I have a hedgehog!

In my previous post I mentioned that we had finally made a hole in our fence for hedgehogs, and that we had found some poo we were pretty sure was from a hedgehog.

Well, on Thursday I hashed up a temporary mammal footprint tunnel out of anything I had to hand. I bated it with rehydrated mealworms and sunflower hearts, which I had to hand for feeding the birds, and somehow I managed to get the above footprints. They look like hedgehog prints to me; I hope they are.

Friday night I put out another plate of food, and kept an eye out. About twenty to eleven I finally saw a hedgehog in my garden! Not my first hog, but the first in my garden; I’m pretty excited!

The pond is doing well. I’m wondering if the hog is drinking from it; one of my pond plants pots keeps being knocked wonky. I’ve seen three frogs at the most, and based on size and colouring I think we’ve had at least four individuals. I’ve put out some plant pot frogitats for them.

I can also see loads of tiny critters in the pond; I’m trying to get an ID on them. Maybe copepods, or daphnia.

I recently got this feeder cage. Feral pigeons found us and had been hoovering up all the seed, so this should prevent them from taking it all. Starlings were straight in, sparrows were more cautious, blackbirds too, but they’re now use to it. The hedgehog seems to be interested, there’s been poop by the cage, but usually all the food is gone by dusk, and I put more out for the hog elsewhere.

We had a big surprise recently when a female mallard decided to visit! We’re calling her Rosie. She was visited pretty much everyday since she found us – presumably having seen the pond – and she helps herself to the bird seed, with her long neck the cage is no problem. She brought a male with her once. He’s been dubbed Jim. I haven’t seen Rosie for a couple of days though, perhaps because I moved the feeder – I move it about a little to prevent the grass underneath dying, to give the ground a rest from all the pecking, and to prevent a big build up of poop.

Tiger was surprised to see the ducks too! She likes curling up on the pillow on our patio table and bird watching (she extremely rarely to never goes for them). Her first sighting of ducks!

Rosie has been drinking from the pond – got to wash the seeds down! She’s even gone in once, but it’s too small really.

What a wildlife filled month! 😀

Helping hedgehogs | Interview with a hedgehog life saver | How and why to disinfect bird feeders