Well.. Our garden was like Piccadilly Circus last night. Hettie emerged from the bottom house around 9.30pm last night and was in and out of it with long gaps in between, until she came out and disappeared again at 1.26am At 1.41 there was an unwelcome visitor, a fox found a bird in the corner of the garden behind the hog house. It was probably a sick one that had ended up there. Hettie was in and out again between 2.00am and 4.00am The fox returned at 4.31am and tried to get into the house, but was unsuccessful. Hettie was then out and about between 5.00 am and 7.00am. Here's a rare non infa-red photo as it was now daylight. Meanwhile, "back at the ranch," Hettie appears at 10.00pm and is round and about for four hours. She did go in the house for a while at 4.27am but came out again. At 4.32am the fox arrived and was snuffling around trying to eat four day old hedgehog pellets in the dirt. Hang on! at 4.31am it was trying to get into the other house! Now I'd synchronised the time clocks on the cameras, so maybe there's two foxes? This would not be uncommon in our crescent, we had six born under our summerhouse four years ago. Hettie was still snuffling around that house until gone 5.00am. So she's backwards and forwards between the two houses all night. She must go everywhere in the garden as I've found hedgehog poo on the rockery and the rose patio. I'll have to beef up the security at the bottom of the garden to deter the fox, without making it more difficult for Hettie to get in and out of her house. Just another job!
It is so interesting watching the foxes and hedgehogs. Will a fox try and eat a hedgehog? Keep these coming please.
I added some protection to the far house. I'm gonna call it the "B house" and the one under the azaleas next to the patio the "A house." Just some short stakes and some wire. I couldn't make a proper job of it as I didn't want to be doing a lot of banging down there so I just pushed the stakes in by hand and attached some wire to the stakes. This was enough to deter the fox, that had a look, then went away. Having thought there was just the one hedgehog, two turned up last night. You can just see them at the bottom of the screen, in this snip off one of the videos. The second hedgehog seems to have a bit of a limp so I'm calling him "Stumpy" after Walter Brennan in Rio Bravo. There was activity outside both houses, more ins and outs at the B house, that many you'd think it was a hedgehog knocking shop. Hettie is still finding old pellets outside the A house, so I'll put some more down but without a "collectable" china dish. There's several videos of her but she doesn't appear to have gone in, or maybe the camera just didn't pick her up.
That was a good response to the inquisitive foxes. Simple but effective. I like simple but effective. I am curious to see what those two hedgehogs will get up to.
There was a bit of a confrontation last night that lasted about half an hour, the two hedgehogs had a bit of a "face off" outside house B. Hettie on the left Stumpy on the right. No physical contact, just a lot of circling around. "> "Bed time" for Hettie was at 4.11am. Stumpy spent quite a bit of time outside house A, eating the pellets I'd scattered on the house's patio. He disappeared inside at 4.39am. He was in and out of the other house when Hettie wasn't there. I think he'd rather have that one but Hettie won't wear it. There were no foxes but this cat came for a look early in the morning but couldn't get near either entrance. As there was so much activity outside this house, I'm going to move the camera back to capture more of it.
Great job problem solving DHR. I laughed when you mentioned how the fox could scale things. I didn't know that they were such good climbers until a few years ago. A gentleman at the camera shop was developing photos of a fox hugging a tree with all four limbs, shimmying up the tree, then out onto a branch to reach his bird feeder. It retreated down the tree in the same manner. I was dumbfounded when he showed me. Looks like we both have clever climbers in our countries.
There were no "close encounters of any kind" last night, nor visits from cats or foxes. The first thing stumpy did when he came out last night, was have a long drink. I always make sure there's fresh water available near both houses every evening. It was difficult to tell them apart last night, as the marks on Hettie's spines of her rear end have disappeared. There are still two hedgehogs, as it's possible to put both camera files up on the screen. The clocks are synchronised on both cameras. It's therefore possible to compare the times the photos/videos were taken. Although none exactly matched, there were two within 2 minutes of each other. In both, neither hedgehog were about to enter a "twenty yard dash." So although hedgehogs can be surprisingly speedy. They aren't that quick.
Sunday. When I retrieved the cards from Camera B (the summer house) this morning, I noticed all the water had gone as was the food. Hardly surprising as the first drinker was the pesky cat. at 22.51pm." Followed by Stumpy. at 23.59pm Followed by the fox 12.21am Followed by the cat again at 1.42am Followed by Stumpy at 2.54 am. There wasn't much left. The visitors didn't seem to bother Stumpy as he was out and about for most of the night and ate all his dinner which neither the cat nor the fox can get at. He retired at 4.07am Meanwhile, "elsewhere." Hettie made her first appearance at 11.47pm and ate some of her loose pellets. Then an unwelcome visitor He ate what pellets he could find. He was only there for a couple of minutes around 12.21am Hettie returned from wherever, at 2.32 am. She managed to find more pellets, was round and about for a few hours and must have retired at and finally retired at 3.24am. I'm going to have to put more water out. I know this may encourage more visits from "the gang," it's not surprising they are looking for "easy access" water in this weather. (But the sodding cat could go home) There's plenty in the two bird baths and fountain. I'm also going to put a brick on top of Hettie's house as that has a larger roof that fits like a box lid over the other and the fox wobbled it a bit. There have been no confrontations recorded between either hedgehogs or the visitors. They've never appeared together in any video.
Monday Nothing much happened last night, both hedgehogs were active. The only visitor was "Cyril the Squirrel," to Stumpie's water bowl. Though, it might have been Cyd, his partner, but there was no "flashing of teats," so I can't be sure. They usually drink from the fountain, I changed the water last night
