Hedgehogs Part 1

HEDGEHOGS IN HELLIFIELD (North Yorkshire)
Part One

Last summer I became aware that a hedgehog was coming in to my back garden. It's a small space which backs on to a railway line which doesn't have a lot of traffic. The edges of the line must be full of wildlife as they are more or less undisturbed & there is plenty of vegetation. 

Earlier in the year a hole was cut in the back fence to let the cats go through & the hedgehog started coming soon afterwards. There is always a bowl of water on the ground as a bird bath for blackbirds & I think he came for water initially.

I started putting out a bit of food. It didn't like dog food, it preferred cat food but doesn't seem to like cat biscuits. I hid the saucer of food under leaves in case it felt nervous but this made it hard to photograph him.

By October he was coming every night - or the food was disappearing at least. Eventually, towards the end of the month the food was left uneaten several times & I presumed he'd gone off to hibernate.  Hopefully he could stay by the railway line amongst the piles of tree branches & plant material over there. 

Round about March I was starting to fret & wondering if the hedgehog would be out of hibernation soon & hoping he would reappear. I put food out more prominently & here he is!

Chances of getting photos were rare though especially as I have a dog who will bark at the hedgehog if let out. I kind of knew he was around because the dog had started rushing round the garden at night sniffing everything. He has since seen the hog up close but didn't harm him, just barked loudly. Now I have to put the dog on a long lead if he needs to go out after dark.

Before I got that picture I was thinking about getting an outdoor camera just to make sure the hedgehog had returned & eventually took the plunge & bought one from https://www.wildviewcameras.co.uk/ 

I got a LTL Acorn LTL5210a Wildlife Camera for just over £100 & it looks like this

It can be fastened to a tree for use outside when looking for bigger animals but I just place it on the ground with a view of the food & water bowls. It takes stills & short film. I run it off rechargeable batteries. 

I was rewarded early with short films of the hedgehog which I transferred to YouTube so they can be shared. 

More to come as I want to show you unusual footage involving something the cat did!