That’s a very brave mouse you can just spot zooming across beside the first cat.
Sunday, 12 April 2020
Easter
With the current restrictions, how fortunate to live in a village and have a garden: not to be incarcerated in a flat in a city centre without any outside space. Here are some recent springtime photographs and a video of last night’s visitors caught by the night camera (assembled 10-second clips with time and other details at the bottom). The camera is tied to the apple tree above the primroses/polyanthus. We might have a scruffy garden but at least the hedgehogs seem to like it and appreciate the dish of water. Happy Easter.
That’s a very brave mouse you can just spot zooming across beside the first cat.
That’s a very brave mouse you can just spot zooming across beside the first cat.
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You have a healthy population of hedgehogs. I haven't seen a live one for years.
ReplyDeleteIs it, or is it the same one several times? There's an interesting problem. How to identify hedgehogs?
DeleteA thorny problem.
DeleteIf you want to feed your hedgehogs, and they might be hungry, kitten food and biscuits as well.
ReplyDeleteWe've got some hoggie food from the garden centre and were putting out through the autumn and into January. Thought the hedgehogs were still eating it then, but weren't sure, which is when we bought the trail camera (Apeman HSS) and discovered it was very fat mice. But the hedgehogs have now clearly woken up.
DeleteSmashing photos of the Spring flowers.
ReplyDeleteThey're good this year - all the rain we had.
DeleteThose are beautiful spring flowers. Do I spy forget-me-nots there?
ReplyDeleteYour hedgehogs seem quite lively. We often look out for them here but only ever seem to see the poor squashed ones on the lane. Perhaps with the current restrictions more of them may have a chance of survival without ending up as road kill.
Yes, the forget-me-nots self seed themselves. Will put out the feeding station for the hedgehogs from now on.
DeleteA veritable host of golden daffodils! William Wordsworth would be impressed. Happy Easter!
ReplyDeleteBut they're not English daffodils! They're probably foreign invaders.
DeleteYour garden must be on a hedgehog highway!
ReplyDeleteThank goodness there are no cars.
DeleteI call my garden the hedgehog highway! There are those that cross from a neighbouring property in a straight line to the next property from one side to the other. Last year one started to stop by in my garden and sort of becamse a resident. I can sit indoors on summer evenings and watch them from the house. Lots of blossom out here today, all pink and whites appeared overnight. Happy Easter and thanks for the birthday greetings.
ReplyDeleteSometimes you find them in the garden around dusk. That first one was around quarter past eight and they are still busy until around 1.00 when they make way for the mice.
DeleteLove your garden - full of flowers and am fascinated by that video.
ReplyDeleteThe camera was around £70 about 3 months ago, so we had to think whether we really wanted it, but it's worth it. You can also put it out to film the milkman and discover who comes searching through the dustbins.
DeleteYou could have added a whispered Attenborough-like narration..."Down at the waterhole there's a lot of activity at night. There's Tibby from 23 who has just had a full tin of chicken liver flavoured Kit-e-Kat but she's on the prowl for more food. Greedy sod. And here comes Harry the Hedgehog and there's Mohammad Mouse and Buster from the old people's flats who shat on my radishes. And here comes Harry the Hedgehog again. Yes it's very busy at the water hole here in Darkest Yorkshire."
ReplyDeleteOh, good. As commented above, I can't recognise individual hedgehogs but you seem to be very good at these things (pandas as well on your blog). So we only have one then - Harry. Please could you put a hedgehog recognition tutorial together. If you run it on Zoom the cabinet will be able to attend too instead of those boring meetings they have. Actually the first cat is our Phoebe but we've never seen that second one before.
DeleteMaybe the second one is Phoebe's secret lover - Dave. By the way it is exceedingly easy to identify hedegehogs. You just rock up to them and say, "Hiya mate, what's yer name?"
DeleteTried that. They refuse to answer.
DeleteWho says your garden is scruffy? All I can see is flowers - lots of them - and for-legged creatures with shiny eyes. Filming the milkman...? At least in my country, that could get you in serious trouble. Rather be content with hedgehogs, mice and the occasional cat.
ReplyDeleteYou are an excellent judge. Thank you. Someone commented on an earlier post (I won't name names) "It's not much of a garden is it".
DeleteI liked the night camera best of all, says city girl who never saw a real hedgehog.
ReplyDeleteWe put some food out last night and this morning it was all gone. Will put some more out with the night camera on, and see what we shall see.
DeleteMy large garden is even more of a blessing for me in these hard times. I agree, it would be hard to live in a small place with no yard with the shelter in place going on. I adore hedgehogs, we don't have them here in California.
ReplyDeleteYes, but it's warmer. If you had them, they wouldn't have to hibernate through the winter.
DeleteThank you for showing the video. I love to see what surprises night cameras catch. You seem to have a popular watering hole! Your garden is beautiful. All those flowers are just lovely. I hope you and your family have had a nice Easter.
ReplyDeleteThank you. See response to Joanne above. Will post an update in next few days.
DeleteYour garden must be a real oasis for you at present. Everything is a-bloomin' nicely. I, too, dug the 'night shoot'. That wee mouse was really going for it!
ReplyDeleteWell you'd run like hell if you were a mouse and a cat was next to you. It's a spring garden. Come summer it's all vegetables and not much colour.
DeleteLove to see the hedgehogs and you have a beautiful array of daffodils
ReplyDeleteWhen the daffodils have gone it becomes long grass. Not pretty, but attracts frogs and provides a hunting ground for the hedgehogs.
DeleteI love the way your hedgehogs beetle along so quickly. The only ones I see here are obviously less speedy since they've been flattened by tractors.
ReplyDeleteThey're great. Also the ones you see out in the daytime tend to be ill so don't move so quickly either.
DeleteWhat a wonderful display of daffs.
ReplyDeleteWe planted them about 25 years ago and that patch is left wild every year, so grows long grass when the daffodils have finished.
DeleteWhat a welcome sight this post is, a profusion of blossom and one (or more!) very healthy-looking hedgehog strolling about the place. I'm all for scruffy gardens, they support insects and animal life so much better than areas that are over zealously tidied.
ReplyDeleteI am very jealous of your hedgehog as I've not seen one in my garden for many years.
Thank you. I will now forgive the comment you made about our garden on a previous (the post titled Köhler’s Apes about problem solving).
DeleteThat's a busy spot! I loved the way two bright eyes shone before the mouse went to the bowl.
ReplyDeleteIt turned colder for over a week after this, so very little hedgehog activity, but the mice have been interesting. I'll put together an update next month.
DeleteHaven't seen a hedgehog in many years - probably not in decades. (Nothing very strange about that though, since I don't have a garden!) Back in my childhood/youth we used to have them visiting quite often in my parents' garden.
ReplyDeleteWe didn't realise how many there were here until we spotted a poorly little one in the garden about six or seven years ago and looked after it until it had recovered. I'm planning an update blog post in which there will be more about that.
Delete