Bird Bath - Hedgehog Update

A while ago I had tried out the idea of using a large, shallow plastic tray as a bird bath. Seemed a good idea at the time but the birds thought otherwise. Maybe a black tray made it difficult for them to judge the depth of the water.

Looking round the garden I found another bird bath I had forgotten all about as, at one time, I had use the upright part as a post to support a video camera. This bath is cast concrete and is made to look like a tree stump. The bath part is quite shallow. I purchased it many years ago from Greenways, a fairly local family business who, at one time were very well known for their excellent garden ornaments but sadly have now closed down.

I installed the newly found bird bath near the bird feeders and it was an immediate success.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

This one is in use on and off all day, especially by the Starlings.



Go on - Splash it all Over


Oi - Do you let people photo you when you're bathing?


Another job done - the old concrete one stays.


Hedgehog Update:

First the large Hedgehog visited last night. It left after a short while but was soon back this time joined by the smaller one. As before they both ate quietly for a while and the the jousting started again. By bedtime I thought they had moved on to pastures new but Bobby knew they were around as soon as he went out the back door. He had to go and investigate what they were up to.
I had put out a mixture of peanut pieces and some bits from a tin of Chicken and Beef dog food. The dog food was being ignored, except by Bobby!

Thanks:
Thanks to Greenfingers and ShySongbird who both identified my little 'weed' as Lady's Smock (Cardamine pratense).



I have taken Greenfingers' advice and used some leaves to propagate so I can plant some in a more appropriate position in the garden and see if they will attract yellow tip butterflies in the future.

Hedgehog Visitor and Plants

Last night the large Hedgehog visited by itself. That makes two nights solo and two nights as a pair on alternating nights. At last I am pleased with the camera position. Moving it closer means the subject is larger and the IR lighting is stronger so the picture is a bit brighter. For now I will leave well alone.

During the time I watched mr(s) Hedgehog it visited the feeding area three times and for the first time I saw it drink the water I had put out. Some people think that milk is what needs to be given but this is most definitely a NO NO. Hedgehogs cannot digest milk. It upsets their system and can kill them. Water is all they need.

I had put some crushed peanuts (not salted) out a bit earlier than usual as I wanted to watch a TV programme but ended up having to chase away a pair of Magpies who decided to dive in and help themselves as it was still light. Soon after dusk the large Hedgehog turned up and spent nearly three quarters of an hour on and off on the paved area under the bird feeders. In fact towards the end I turned the TV off and watched hoggy-vision as it was definitely more interesting.

Tonight I will put out a bit of Bobby's tinned meat, finely chopped as Hedgehogs only have little teeth. I was going to use some corned beef but this is another no, no because of the salt content.

Here is the video of hoggy's final visit last night.



At last my Bluebells are in bloom. There have been three clumps of them in my back garden for over thirty years and each year they spread a little and brighten up an area which is otherwise grass and in the shade for most of the day.



Also in bloom is a favourite of mine, a succulent which grows with a mixture of Alpine plants in a glazed bowl. In fact I picked up two of these bowls in a sale at my local garden centre a few years ago and every year they are a delight.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

A few night ago when I took the 350D out Hedgehog hunting I took this photo of part of my front garden. Some years ago I gravelled over all the front as the amount of mowing front and back was getting too much for me. It is far from bare though as I planted low growing evergreens and several dwarf trees. It has taken a few years for them to mature but now I am quite satisfied with the result. In the middle is a raised bed so as to break up the expanse of level ground. Of course I added one of my favourite solar powered lanterns as I like to see a bit of movement and colour at night and the flicker of the artificial flame does just that.



Another favourite is an Acer with deep red leaves which have deep divisions. This grows in a tub to keep the size down and I think it is now making a lovely weeping shape.





Finally an unknown weed. I hadn't the heart to pull up this plant. I say weed as I am going by the definition that a weed is a self seeded plant growing in the wrong place. The little flowers are too pretty to throw out so I will have to try to move it somewhere it can grow where it won't get mown. At the moment it is in the edge of the lawn.

Birds, Hedgehogs and a Newt

What a miserable morning yesterday. Just started to rain as we got back from the morning walk and it continued until just after midday. Not heavy rain, just enough to gently water the garden. It needed it as large cracks were appearing in some areas. Once the rain had stopped I set about changing the camera I had used to observe the Hedgehogs. After a bit of experimenting I ended up using a black an white one with built in infra red lighting. The cover says colour but the camera is b/w. Also I took the opportunity to mount it closer to the place where the Hedgehogs have been appearing.



If you want to see the results then read on or scroll down.

In the garden the birds have been grabbing food as though it is going out of fashion. Several times I have seen blackbirds with beaks filled with grubs. Often they will put the whole lot down while they get another tasty morsel and then pick all the originals up again.

How many grubs can you get in one beak - there are still a couple to pick up.



It is not often I see both Blue Tits at the same feeder. Here the one at the back is holding a Sunflower heart with both feet and pecking pieces off.



As usual the Starlings cause mayhem continually barging in. Here a couple are changing over.



Another has decided it is bath time. Yes - that is my nursery pond but who am I to argue with a determined Starling. BTW I was right about the Frog Spawn. It was not viable and not one started to develop. Oh well, better luck next year.



Nobody can convince me that House Sparrow numbers are decreasing but why, with a large area of lawn to choose from, so many feed in such a small space I'll never know. There were more out of shot.



In the pond the Common Newts continue to make an appearance from time to time. The best time seems to be around midday.



Finally back to the Hedgehogs. For a while I thought there would be no appearance last night but suddenly two appeared together. At first they seemed to be feeding quite happily together but before too long a Hedgehog jousting match started. It was all one sided as the larger hog kept pushing the smaller one away from the food. The small one was not to be put off though and kept returning. This went on for well over fifteen minutes. In fact it only stopped when I went out to take a couple of still photos.

From MIDMARSH JOTTINGS

This time I managed to get a face. After a couple of shots the little hog ran off and the large one disappeared soon after that. Hopefully here is a piece of video. This is the first time I have used YouTube as Flickr have a limit of 90 seconds for video files. I can't work out whether the smaller hog is younger or appears so much thinner because the larger one stops it from eating. In that case why do they appear together? A bit of a puzzle at the moment.



This morning I have moved the camera even closer so it is now about 3 to 4 ft away. I want to see what these two are really up to.

Shadows in the Night

Yesterday I moved the video camera which was monitoring the outside of the nest boxes as there has been no activity in either of them for weeks. If the hedgehogs are investigating the seeds which the birds scatter from the feeders I thought I would put the camera where I could see when they arrive. At dusk I scattered some well ground peanuts (bird feeder type. not human salted type) and put out a bowl of water. Soon after 9pm there was some activity. A single large hedgehog had arrived and seemed to be tucking in to the peanuts so I started the recorder.

Here is a piece of the recording - very grey and shadowy as it suffered from the various processes getting it from the PVR to the PC and then to Flickr and it wasn't a great piece of video to start with. I will have to see about improving the lighting. The hedgehog is right in the centre of the frame.



This week is Hedgehog Awareness Week. If you are interesting in finding out more about hedgehogs then two sites worth a visit are The British Hedgehog Preservation Society and Epping Forest Hedgehog Rescue. A blog I like to visit is My Hedgehog Diary 2009.

If you are thinking of putting out some food for hedgehogs and are not sure what to use then have a look at the Epping Forest site and choose Diet from the Navigation list.

P.S.
If anyone knows of a good composite video to USB input device for the PC please let me know. I have tried a few over the years but have yet to find one which is reliable.

And Then There Were Two

Very variable weather here yesterday. Bright start soon followed by light rain followed by cool winds all day. During the periods of sunshine Bobby made the most of it and lazed on the lawn with an occasional back rubbing session followed by a good shake all over.



Just before bedtime Bobby again heard our spiky friend only this time there were two. Of course by the time I had a camera ready they would only show a pair of posteriors.





I waited a while but they stayed in ostrich mode with their heads hidden from view. Later, after I had finished clearing up indoors, I nipped out for another look. I could hear such a loud snuffling and it took a while to trace it. It was one, or both, hedgehogs sniffing and rooting around on the other side of the fence. I could see both amongst the weeds.

For a couple of nights I had put down a tray with some peanuts behind the shed but they were untouched. On both occasions we had seen the hedgehogs they were under the bird feeders no doubt gathering the scatterings of marauding Starlings.
Tonight I will try leaving a bit of dog food in a bowl under the feeders and see if they eat that. They had better get to it before Bobby does.

A bit of Moss

Yesterday was a pain computer wise so today could only get better. I had decided to replace my old LCD monitor with a new wide screen one. It duly arrived and I followed the instructions and connected it up. It worked OK but the graphics card would not give me a wide screen choice so everything was stretched sideways. It took three hours to find the correct up to date driver from the manufacturers site and even that took a tortuous route to get working but in the end all was well. Come back Atari, all is forgiven.

Some days ago when I was pottering round the garden I spotted moss growing on the rotting remains of a wooden post in a 2"x2" Metpost.



At first the idea was just to get a photo for the record but then I wanted to get a closer look. A while ago I bought a second hand Digital Blue USB microscope as I had seen reasonable write ups of its ability. It is really classed as a toy but for certain things it works fairly well. For focus the stage moves up and down but as everything is plastic it can stick and suddenly jump past the optimum focus point so you have to keep going up and down until it stops in the right place.



Another annoying disadvantage as far as I am concerned is the way it changes the screen to a lower resolution. Not a problem in itself as it brings back the original resolution when you exit the program - but - in lowering the resolution Windows then shuffles my desktop icons about and I like them in certain groups on the screen.

So, I pulled a small piece of the moss and took a photo with the Canon which shows all the parts which go up to make this particular moss. The moss is about 40mm tall, just under 2 inches. On backyardnature.net I found this drawing which labels the various parts nicely.



Now to the Digital Blue microscope which has three settings for magnification. Here is the leaf section at 60x magnification which shows some of the cell structure.



Here are some capsules at 10x magnification ....



....and a couple of views of a capsule at 60x magnification.





The capsules only appear at a time of year when the conditions are right for the moss to reproduce and contains the spores for starting new plants. The rest of the year only the leaf section of the moss will be seen.

I spent ages trawling the net trying to identify which moss this is - to no avail. My closest guess at the moment is that is may be in the group Dicranella but that was as far as I could get.

This microscope also has a 200x magnification which personally I find gives poor results, especially on 3D subjects like this but may well be better for looking through thinly sliced specimens but I don't think the optics are really up to the job.

Close Encounter of the Prickly Kind

Let Bobby out for his late night jaunt in the garden. Normally he goes through to the front garden at this time but last night something caught his attention as soon as we went out of the back door. I could just make out a dark shape so I nipped in for the camera. I could hear him barking and by the time I got outside again there was nothing in sight. Bobby was listening intently and moved over to a couple of old wooden garden chairs.



I shone the torch in that area and Bobby went in for a closer look.



There, as far into a corner as it could get, was the local hedgehog. I had hoped it had survived the winter as there were baby hedgehogs in the garden last year. Having taken a quick photo we transferred to the front garden so Bobby could do what a dog needs to do before bedtime and left the hedgehog in peace.

Here is a bit of video I took last summer when a young hedgehog was about in broad daylight.