Only one hedgehog this time: they seem to have abandoned us after the dry weather last month. However, the one that did appear put in a sterling performance trying to find biscuits it could smell but not reach.
Instead, we have been thinking up jumping and climbing and tricks for the field mice that live under the shed. I am fairly sure they are field mice and not house mice because they are lighter coloured underneath. We placed hedgehog biscuits on top of bricks and upturned plant pots so they had to climb, jump or run along a wooden ruler to pick up biscuits in their mouths and carry them away to safety.
This compilation is 6 minutes long. Some of the things in it (with timings):
- 0.00: mice climb and jump up to increasingly high bricks and plant pots; eventually they are too high for some mice to jump up.
- 1:20 the hedgehog appears and seems to be able to smell the hedgehog biscuits on the stool, but cannot reach them.
- 2:02: mouse cannot climb the stool.
- 2.35: “Black Kitty” shows interest but does not eat any biscuits.
- 3.00: mouse does not try to climb knotted string.
- 3.34: mouse picks up one biscuit and accidently kicks the other off the bricks.
- 3.38: robin.
- 4.51: mouse tries to jump across to bricks and misses.
- 5.40: mouse climbs bricks, walks along ruler and steals biscuit from snail (this is the clip used in the previous post “Snail Bogeys”).
It's like have a secret eye on nature!
ReplyDeleteThings that go on in your garden while you sleep.
DeleteCool The camera managed to take pictures in the dark very clearly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for looking. If you look back to my earlier post Hedgehog Update on 8th May, it gives details of the camera. It's great isn't it. And not particularly expensive.
DeleteI love these videos! Keep this up and you will have some well trained mice. I felt a little sorry for the hedgehog since he could smell the biscuit but not reach it. Thanks for sharing these!
ReplyDeleteHedgehog needs to come more often and there will be more biscuits, but I'm not leaving out a whole dish for the mice to eat.
DeleteThat was my breakfast entertainment just now. Thank you! I must admit I feel sorry for them every time one of them misses when jumping or does not reach up high enough.
ReplyDeleteThe robin was lovely!
We're mean to the mice aren't we. Is the Robin the same as the ones you have there in Germany?
DeleteYes, it is. I rarely see them around here but they are there.
DeleteI can't help wishing you oculd hide some somewhere else where only the hedgehog knew but them those mice are getting so good at finding them that they would be sure to get there first. Brilliant.
ReplyDeleteWe did make a hedgehog feeding station as mentioned in an earlier post, but the mice steal them from there too. As replied to Bonnie, above, I'd put out more biscuits if I knew most were going to be eaten by hedgehogs rather than mice.
DeleteActually, you can get cameras which feed into your television, so you could watch until they appear (it was as early as twenty past nine in the video)and then go out and feed them.
DeleteThat kept me amused for a while.
ReplyDeleteSuccess!
DeleteI am always amazed at how high mice can jump... unless there is water in the bottom of the bucket. I now always leave a ladder for them.
DeleteI am not surprised that your hedgehogs have deserted you after seeing you give all their biscuits to the mice!
ReplyDeleteYou mean they are jealous? Please send me your designs for a mouse-proof hedgehog feeding device.
DeleteWell, perhaps not exactly what you need but - these poor mice!!!!
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXcskq5TKTA
Not exactly what I wanted to see, either.
DeleteHi De Hi again, Tusker,
ReplyDeleteBad karma about the hedgehogs man! But great to see you doing what you do best, down on yer hunkers watching all manner of creeping things. Before the Wuhan meltdown, I your Prime Minister had a Plan, to give away Organic Smoothies to every girl and boy at school. Not just a smashing source of calcium, but each Mango-Flavoured Drinky contains more than 40 strains of gut-boosting bacteria! It would have been the Boris Break, my legacy to the Little Scunners. Make them think about all the Nice Busy Beasties inside their Tummies. The dosh has gone for all that, I'm afraid, but thanks to your Yorky Manblog, I shall introduce a Hedgehog Garden in every school, at a cost of almost (gulp) zero. We can even have old Dawkins in, to tell them that Mister Hedgehog looks like a nifty bit of Intelligent Design, but He's the result of Natural Selection, a story that goes back far far longer than Coronation Street. All thanks to you, dear Tusker. Notice that my ummms and ommms have gone? Amazing what Yoga, Body to Body Massage from a Sri Lankan chick, and a triple whammie gin can do (Gilbey's London Dry). As Dame Edna used to say when the curtain fell on a good audience, *A kind of intercourse has taken place!*
Onwards and upwards Old Man,
Boris.
At one point in the video the ugly head of an ostrich appears though I suppose it could have been your wife's hairy and muscular arm. Perhaps you could find yourself a job in a circus... "And now ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for Dynamic Dunham and his amazing acrobatic fieldmice - accompanied by his glamorous assistant The Ostrich Woman!"
ReplyDeleteI need lessons in how to deal with comments like this from you and the Hameld guy. Are there any online courses? Or, alternatively, perhaps I should suggest he makes a few comments on your blog so I could observe how to handle it.
DeleteI shall try harder to make dull, predictable comments in the future. Don't want you having a seizure TD.
DeleteMy Dear Tusky,
ReplyDeleteWe meet again in Yorkyspace. How to deal with pests? Ignore, ignore, old lad. Yorky Pud has never been right in t'head since he saw Once Upon A Time In Accrington - he thinks he's Sheffield's Bobby De Niro. As for Hameld, he is that most tragic of cases, a Scotchman who still believes in the Union, but is now under the stilleto heel of that Wee Witch o' the North, Nicola Spammer. Scotchland was once run by God-fearing Calvinists, but now they are all Gay Wiccans, and tog themselves out like it's Drag Queen Story Hour at the Edinburgh Fringe. As your Prime Minister, I shall be glad to ditch the whingeing Jocks, though I hope you can offer Hameld a corner in your Hedgehog Garden, for we shall be building a Boris Wall north of Carlisle. Only the black marketeers, trading in Black Pudding, Aberdeen Angus Beef, and Tatty Scones will be allowed to pass through the Boris Wall into England's green and pleasant land. No more Boris, everyone's bumbling nincompoop; it's going to be King Boris the Bruce, who will put England first and always, not to mention Wales and the Scilly Isles.
In the meantime Tusker, keep blogging man. Lang May Your Lum Reek. And keep in mind our New Wuhan Motto: *Hame'll Dae Me!* Or as Noel used to sing, *London pride has been handed down to me!* I'm sure you feel the same way about your crumbling back-to-back in Halifax with their charming outside lavatories.
Your friend and fan, Boris.
Love it love it love it! A lot of work goes into this. Also adore the little headlights on the mice.
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Thanks. I posted similar videos if you look back a couple of months.
DeleteI was surfing the Internet for information and came across your blog. I am impressed by the information you have on this blog. It shows how well you understand this subject. Best Canon Lenses For Real Estate Photography
ReplyDeleteThat wouldn't by any chance be an advert would it? There's a bit of a difference between hedgehogs and real estate.
DeleteHi Tasker, I've just acquired one of these cameras. Any tips will be appreciated!
ReplyDeleteGet a big SD card, otherwise I think it has to be trial and error. For me the main problem at first was that I was setting the video length too short and missing things at the end before the camera fired off again.
Delete