Bobby Says Hello

to a Hedgehog. (The meeting has been slowed down as it was so short.)


Hedgehogs have been arriving singly for a few nights now so I assume the mating was successful at some stage last week.

Macro on Monday - Guess What

Congratulations and virtual gold stars go to Adrian, Jan and Keith who identified the close shot of a raspberry. The one fruit which has done astonishingly well in my garden this year. Unfortunately the same can't be said for my blackcurrants which, though large, are hard and crunchy this year.

   


On to this week's puzzle picture.

Guess what:


 Clue:  "Avez-vous un cuppa?" 

No prizes, just for fun.


Garden Wildlife Update

The juvenile Moorhen continues to visit early mornings, breakfasts on seeds scattered from the feeders, has a swim in the pond and then disappears for the rest of the day. Hopefully I managed to take some video of it performing a tightrope walking act on the cables to my shed. Quite a feat with oversized feet.

The Blue-tailed Damselfly season has started in the garden pond. I spotted three males and one couple yesterday. This short heat wave seems to have brought them out.

Friday at the Flicks - Snuffling Hedgehogs, Juvenile Moorhen

Hedgehog mating is a very long winded process. It takes days of snuffling for hours on end each evening for the male to persuade the female to lower her spines so he can mount her. This is very short clip from the first night taken with the Lumix TZ7. The only lighting was a hand held LED torch. The original video for this episode and the next were very dark so I had to do a lot of processing in the video software.



On the second night I didn't have the torch as Bobby and I watched for about 20 minutes. The hedgehogs were under a set of four LED lamps. We were about two metres away and the Hedgehogs took no notice of us at all.



They were much later arriving on the third night so this was captured by the video camera. The result has been speeded up and you can see how the male spends all his time going round in large circles and returning to the female while she just carries on eating. No sound this time. You will see that at one stage it is a case of two is company, three is a crowd.



The same activity was still going on last night, the fourth, even in the pouring rain.

Yesterday's visit by a juvenile Moorhen was more than a bit of a surprise. I had had an adult visit a year or so ago but that didn't stay very long. This youngster is different. It spent a long time investigating every part of the pond, even walking up and down the little waterfall. It was another surprise to see that it is still here this morning joining the other birds at the Birdy Bistro. I did manage to take some video yesterday as can be seen here.



 Shirl, Shirl's Gardenwatch, asked me about the LED torch. Here it is next to a pound coin for size comparison. Instead of one bulb it has about thirty LEDs, works on three AAA batteries and gives quite a bright light, to the human eyes anyway. Its main help at night is allowing the TZ7 to focus faster and more accurately in dim light. It doesn't help much with video but was better than nothing



Have a great weekend observing the wildlife around you - no knowing what will turn up.

Another Juvenile in the Garden - Moorhen

I don't know where they are all coming from but it is getting more interesting in my garden by the day. This afternoon it was what I am pretty sure is a juvenile Moorhen. According to my reference books it should be as it is lacking the bright red to the top of the beak.

At first it was wandering round the bottom end of the garden.



Then on two occasions I spotted it going for a swim in my garden pond:



I tried taking the video recorder outside but it decided to go and hide. I don't know what Bobby is going to make of it when he goes outside but I guess he will scare it away.

Juveniles - Great Spotted Woodpecker and House Sparrow

A few days ago when I looked at John's site (Hedgeland Tales) and read about the Great Spotted Woodpecker I left a comment that I had only seen one in my garden, at least a year ago and only a quick glimpse. Well - an hour or so later you could have knocked me down with a feather. From my kitchen window I can see the top of a telephone pole which is just past the end of my garden. There are foot rests near the top for workmen to rest on and I saw a bird fly to one of those. Most birds will land on the metal bracket but this bird landed on the wooden pole. Gradually it made its way to the top and stayed long enough for me to get my second look at a Great Spotted Woodpecker.





Update: My thanks to Adrian and Jan for pointing out that this was a female not a juvenile. I must learn to turn the music volume down when trying to identify things, maybe I'll concentrate then!

From time to time some of the seed scattered from the feeders self sets like this corn. Some I let grow to see if any birds will eat the seeds. This morning it was an adventurous juvenile House Sparrow which decided to investigate it.





You can make out the 'baby' yellow at the back of the beak, especially in the first photo.

Another Night of Snuffling

Once again at bedtime the two Hedgehogs were on the feeding area and once again they took no notice of Bobby or myself. As last night Mrs. H was totally engrossed in scoffing the dried mealworms while Mr H kept up the 'walk round in circles and nose touching' routine.

One of the rare occasions where you can see how long a Hedgehog's legs are.


I managed to take several photos and some video clips.  Not the easiest of things one handed as I was holding on to Bobby's collar with the other. He wouldn't attack but was desperate for a closer look at his spiky friends.


At one stage three was a crowd when another Hedgehog appeared. As soon as Mr H noticed the intruder was sent on his way with lots of loud squeals - from which I'm not exactly sure as they were out of sight at that moment. Once the intruder had been sent back under the fence to next door's garden Mr H went back to the serious business of courting his chosen mate. Not that she seemed the slightest interested though there was no aggression from either of them.



We spent about 20 minutes watching from about 2 metres away. In the end Mr H hurried off and was followed by Mrs H who seemed to go chasing after him.

Snuffling Hedgehogs

About 10 p.m. last night I noticed another Hedgehog encounter where one charges at the other and pushes it away from the feed dish. They disappeared from the view of the camera so I didn't think any more about it. When I let Bobby out at bedtime he, as usual, went straight to the feeding area to check for his spiky friends. Nothing at the dish but he heard two hedgehogs snuffling away in the shadows nearby.

I had my LED torch so I could see them touching noses as they snuffled away. As I nipped in to fetch the Lumix I expected they would be long gone by the time I got back but this time my luck was in. They were so engrossed in this part of their mating ritual they took no notice of me, the torch light or the camera flashing.





I also managed to take a short piece of video with the TZ7, just with the illumination of the torch, so that should be ready for Friday at the Flicks.