After a six month sleep 'arry has finally woken up. I'd put his feeding station back out about a week ago with some dry food in it but it remained untouched. The camera has been trained on the patio all the time and was only picking up pesky cats. But as it had got a bit warmer in the last few days, I put out some catfood last night. He made two visits and cleared all the catfood. Once around 1.45 a.m. and another about 5.00 a.m. in between he must have patrolled the garden as he must have stood on the plinth on which the camera is mounted on a short post as the camera "rocked" He doesn't look any thinner than when we last saw him. Look at those little back feet!
Welcome back out, 'arry! We've always wanted resident hedgehogs but they've only passed through. Wonder if we'll have any in our garden this year.
It's suggested that in April you should clean out hedgehog houses and put in fresh bedding. I was going to do that, but I would also want to check for leaks. Not that there should be any since I put an oversized roof on it. The earliest he's coming out is around 9.00pm. and I didn't fancy working on it at that time of night. The alternative would be to take him out during the day, put him in a cardboard box, whilst I worked on it, which might be a bit traumatic. So I decided, given that it wasn't that expensive, to order another house the same. So I can get it ready and do a straight swop one evening, as soon as he's in his feed station. I can then tart up the original box and put in extra hay ready for hibernation and swap them back in September. The oversize roof is just a "lid" covered in roofing felt so that can get swopped over at the same time.
Last night 'arry visited his feeding station about seven times between 8.00pm and 5.00am. He clears a sachet of Sheba cat food every night. He's looking very fit Just going into dinner..again. "Are you lookin' at me?" "> We still have Marcel the mouse. Here he's on the top step to the right of the two black flowerpots, one of his eyes is reflecting the IR. Here he's to the right of the primroses. He then made his way down and into the bird feeder. On the video for a time he's facing the camera so both eyes "light up."
'arry's friend, Marcel the mouse. He's gone for an early breakfast in the bird feeder, around 5.00 am this morning.
Made the decision to swop 'arry's houses over today. I was going to do it one evening when he was "out to dinner." But I changed my mind, I didn't fancy blundering around in the dark and theres a chance that when he returned to the house it would look foreign and he might have been frightened to go in. So I did it at lunch time today. I lifted the old house out with him in it and placed it on the patio. Then positioned the new one with its plenty of nice clean hay inside. I then opened the old house and took him out (wearing gloves) and placed him in the new one, he curled up a bit as I lifted him but kept a beady eye on me. Didn't seem too bothered. My reasoning is that he won't come out during the daytime and by 8.00 pm. the earliest he does come out he'll have got used to it. The inside of his old house wasn't in the same sort of state as a teenagers bedroom. Whilst he was hibernating the hay had been worked into a ball, now it had been flattened down a bit so he wasn't covered up. There seemed no sign of any infestation. the hay was dry but there was a lot of what I assumed was mud on the floor. It wasn't poo as it didn't smell. It must be stuff he's brought in stuck to his feet and underside when it's been raining over the many months last year and had worked its way down through the bed of hay. I've given the old house a good clean witrh anti-bacterial soap and it's now drying out in the shed. Before I change the houses again in September, I'm going to stick a thick piece of polystyrene to the underside of the floor which is just thin plywood, to add a bit of insulation.
'arry has been for his "first dinner sitting" at 9.00 pm. So his change of house hasn't altered his routine.
'arry has "taken off his winter duvet." Well, what he's done is chucked out some of the hay I'd put in his new house for him when I swopped them over. He probably thinks there's too much now that the weather is improving.
It would be nice if Arry could find himself an Enriette, then you could look after a whole family of love slug guzzling prickly pigs
'arry has settled into his summer routine. He makes several visits to his feeding station every night, "rain or moonshine." Each night he gets through an 85g sachet of cat food and some of his moist and dry hedgehog pellets, then sometimes has a dig around in the bird food feeder. The camera's "still shot" always picks him up before he gets there, but the video follows him in. He makes one or two trips down to the bottom of the garden. He must be happy strolling down the middle of the lawn aware that he has no threats in this garden. Sometimes the camera picks him up coming back a couple of hours later. But other times he must walk back under the azaleas and rhodos in the left hand bed and then over the rockery, as he occasionally leaves poo on it, mostly he uses his feeding station as a toilet. I've the job of cleaning every day. But we wouldn't be without him. I've noticed these cheap trail cameras I bought even give the temperature at the time of the photo in F and C.
I've moved the second camera (again). All it was picking up was 'arry on his way down to the bottom of the garden and sometimes on his way back a couple of hours later. So I decided to put it on the side of the tea-house. It's covering this area which is a bit out of sight, a bit unkempt but might interest a hedgehog. It took a bit of fettling as I needed a power supply for it. There's two double sockets that side of the building but none in reach for the camera cable. So I had to install another socket near the top of the wall, behind the TV, connected by a spur from one of the double sockets below it.
