'arry 2022

[Sean Regan]

After a six month sleep 'arry has finally woken up.


I'd put his feeding station back out about a week ago with some dry food in it but it remained untouched. The camera has been trained on the patio all the time and was only picking up pesky cats.

But as it had got a bit warmer in the last few days, I put out some catfood last night. He made two visits and cleared all the catfood. Once around 1.45 a.m. and another about 5.00 a.m. in between he must have patrolled the garden as he must have stood on the plinth on which the camera is mounted on a short post as the camera "rocked"
He doesn't look any thinner than when we last saw him.

Look at those little back feet!

 

[Oliver Buckle]

Good to see the little fellow back. Badger must have visited my garden last night, all the grass under the bird table has been ripped up. I guess enough bits drop off that it smells attractive.

 

[Sean Regan]

It's suggested that in April you should clean out hedgehog houses and put in fresh bedding.
I was going to do that, but I would also want to check for leaks. Not that there should be any since I put an oversized roof on it.
The earliest he's coming out is around 9.00pm. and I didn't fancy working on it at that time of night. The alternative would be to take him out during the day, put him in a cardboard box, whilst I worked on it, which might be a bit traumatic.

So I decided, given that it wasn't that expensive, to order another house the same. So I can get it ready and do a straight swop one evening, as soon as he's in his feed station. I can then tart up the original box and put in extra hay ready for hibernation and swap them back in September. The oversize roof is just a "lid" covered in roofing felt so that can get swopped over at the same time.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

I wonder how good his sense of smell is? Bet he knows it is different, not that he gives the impression much would put him off.

 

[Sean Regan]

I wonder how good his sense of smell is? Bet he knows it is different, not that he gives the impression much would put him off.

I thought about that, I'm going to mix a bit of his old bedding with the fresh hay, I'll put it near the inner door so he will notice it before the other.

 

[Sean Regan]

Last night 'arry visited his feeding station about seven times between 8.00pm and 5.00am.
He clears a sachet of Sheba cat food every night.

He's looking very fit

Just going into dinner..again.

"Are you lookin' at me?"

We still have Marcel the mouse.

Here he's on the top step to the right of the two black flowerpots, one of his eyes is reflecting the IR.

Here he's to the right of the primroses. He then made his way down and into the bird feeder. On the video for a time he's facing the camera so both eyes "light up."

 

[Sean Regan]

'arry's friend, Marcel the mouse.
He's gone for an early breakfast in the bird feeder, around 5.00 am this morning.

 

[Sean Regan]

The night before last 'arry spent a a lot of time on the patio having a scratch with different feet, at one point he was scratching so vigorously, he nearly rolled over. They do suffer occasionally from fleas or mites and there's nothing you can do for them, as cat and dog flea treatments are harmful to them.

Anyway, last night the camera didn't pick him up scratching at all.

His summer house arrived this morning, but it was "all wrong." It looks the same as his present one,but had a different configuration.

So it needed a bit of "fettling." At £35 including postage I can't really complain. Like the original, for the sake of speed of construction a staple gun was used. Not the best way to attach the beading that surrounds the roofing felt. So I put in a lot of screws.
The door was at the wrong end, so I had to reverse the front panel. I also had to move the hinges of the roof, as I can only access it from the right hand side. The roof too, would not sit level, so I planed down the top edges until it did. I also added batons to the front and back of the floor and four door stops as feet, as I did the other one.

I've given it a coat of Woodsheen and will give it another, once it has dried, it'll look a lot better than this.

I'm not going to change the houses over until the weather gets a bit warmer, by then the smell of the Woodsheen should have dried off.

I'll leave it out in the weather meantime , so that should help to get it smelling more normal.

When it arrived, included in the package was a small packet of dry hedgehog food and a small "personalised dish with his name on."

His fame must have spread.

 

[Sean Regan]

'arry has found that if he crouches down, he can get right inside the birds' ground feeder so eat some of their food.

 

[Sean Regan]

Made the decision to swop 'arry's houses over today.

I was going to do it one evening when he was "out to dinner."

But I changed my mind, I didn't fancy blundering around in the dark and theres a chance that when he returned to the house it would look foreign and he might have been frightened to go in.

So I did it at lunch time today. I lifted the old house out with him in it and placed it on the patio. Then positioned the new one with its plenty of nice clean hay inside. I then opened the old house and took him out (wearing gloves) and placed him in the new one, he curled up a bit as I lifted him but kept a beady eye on me. Didn't seem too bothered.
My reasoning is that he won't come out during the daytime and by 8.00 pm. the earliest he does come out he'll have got used to it.

The inside of his old house wasn't in the same sort of state as a teenagers bedroom. Whilst he was hibernating the hay had been worked into a ball, now it had been flattened down a bit so he wasn't covered up.
There seemed no sign of any infestation. the hay was dry but there was a lot of what I assumed was mud on the floor. It wasn't poo as it didn't smell. It must be stuff he's brought in stuck to his feet and underside when it's been raining over the many months last year and had worked its way down through the bed of hay.
I've given the old house a good clean witrh anti-bacterial soap and it's now drying out in the shed.
Before I change the houses again in September, I'm going to stick a thick piece of polystyrene to the underside of the floor which is just thin plywood, to add a bit of insulation.

 

[Sean Regan]

I'm not getting much ion the camera on the back of the shed, other than a neighbouurs naffin' cat.
'arry puts in an appearance, now and again.
So I've moved this camera, but i've left the bracket there in case I need to use it again.
The other bracket on the corner of the garage is now edundant as I've that camer attached to a pole in one of the wooden planters.

So I've fixed it to the wall of the garage to the left of the side garage door. Just out of shot in this older photo. I can train it on the area around the fountain or along the path in either direction. There's a power socket in the garage immediately behind it.
Having fixed it being quite pleased with myself I then realised that i'd have to put a stop on the wall just before it to stop it getting smashed if the wind blows the garage door wide open. But the job's done.

 

[Sean Regan]

'arry has "taken off his winter duvet."

Well, what he's done is chucked out some of the hay I'd put in his new house for him when I swopped them over. He probably thinks there's too much now that the weather is improving.

 

[Sean Regan]

'arry has settled into his summer routine.
He makes several visits to his feeding station every night, "rain or moonshine."

Each night he gets through an 85g sachet of cat food and some of his moist and dry hedgehog pellets, then sometimes has a dig around in the bird food feeder. The camera's "still shot" always picks him up before he gets there, but the video follows him in.

He makes one or two trips down to the bottom of the garden. He must be happy strolling down the middle of the lawn aware that he has no threats in this garden.

Sometimes the camera picks him up coming back a couple of hours later. Butother times he must walk back under the azaleas and rhodos in the left hand bed and then over the rockery, as he occasionally leaves poo on it, mostly he uses his feeding station as a toilet. I've the job of cleaning every day. But we wouldn't be without him.

I've noticed these cheap trail cameras I bought even give the temperature at the time of the photo in F and C.

 

[Oliver Buckle]

You spoil that hedgehog, he should be hunting your slugs

 

[Sean Regan]

You spoil that hedgehog, he should be hunting your slugs

Don't malign our 'arry!

He spends a couple of hours down at the bottom of the garden each night slug huntin'