Wednesday 10 April 2013

Hedgehog Chat Up Time

First - apologies for not giving the answer to the previous Guess What yet. It's been a busy few days. As Sunday was such a good day I decided to start erecting the little summer house. I found it is possible for one person to do the job though the time taken is much longer than advertised and it wouldn't be much shorter with two people. Mind you it wasn't helped by having the wrong pack of bits and pieces. Nothing new there then! Monday was bitterly cold but I plodded on with the job, as I did yesterday. Now there are just a few finishing touches needed to complete the job. One thing I did find out - now I've reached three score and ten years my joints complain a lot more when subjected to constant bending and stretching.

The summer house is built on the small paved area where the hedgehogs used to feed so I wondered how they would get on. They have a couple of slabs next to the patio and seem to have found the food with no problems. I left the recorder running last night and was surprised this morning when I checked for any activity to see the mating ritual had started. As usual the male's idea of a chat up line is to charge at the female in an attempt to mate with her. This can go on for hours, night after night, until she is ready. Until the female is ready and lowers her spines it is a prickly encounter for the male.



The slabs aren't sloping - just the crazy angle I had to put the camera to cover the scene.

I'll give the answer to the previous Guess What next Monday.

10 comments:

  1. Great news about the pagoda. Better news that the hedgehog has survived.
    We were chatting in the pub last night and realised that they are getting a rarity. Molly used to find them and carry them around she has been known to bring them into the van along with field mice, voles and young rabbits. Behaviour I do not encourage but she must have a soft mouth for a terrier.

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    1. Adrian - I think I have three visiting. Two look fully mature and the other may be one of last years brood.

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  2. goofy pushy male! poor girl's afraid to move!

    glad you got the garden house up!

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    1. TWG. Perfect defence, curl up and let the spike protect you until danger has passed.

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  3. good things come to those who wait Mr. Hog.

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    1. Male hedgehogs aren't the most patient of creatures ImaBurdie.

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  4. Good to see the hogs getting in the mood John, well he was ;-) Maybe spring is in the air after all.

    Well done on erecting the summerhouse, I shall look forward to seeing the finished result. All you need now is some good weather!

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    1. Jan - Spring seems to be slowly creeping in to view. I think she had a headache ;)

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  5. Wow John – I didn’t think hedgehogs would have built up enough energy after emerging from hibernation quite so quickly to be thinking about mating. I’d guess the female knows she needs to build up food reserves before she is in condition for growing hoglets and she will keep the males waiting. It is fascinating ritual to see and hear in the garden – you did well in capturing it on video in a previous year.

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    1. Shirl - I have a feeling they had been awake for a week or two but she is obviously not ready yet.

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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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