Friday 1 April 2011

Friday at the Flicks - Great Tits, Rook, Hedgehogs

The nest box is still in use every night as a roost for one of the Great Tits. During the day one will visit a few times and occasionally they can both be seen in there, usually for a second or two as they swap places. This visit was slightly longer and I am wondering if the gentle pecking is part of a mating ritual.



Rooks are among the earliest of the visitors to the garden and during the day there will be one or more sat on a nearby television aerial surveying the surrounding gardens.



When the surveillance camera automatically recorded one Hedgehog dumping the other in a water bowl I was also filming from the kitchen window. The auto recording missed the first part of the charge so here is a different view of all the action.



Taking into account the body language of the 'attacker' and the snuffling which can be heard right at the end of the clip this could well be part of the hogs mating ritual. Before they can mate the male has to 'persuade' the female to lower the spines on her rear end otherwise he will end up with a close encounter of the prickly kind.

Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you.

12 comments:

  1. Your nest box videos are always very enlightening John, we just wouldn't see this kind of bird behaviour otherwise.Thanks.

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  2. Nice set of videos again John. If your thinking is correct and I suspect it is, there are a lot of young 'men' in your garden whose 'fancies are lightly turning to thoughts of love' ;)

    The Rooks certainly do have fearsome looking beaks!

    Hope you received my recent email OK.

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  3. I think it's time those two birds started nest building. I'm getting impatient!

    The dance of Spring seems to be well underway in various parts of your garden. That Rook looks quite imposing; funny how it chose a thin smooth metal to perch on and then had some difficulty balancing. A tree branch would be less slippery, but may not offer as clear a view.

    Neat to see the bowl plop from a different angle. If it was supposed to be an amorous approach, it kind of backfired on him, although she might be taken with his athletic prowess ;)

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  4. Hello Roy. One spent about 6 minutes this afternoon just examining the floor but they are not keeping it as tidy as they used to.

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  5. Hello Jan. Spring is definitely in the air round here. It's a good job Rooks are nervous birds - aggressive ones with that size beak would be a bit hazardous.

    Email received OK.

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  6. Hello Glo. You are not the only impatient one ;)

    That aerial is probably the highest point just here. A lot of large birds use it as a spy perch. I think well weathered aluminium has a fairly rough surface to grip OK but it does get breezy up there.

    If Hedgehogs could read I would put up a sign - 'More haste, less speed'.

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  7. Hi John,
    This reminds me of an extremely old joke about how hedgehogs mate, the answer is `carefully`!
    I am getting regular visits from the two hogs now, so I may hear the patter of tiny Spikelets!
    J
    Follow me at HEDGELAND TALES

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  8. Great videos again John.
    That hog certainly powered the bowl away at the beginning; and the Rooks beak looks positively lethal.

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  9. Missed this John. jumping in the water dish seems to be a Hedgehog habit. They are beautiful.

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  10. That sounds hopeful John. In the past ten years or so I have only seen two lots of young ones.

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  11. Thank you Keith. Hogs can certainly get a move on when they want.

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  12. Only the once Adrian, just filmed from different vantage points though they are just as likely to walk straight through a water dish as go round it.

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Thank you for visiting. Hope you enjoyed the pictures. Any comment, or correction to any information or identification I get wrong, is most welcome. John

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