Update on the Hedgehogs

The hedgehog house occupant now appears to have left. He first stayed during the day of the 26^th August and left on the 20^th September so a stay of 26 days.

Interesting to note that I’ve now had three different hedgehogs occupy the house this year.

Hedgehog 1 – 4 days between the 22^nd March and the 27^th March

Hedgehog 2 – 34 days between the 2^nd April and the 13^th May

Hedgehog 3 – 26 days between the 26^th August and the 20^th September

All three have I think been Males which would seem to be more than a coincidence. Perhaps the house, it’s size and location is more suitable for Males than Females. I do think that the nesting chamber is too small for a female looking to have a litter, hence my planned winter project to make a slightly bigger house.

The 3^rd hedgehog didn’t use as much bedding material inside the house so the camera was never entirely blocked, at times giving good views of the nesting resident.

It allowed me, at last, to get some simultaneous, multi camera hedgehog action from the house and the feed station.

The good news is that the presence of my cats in the garden since the summer hasn’t created any problems for the hedgehogs, the both seem to cohabite very well together. In particular the cats use the hedgehog house as a stepping stone to leave and return to the garden and I thought this might put the hedgehogs off, but it doesn’t seem to be the case. The clip below is a very typical example and a hedgehog was present in the house throughout.

So now we approach the countdown for the start of hibernation. The exact start date is obviously variable but last year the last hedgehog I saw during the night in the garden was the 15^th November, so about 6 weeks from now.

During this time the hedgehogs will need to eat as much as possible and find their ideal site for the Winter, for those feeding hedgehogs now is an important time to keep it up.

My feed station is still in heavy use although interesting the other night, whilst I wasn’t recording, it was filled up with leaves. I don’t think it is a suitable location for a nest but obviously a Hedgehog thought to give it a go.