I've sorted out the fence so that the cat get in now, (hopefully) anyway it didn't appear in any of the hundred plus photos and videos on this camera last night. All a bit boring really, Hetti came out about 10.00pm. As far as I can tell, spent most of the time inside the wire fence feeding and wandering around and only went outside for a drink a couple of times. Whilst she was out of shot of the camera, Marcel the field mouse dashed in for a suet pellet and was away. Hetti went to bed around 4.30am, she'd eaten all the pellets, so I guess she'd nothing better to do. More activity at the bottom end of the garden. Another hedgehog showed a bit of interest in the house near midnight, but didn't go in. Then several hours later the pesky cat turned up had a look then stood on the roof of the house, to jump up to the top of the fence. Followed by a young fox, half an hour later, who also used the house to jump over the fence. More sorting out for me to do, I'll probably string some wire across the corner of the fences and might put something else on the top of the house so they can't stand on it.
It's just another job. Removing and replacing the camera cards, is no problem. Just a case of sticking 'em in my laptop and scrolling through them, I do move them to a file and save them in date order, but rarely look at them again. I spend far much more time on my other hobbies and jobs around the house. Then there's golf, as the weather is fine, that's three mornings a week, Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. So it's golf tomorrow, a bit of tidying in the garden in the afternoon. Thursday morning it's doing the week's shopping and then taking my car in to have the air-con re-gassed in the afternoon.
Hetti followed her usual routine, more or less, came out at 10.00pm to start her dinner, Pottered around inside the mesh fence, then eating more dinner. But there's about an hour and a half, "unaccounted for." She probably had a wander around the garden. Although Marcel was about, seems to be getting a bit braver. Turned in at around 4.30am The other house got another inspection by "persons unknown." Then the cat turned up four hours later. Wasn't able to jump over the fence any more because of the wires I put across the top. Hopefully we'll see less of it now, unlikely to get a prospective tenant if it persists.
Hetti came out at 9.32 last night Got stuck into her dinner after a 2 minute sniff around. She ate all that over a few hours. Some of the pellets are soft others are crunchy, you can hear when she's chewing a crunchy bit. Nothing different to report other than she went AWOL for an hour and a half. Probably decided that she didn't need to guard her house and had a wander around the garden. The "other" hedgehog made a further examination of the second house. You can see his/hers back end entering the corridor that leads to the doorway. Ah! I thought, it's moving in! No it's not, that's his/her eye you can see as they're coming straight out the other side! You can hear on the videos blackbirds already singing at 4.30 am. No recordings of cats or foxes.
Tried to do a bit of detective work this morning. Examining the file from the main camera, the earliest photo of Hetti was at 12.33am at her feeding bowl and the last 4.21 "exiting stage left." There are none of her going in or out of her house, but a lot of her feeding. From 12.15am until about 3.00am you would think it was "The Marcel the Mouse" show, the number of times he appeared. I should point out, that I accept there may be more than one mouse, but no more than one has ever appeared in the same clip. What I did notice were the white marks on Hetti's spines. One on her back and one on her left hip. There are similar marks on the visitor to the other house last night The clips from this camera are from around nine to ten in the evening when this one was "loitering." It went in the entrance, but appeared in a slightly later clip outside. Some of the pellets I left in the "corridor" have been eaten. Although the marks look similar they aren't the same. Making a hole in the concrete base panel of a fence was difficult to do without breaking it. So I "stitch drilled it." That's drilling holes close together through it in a semi-circular line. Then knocking it out with a lump hammer. This leaves sharp edges which I covered with a mortar render, so they may be brushing against that.
I have to report that there was a break-in to Hetti's enclosure last night and some property stolen, namely a food dish and its contents of various types of hedgehog pellets. Fortunately she was away from home at the time so a traumatic experience was avoided. She left the enclosure at 1.11am and the offence occurred at 1.30am. The theft was only discovered on her return at. 2.02am. The theft was recorded on the security camera and the “perp” can be clearly identified, (photo supplied) However, the police say there's little chance of an arrest as, “these sort of offenders always look the same.” Extra security measures are being taken to ensure this won't occur again. "In other news..." The other house now has a tenant although they are still suspicious of the camera. I have three video clips of it going into the house, though come to think about it, none of it coming out. So it might be a case of "multiple-occupancy." I doubt it, as there's a ten second gap between every video, so plenty of time not to be caught coming out.
Good question. Both have patches of cement render from where they've brushed against the edges of the hole in the concrete base panel of the fence, but in slightly different places. Another clue was last night. One camera captured Hetti outside her house at 4.27. and the other camera captured the second hedgehog outside the other house at 4.28.
So! Right then. Well, i just keep saying it but this thread is very interesting…why, you sould be a contributor to Springwatch and their battery of cams.
Breaking news (1/06/23). A report from Spike Prickle, the BBC's Hedgehog Correspondent. (why not? They have them for everything else!) A further break-in and theft as previously reported, occurred at the same address early this morning at 4.41 am. Clearly shown on our security camera. "> Once again, there was a theft of a bowl and its contents. When asked, why the further security measures promised had not prevented the crime, a spokesperson said. “Piss Off!” 2/06/23 Seriously, I have put more metal rods and wires around the perimeter, so I’m thinking it may be getting in by scaling the fence between the two gardens and dropping down, through the azaleas, which won’t do them much good. Foxes do collect stuff, when we had “Fiona” and her cubs under our summerhouse four years ago, she used to steal small soft toys and balls from other gardens and bring them back for the cubs to play with. We’ve now lost two bowls. This is why. I can only imagine that it is either just a china collector or maybe it thinks if it puts the bowls in another garden, someone will fill them again. It was probably on top of the other house as it thought it could scale the fence from there, it’s not been recorded getting out that way since I put wires across the corner to prevent this happing. It’s easy enough for it to get out by scaling the Japanese lantern near the rockery. I didn't put another bowl out last night, just loose pellets I didn't put another bowl out last night, just scattered pellets around in front of the house. I had the camera covering the fence and azaleas. The fox didn't appear.
