I daren’t move anything around in the woods, or place anything new there! This is Delilah checking out the hog house not long after I had moved it from behind the shed to behind the log pile. She never misses a thing, when it comes to something new on her territory!
Two nights ago a pregnant female hedgehog went into the hog house behind the log pile, stuffed the entrance behind her full of leaves and hasn’t come out since. I have identified at least five different hedgehogs around our place over the past several weeks and three of the sows are now pregnant. Last night the cameras only captured two male hedgehogs eating at the feeding stations, so I am inclined to think that all the sows have gone to their nests to have their hoglets. Never, ever, does a night goes by when they don’t visit at least one of the feeding stations. I’m going to be optimistic and hope that the females are nesting and haven’t ended up dead on a road somewhere or stuck in someone’s household drain. This is one of the videos I have showing the sow going into the hog house. Unfortunately, this camera will only take 30 seconds of nighttime video, so the film of her stuffing the entrance full of leaves is not shown.
The camera last night did catch footage of our autumn orphan Eric! He is still around and still looking a little chubby. I leave chopped mango and banana at the feeding station nearest the house for him, as he is the only hog that eats them. I mean, not many wild hedgehogs around Wales come across tropical fruit and they were Eric’s favourite treats when he was over-wintering with us.
Delilah and Nibbles are still with us keeping healthy. We see Delilah around the linden drey a lot, so we are still pretty sure that’s where she has her kittens. She is a little chatterbox and I can always tell she is around even before I can see her. She is forever chattering away with Nibbles but even talks to herself a lot. A lot like me then 😀 Here is a lovely little video of her and Nibbles playing and chattering away together. It is Delilah that you hear off camera at the start, chattering away to herself and it’s her that you see closest to the camera at the beginning, too. Keep an eye on the squirrel feeder at the back on the right: it is Nibbles you goes onto that.
