Another great week. The hedgehog is still nesting in the hedgehog house, it’s still the same one, and I’m still able to watch the comings and goings from the trail camera.
The hedgehog, which has been in-situ since the start of April is now staying basically everyday. Unfortunately I can’t see into the nest but from external camera I’m able to record much of the activity.
I’ve seen that the nest requires very regular maintenance. On a daily basis fresh bedding material is being gathered and brought into the nest. A typical example is shown below.
Interestingly I never see anything come out, I guess the leaves are just getting more and more compacted inside.
There are still many other hedgehogs visiting the garden and this could present a problem for the house as a place to raise a litter. Hedgehogs really don’t like to be disturbed, they may abandon their young or even kill them if they are. But in my small and rather busy garden such a level of privacy is going to be difficult to achieve.
I captured this video from earlier in the week of an intruder inspecting the house.
During this ‘intrusion’ the resident hedgehog was present and I imagine that such a disturbance might be enough to spook a hedgehog with baby hoglets.
I’m still keeping the nest record of all the movements and the hedgehog is progressively leaving later in the evening and returning earlier in the morning, spending more time actually inside the nest. This may be perfectly normal, obviously daylight hours are increasing and I do leave out a really easily available food source in the garden, feeding is simple for this Hedgehog. But still I find this an interesting aspect and I’ll be keeping an eye on it.
The skin markings on the hedgehogs continue to vary but this week I read of a possible explanation. Apparently organic matter, for example cut grass, will appear as dark markings on a hedgehog skin when viewed on an infra-red, night-time, camera, whilst dry mud will appear as pale marks. This seems to me a very plausible and probable explanation of the often very sudden variations I’ve seen.
Hoping for another good hedgehog week ahead. I’ll keep the blog updated with any news and don’t forget to check out the live webcam, no guarantees but peak Hedgehog feed time is now around 21:30 French time.
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