As the heat is still rising and the coolest place is my office I haven't even been out for my regular lunchtime walk, or been inclined to go outdoors at all. However, it looked like it might be a nice sunset and by 9pm it was comfortable enough to sit in the garden, so I took my camera and phone out and waited for the sky to colour up for my 30 Days Wild act.
While I was waiting I thought I'd tick off another random act of wildness and check out some webcams and as it was for 30 Days I looked up the Wildlife Trust to see what they had.
How great it is to be able to turn on and watch wildlife that was previously unaccessible. How many people just a few years ago could say they had seen inside a Peregrine nest? Amazing privilege.
Osprey nest at Rutland Water with two chicks.
A barn owl nest at Blue House Farm nature reserve in Essex.
Peregrines on Buckinghamshire County Council's County Hall in Aylesbury.
And the sunset? By now the sky had become streaked with clouds and vapour trails and a strip of orange hung on the horizon. Not a spectacular sunset in the end but such a pretty sky.
Well I put the trail cam out again last night, moved it back a bit so it wasn't so bright on the feeding dish. I knew the neighbouring cat had been in the garden as he left me a delightful present of vomit on the lawn. He actually threw up right in front of the camera but I'll spare you that for 30 Days Wild!
Anyhow, check out the video and watch out behind the cat in the corner of the lawn!
We do have a hedgehog :) - so pleased to see it and that the cat decided it wasn't worth hassling!
Last year for my birthday my husband bought me a trail cam. Nothing too fancy, we just wanted to see what was coming into the garden at night as we had been feeding what we hoped were hedgehogs. I had also won a hedgehog house from Waitrose and we wanted to see if it was being used.
For today's 30 Days Wild act I thought I'd get the trail cam out again so last night we put the food out as usual - a mixture of crushed peanuts and mealworms - once it was nearly dark otherwise the wood pigeon just takes it all before anyone else gets a look in! I haven't seen a hedgehog in the garden for a few months and the house which was used in the winter doesn't look like it has been disturbed recently. I also haven't seen any hedgehog droppings in the garden for a while. I am hoping that us putting a gate on the garden to keep the granddaughter in hasn't deterred them - we made sure to leave a big enough gap at the bottom.
So this morning I brought the camera in and downloaded the files. As I expected, although with the neighbour's cat staked out most nights I wasn't 100% sure, a mouse visited the food approximate every 5 minutes of the first hour or so and then at regular intervals through the night. The film was very bright though so I need to sort that out. Then at 4:23am the blackbirds I photographed the other day arrived with the mother feeding the baby from the food dish.
No hedgehogs!
I will put the trail cam out again tonight and maybe for the next few nights and move it round the garden a bit. Watch this space!
We had to move a sack of bird food in the shed the other day and behind it was a mouse nest. It was built mostly of grass, although there was a chewed up plastic seedling pot in there too, and it was attached to the inside of an upturned wooden crate. The bird food had been infiltrated and the nest was surrounded by seeds. I set the trail cam up in the shed overnight to see if the nest was still being used or if we had disturbed it too much.
The mouse (not sure which sort) didn't appear to be in the nest at the time as he/she turned up about an hour or so later. The trail cam was set off numerous times overnight where the mouse kept returning to the nest to remove food and take it elsewhere. I watched carefully to see if any young might have been moved but pretty sure there weren't. Eventually the nest collapsed from all the burrowing! We felt bad at having disturbed it but it does appear to have just been a food store. When moving its food the mouse was only gone for a few seconds so I assume it has found another corner in the shed to use. The footage below is when the mouse first came back to the now exposed nest. It does look rather confused!
I have been putting the camera out in the garden over the past few weeks to see how the hedgehogs are doing. As the evenings are getting chillier I also popped some nice new hay into and over the box in the hope it will make it snug and enticing for the winter. I was so pleased when just the next evening the smaller of the hedgehogs decided to pay it a visit. At first he just stuck his head in to have a look but then he definitely went right in. The camera doesn't seem to want to pick up the movement right by the entrance - it's under a shrub which makes it more difficult - but watching for a couple of nights it seemed I did have a house guest! I crawled under the shrub today and had a quick peak and there were snoring prickles in amongst the hay. Whether he/she decides to make it a hibernation home we shall see but I'm chuffed it has at least been found.
I also had some footage showing both the hedgehogs in the same shot. The bigger one is feeding when the smaller ones comes along. They do eat together for a while but the smaller one is nervous, jumping back when the bigger hog snuffles in his direction.
As posted a while ago we now have a hedgehog house in the garden. I've been feeding what I thought was a hedgehog for a few months in the hope it might find the house too. At the same time my husband bought me a trail cam for my birthday so we could watch whatever comes into the garden at night. It turns out I am feeding at least two hedgehogs - one much bigger than the other - and a cat! Whilst I'm not keen on feeding the neighbouring cats this one did look suspiciously like one that had gone missing from a few streets away so I contacted the owners and they took a look at the footage. It turned out it was theirs and after some calling and treat shaking they found it dozing under a nearby hedge. I've stopped putting cat food out for a while to discourage the cat from coming back as it means it is having to cross a main road. So far I've not seen either hog venture into the house but I've just bought a bag of hay which I'll pop in there as the nights start to cool down and hope it attracts one or other. Meanwhile lots of food for the little one to feast on and pile on the pounds!
