Did I mention we might have hedgehogs??

Ok, If you have read the last blog piece or follow me on social media ( thanks by the way) you will know we have a couple of hedgehogs visiting. Enough to make me buy a trailcam and film FOUR in one video! We knew we occasionally had three in the garden, or maybe just once we saw three, I forget, but the beauty of the trailcam is that whilst we were celebrating three in the garden, the trailcam caught another at the top of the screen. FOUR! Not a family group of youngsters, fully grown! Who has seen that many in a garden before? (on an estate, where the in and out hole is next to a road)!

We are lucky.. Gotta keep remembering that as I buy more mealworm and hedgehog food.
I've thought about opening a Hedgehog Wine Bar, where people bring wine to watch our hedgehogs, or sponsor some food to get their own private hog clips... Although I'm busier than ever, I'm not earning at the moment, is it ok to cash in on hodgepigs?

So how did we get so lucky?

Ive noticed a bit of hedgehog poo in the garden for a while. Small single bits over the course of the Spring, then one day, when sat in the conservatory we noticed a bum disappear in to the bushes. The next night - the same... And that started the feeding. I didnt want to put cat food down, or event specialist hedgehog food down, as we get enough cats in the garden anyways. So opted for meal worm.
Cats wont eat them, but according to the t'interweb, hedgehogs love them.
And so they do!!

They wouldnt eat the specialist, (expensive) hedgehog food for a while so mixed it with even more meal worm, but they eventually came around to the idea. I still put meal worm in, but that's more to stop any cats. Does it work? I don't know.

Borrowing an old photo of the garden, (it's dark as I write this) I have marked our key hedgehog areas.

So what has the trailcam been capturing??

First clip, Four hedgehogs!!

There is one we call Scratchy. A female who itches a lot!

Sometimes I wonder if they can really see in the dark, lots of random stumbling in the dark.

And just when you find some food, someone sits in the food bowl and hogs it all!

Could go on all night posting videos, the trailcam batteries arent lasting long! Each morning there is around 40 clips to go through - but, I consider that to be a good problem to have :-)

Off to the South Coast tomorrow to see the white knuckled sandpiper, or whatever it is... Bet I just see Dunlin...

August came and went...

Whoosh! Where is this year going? From a very draggy Winter and Spring due to the whole redundancy thing, this Summer has flown by. Due to training three days a week, having the kids two days a week, life, and trying to watch the money a little bit (whilst I'm not earning) I am seriously missing an adventure to the coast or somewhere.
The last day out with the camera was on my birthday (In May) to Titchfield Haven, I think.

It's not all doom and gloom, we had a fab holiday down in Cornwall, staying next to St. Michael's Mount. I have missed Cornwall so it was very nice to be back.

So now that migration is in full swing again, I hope to get out and about with the camera again very soon.

The few times I have been down the lakes I have been lucky enough to snap the Kingfisher again. There are still two youngsters flying around, the beaks are changing and I believe we have a male and a female. I guess at some point one at least will fly off somewhere new to find a mate and raise a family, hopefully not for a while though.

The stew ponds are still the place to snap them. They can perch high up in the trees and are very easy to miss, but every now and then they return to a perch half way up the pond and in good view of the camera.

Randomly mid month a family of common tern appeared on the main lake. Don't know where they came from but they seemed happy eating a few pike before they moved on somewhere else.

The cygnets are now four months old, lots of wing stretching and feathers getting whiter each day it seems. It is still a few months before they will be flying, hopefully I will get to see that, as it's quite amusing to watch.

At home we have managed to grow a couple of decent sunflowers, the wild flowers have also come up trumps as they keep producing new flowers for the insects and bees. Definitely a good move planting those.

Whilst doing the garden (ok, its rare, but it does happen occasionally) we bump into one or two frogs who live in or under the bushes. I really want to add a very subtle water element in the garden, a sneaky one that the landlord wont even notice.

                          

The big news from the garden is that we have hedgehogs. Ok, we knew we did, seen the poo and noticed the gaps under the hedge, but recently we have had a few sightings which led us to put out meal worms. We can view them from the conservatory, its been nice sitting up, watching them arrive each evening. Two are definitely living in the garden, a third appeared the other day, which led to me buying a trailcam. What was I saying about watching the expenditure??  Oh well.
Only after viewing the footage on the first night did we know we had FOUR hedgehogs visiting!!

On the job front my time with BBOWT is sadly coming to an end. I have learned so much from my three days a week with such nice and knowledgeable people. I'm sad to wind down my time there but the reality is I need to be earning again. Today I had a £700 car bill, again.

Until I gain full time employment I hope to continue with the BBOWT Volunteer Work Parties on Wednesdays. It's good to still be doing constructive things and keeping in touch with people who have quickly become friends. It just gives me the freedom to job hunt (which seems to be a full time task).
I remain very grateful for the chance to be a Conservation Trainee. Who knows what the future holds. Just last Thursday another unexpected door may have opened.