Hedgehog House Deserted

There were a few opportunities to see a little more of the Hedgehog in its house as it often woke to change position and have a good scratch.



By eight in the evening it decided it was time to go walkabout. As I was watching the monitor I saw it leave and dashed through to the kitchen to see where it went. Not a thing in sight. It had taken a route hidden from my view. At my bedtime I saw the Hedgehog at the food dish. After a while it wandered back to the hog house but came out again almost immediately. Looking through last nights captures it revisited the food dish several times but must have found somewhere else to sleep as this morning the house is deserted.



It is disappointing but at least I now know the house will be used. For those readers who may not have seen the photos of the hedgehog house when I first got it here it is.



I ordered it untreated and the first thing to do was to treat the outside of the house. Next the black and white board camera was installed (seen in the bottom two right hand views) along with some bedding - old leaves and hay.

Feeding Tadpoles - Resident Hedgehog

If your tadpoles are in a pond with plenty of algae then they will have lots to eat while they are in their vegetarian stage. Mine are in a small nursery pond as the main pond has fish which would probably eat them while they are small. My little pond has plenty of oxygenating plants and a certain amount of blanket weed which is giving a good base for algae to grow.

As there are a lot of tadpoles in there I had a look round to see what extra might be added to their diet. Suggestions I have seen have ranged from bits of marmite sandwich to lettuce leaves. The leaves need softening which can be done by boiling or freezing them. Another suggestion I have seen is to use flaked fish food or floating pond sticks as long as small amounts are used as any which are uneaten can cause the water to become foul.

I had a look round and found I had a small amount of flakes and sticks left over from previous years so decided to see whether the tadpoles would like them. Just a tiny amount was scattered on the water. When I went back a couple of hours later there was a frenzy of activity especially round the floating sticks which had softened nicely.





It wasn't just the tadpoles which were grateful for a little extra food.



It hadn't taken the pond snails long to find it so the tadpoles were getting some strong competition.

Stop Press - Resident Hedgehog

Something made me check the view from the old black and white camera inside the Hedgehog house I installed last Autumn. To date I had been a little disappointed to see that the bedding material had remained in exactly the same position all that time. This morning was different. I could see the hay and dried leaves had moved. On close examination it was possible to see the spiny back of a Hedgehog moving as it breathed.



Not a brilliant video clip from the old board camera but it is possible to see the movement left of centre. Now I will have to be patient to find out if it is a one off event or whether the Hedgehog makes this its permanent nesting area.

Friday at the Flicks (Hedgehog, Blackbird, Rooks)

Yesterday a friend and I went to the



at South Reston (Lincolnshire) for a meal. The food at the Wagon and Horses is always freshly cooked, well presented and very appetising. I had to mention that if only to be able to show their stained glass window.

On to the business of the day: Most of every day I can hear at least one Blackbird singing at full volume, sometimes as many as four at the same time. Unfortunately they are very adept at hiding from the camera a good deal of the time. When in sunlight they are silent. (Still taken with the 50D)



The only time of day they sit out in the open singing it is getting on towards dusk which only allows a silhouette. This time I thought I would try the effect of combining two videos, one of blackbirds with one of the Moon as a background. This is the 2nd attempt which I think gives a cleaner silhouette.




What amazes me is the speed at which the Moon appears to move across the sky. Of course it is the earth rotating with the camcorder locked pointing in one position.

Every evening for the past ten days I have had the old Hitachi DVD camcorder set up in the kitchen in case a Hedgehog made an early visit - that is, before my bedtime. Last night one finally appeared. I turned up the volume of the outside microphone but the only sounds picked up was that of raindrops. The camcorder was set to night vision so the slow shutter speed makes for blurring of fast movement.



Finally a short hand held clip taken with the Lumix when we visited the Rookery. One particular Rook appeared to become very agitated, cawing and wing flapping for all it was worth.



You don't need a calendar to tell when it is a holiday weekend - just watch the downward change in the weather. I hope it stays dry and sunny where you are so you can enjoy the wildlife around you.

Of Tadpoles and Tad Polls

Just a couple of tadpole photos today. They are doing a great job of scraping the algae from the sides of the nursery pond.



What took me by surprise was the almost see through nature of much of the tail when seen side on.

 

Just recently I have discovered The Garden Pond Blog and found the only bit of light relief I have seen during this prolonged and dreary election of ours. It would appear that it is not only the national newspapers which have opinion polls. For something completely different have a look at The Tad Poll.

Rookery Revisited

As it was such a pleasant afternoon I decided that our afternoon walk should again take us close to the rookery. This time I took the Canon 50D with me hoping to take some closer shots. When we arrived the nesting area appeared deserted. Sugar, though I, wrong time of day. Then one bird flew up out of its nest, then another and another until a dozen or so were in the sky. The nests are so large and high up that the nesting birds could not be seen from the ground. They all flew across the field on the far side of the trees but slowly they returned one by one.



They were obviously agitated by our presence cawing and flying in and out of the trees. I had been standing up but decided to sit down to present a smaller profile. While I sat and watched Bobby sprawled out enjoying the sunshine. The Rooks gradually approached their nest, not directly and never on our side of the trees which made taking clear photos impossible.



Often they would get as close as a branch near their nests but sat watching us before taking off again.



The nests are the most ungainly and uncomfortable looking constructions. Much deeper than they appear from a distance. No wonder the birds cannot be seen when incubating, which I think many of these are.



Very slowly some of the braver birds returned to their nests and I decided we had disturbed them for long enough and continued on our walk.



Maybe I will try again in a few weeks time when they may be feeding their youngsters. By then the trees will probably be in full leaf and viewing near impossible.

The Night Shift

Just because the Sun has gone down and it is dark outside doesn't mean that all wildlife has gone to sleep. That is when the night shift starts the task of finding food. I have often heard and seen owls around the village but as yet they have eluded the camera. Not so with the hedgehogs. Most nights (when I remember to switch on the recorder) there is video of at least one hog visiting. So far this year they have arrived one at a time so I am not sure how many there are. Horace is easily recognised as he appears to have only one eye:



Occasionaly I see some of the seeds in the dish move as if by magic. Close examination of the recording shows various slugs and beetles which are active at night. Easier to spot is the odd visit from a local mouse:

Eek - get the bucket ready Glo!


There are probably other creatures about, not forgetting the local cats, but so far they have stayed out of range of the cameras.

The end of a Dull Day

Quite a change in the weather yesterday. Saturday had been sunny all day but Sunday started out overcast and continued that way with rain on and off all morning. At least it brightened up a bit for the afternoon walk. As we were returning across the cricket field there was one solitary Pied Wagtail. Though it kept a wary eye on us we were able to get reasonably close to it but it still looked very small to the Lumix, even at 12x zoom.



 I was pleasantly surprised how clear small crops from the photographs turned out.





There is starting to be a profusion of blossom on various bushes and trees now. I am pretty sure this is Blackthorn growing in the field hedgerow.



In one garden hedge the Berberis is opening its tiny flowers.



By 8 o'clock it was pleasant outside and we sat in the garden for a while listening to the birds. I could hear four different Blackbirds, two of them very close while a Dunnock did its best to make its much quieter song heard.