of one at the feeder next to the house under the azaleas beside the main patio was 9.50pm last night. The earliest through the doorway in the fence was 10pm. But that's just the doorway on which a camera is trained. There's another doorway in the fence on the opposite side of the garden. Both of those gardens are "open" to the road, whereas ours isn't. But we had another visitor last night. A young fox at 11.35. Who managed to squeeze through the doorway, 4.5in in diameter. Followed ten minutes later by another. They spent some time in the garden and one even managed to squeeze between the side fence and the wire fence to get under the azaleas where the hedgehog house is. It also wandered around the patio. and they left the way they came in at around 11.50pm. The hedgehogs seemed unphased by this, as they may have been in proximity to foxes elsewhere. They were using the feeders before, whilst and after they were in the garden. But I'll stop putting food outside that house and restrict it to just the main feeder. Not that foxes appeared to eat any, as a hedgehog used that feeder when the foxes had left. But it may discourage them from trying to force their way in. I've ordered some lithium batteries and a new charger for the three cameras as they sometimes seem to miss some action. They are costing "an arm and a leg." The rechargeable ones I have that's a total of 24 x 1.5 batteries are getting old now, each camera needs eight. I've two mains adapters with long leads, which don't seem to make a lot of difference.
Major fox problems last night. The doorway in the fence was like Piccadilly Circus. In out in out "> Oh come on! More problems around the house under the azaleas. A fox had forced its way through the mesh in the fence where the hedgehogs come in and out. Then it was the turn of the main feeder. One got half-way in! > So drastic measures were needed to remedy the situation this morning, I mean as if I'd nothing better to do. I still had the second feeder with the narrower entrance which they had used, so I put an extra bit of pipe on it to make it more inaccessible to foxes. I'll put another brick on top. I also needed to prevent the hedgehogs from dragging the feed saucer near the entrance. I had to do that with the one we were using last year. Just a bit of removable wire. I'll stop putting food outside the house under the azaleas, foxes will still try to force their way through the mesh fence if there's food there. Now the doorway in the fence. Adult foxes can easily scale a six foot fence, so I can't stop them getting into the garden. But I can stop them using the hedgehog entrance. Simply by putting a heavy pot in front of both entrances, so hedgehogs will have to do a right-angle turn, as soon as they are half-way through. I've had to make it secure enough so that a fox can't push it over, as they will try. Hedgehogs are used to skirting their way around our many patio pots, so it won't be a problem for them. This border slopes, so I needed the bricks. I put a similar pot in front of the doorway in the other fence... I await developments.... My ridiculously expensive rechargeable lithium batteries have arrived. They should mean I won't have to recharge batteries every few days. Each camera has eight batteries. Four batteries take two hours to charge. I have got two mains adapters, but one doesn't seem to be working that well. The problem with trail cams, is that if the batteries aren't producing sufficient voltage, or can't accept as full a charge as necessary, night photos don't always get taken.
No visits from foxes last night. That can be for either of two reasons, they aren't big enough to climb the fence (they are only as tall as the feeder), or that they decided the "pickings" were too small and have gone elsewhere. They can travel miles of a night and foxes have been known to be able to swim across the River Mersey which is only a mile away. Getting around the pot in front of the doorway presented no problems. I've got some plywood somewhere, that I can use to make a small, "wall" instead. Nor did getting in and out of the feeder with the longer and narrower entrance. The larger portion of pellets was all eaten. The house under the azaleas was inspected. I guess the feeding bowl outside the house was missed. I may put it back. Edit. After a bit of shopping, I found a piece of old Stirling board in the garage, then with two pieces attached of a spare cedar Waneylap fence bottom rail, I was able to hammer in this screen, six inches in front of the entrance. Plenty of room for hedgehogs to get round it, but no chance of foxes getting in again. Not before having to dig out a big piece of concrete that was the footing of a post of the former rustic fence I erected along the side of the garden forty years ago! and re-positioning the hose of my leaky hose system that passes in front of the entrance. Nothing's, "that simple" is it? This barrier now, hardly notices That's it for today. There's cricket, golf and tennis on the TV to keep me occupied this afternoon.
Hedgehogs are discriminating house buyers. I have learned that much from these Hedgehog Files. Is it a case of, “location, location, location”? Do they want a bungalow with a view or something, I wonder.
The screen in front of the doorway in the side fence, did its job, with hedgehogs appearing from behind it, reminiscent of the sketch with Princess Margaret and Peter Sellers.* It was given an "inspection,"and a sniff. Bert the blackbird, checked it out too. But we still had a visit from a fox. It must have scaled the fence. There's no way it could have got in through the doorway and anyway, the camera would have picked it up. It is small, not a tall as the feeder. It was a bit concerning, as it spent some time just sitting on the patio, or skulking behind one of the patio pots. It did not attempt to get into the feeder, although it circled it several times. Hedgehogs visited the feeder a couple of times before the fox and within five minutes of it disappearing. So it doesn't seem to bother them. I'm pleased with the performance of my new rechargeable lithium batteries, (so I should be given their cost), far more captures are being made and the cameras are indicating a full battery charge, which they never did with the old rechargeables, even straight after being recharged. *
Riley— that Peter Sellers was funny man. Well, that was a clever solution, but not enough to deter Reynard. This thread of yours.is sort of lie a mini-Springwatch. It is so enjoyable for us. Merci.
Back in the day, when we had the fox cubs. The mother taught them to leave the garden by jumping up in turns, on one of the Japanese lanterns. When she could see they could all do it, after a few days when she considered them ready to leave, she showed them how to scrabble up the fence and get over. They were able to grip the tops of the Waneylap panels with their paws. This is the last photo of the mother, taken two years later. She was easy to recognise, as we had so many photos of her. She'd visited the garden to check out the access to her former den. But after the cubs had left I made it impossible for a fox to get under the summerhouse. It has "skirts" on three sides, which finish two inches above the surrounding paths as the building is up on brick piers. The back I'd left open for ventilation of the underside, so there was a 9" gap. But I'd since closed it off with a sturdy wooden frame with double chicken wire on it. After inspecting the site, she made her way out of the garden via the lamp and we never saw her again.
In summer I use motion detector sprinklers to keep the deer at bay. They come by 5 am - 8am and 8- 9pm at dusk. They are surprised by the sprinklers and startled enough to say away.
It rained most of the night. The only visitor from behind the screen was this mouse at 3.30 a.m. The camera in front of house, picked up this hedgehog at half-ten and this camera had this around the same time. The clocks on the cameras aren't actually synchronised! So it's unlikely any came through the doorway in the fence and it has been in the house under the azaleas or either of the other two at the bottom of the garden. Not all the food was eaten. No foxes in the garden last night. But still not putting food in front of the house.
I think it’s wise not to put food out in the front . Wild animals can smell food a mile away , not to mention the lil critters they can snag . In your city garden you have nurtured and protected hedgehogs for years.important to give them a safe place and include them as they are great at eliminating insects. Enjoy your stories and pics as well as all your creative efforts to protect the lil guys. I use a motion detector on a sprinkler to get rid of smaller animals here stray cats , raccoons, even deer, bobcats, and coyotes don’t like the surprise action/noise of the sprinkler soaking them at a moments notice. I even placed a hot wire around my pond to keep the raccoons out. It’s a jungle out there.
