July 2010 - Hoglets eyes open and ears up!

Sunday 25th: I am pleased to report that the three Hoglets are now looking more and more like mini Hedghogs. Since they moved to the 'glop' from kitten's milk, they are piling the grammes on at 80, 78 grammes for the two females and 52 grammes for the male. Though according to various sources on the Internet, they are still underweight at 33 days, but we are happy with their progress. They appear fit and well, are eating and are now even spending time after every feed in the garden - though very closely supervised to guard against predators from both the ground and air.

The eyes on the two females are now fully opened and their ears have opened and are upright - in fact they are looking and behaving just like Hedgehogs. The lone male is still underdeveloped but his ears have opened and are upright too. His eyes are not fully open yet. We believe that he is about 2 weeks behind the other two in his development as he still only prefers kitten's milk. But he joins his siblings outside on the lawn after feeding. They snuffle about in the grass, anoint themselves and will walk around and investigate everything. After 15 minutes outside they will be brought back in and go back to sleep until the next feeding session when they will spend some more time outside. This acclimatisation is proving very beneficial and will prepare them for when they spend time in a small penn outside during the day in about 3 - 4 weeks.

July 2010 - Hoglets anointing and eyes peeping!

Sunday 18th: In the warm afternoon Sun, we took the Hoglets out into the garden to start a process of enabling them to feel the fresh air and ground. Hedgehogs rely almost entirely on their sense of smell, so introducing them to the great 'wilderness' and the feel of grass, soil etc will start to attune their senses for the task of survival. Of course we stayed very close to them, never taking our eyes off their continual walking.

Yes the Hogs have now got to the stage and have been for a week, where they have lifted their bodies off the ground and are now walking! In fact given the chance they'd walk until tired! This is good exercise as it strengthens the legs. All are putting on weight more rapidly and they are bulking-up at a reasonable rate - still below targeted weight but they seem to be progressing well at their own rates. The male though still the smallest is piling-on the grammes! The two females are much larger, being a third heavier than the male. Today was a day of 'Firsts': the eyes of the two females are now peeping, that is to say, though the eyelids are still slits, the tiny eyes can be seen. The other First is that the two females are now 'anointing' themselves.

July 2010: The Hoglets are growing!

Saturday 17th: Day 26. Of the three, the two females seem to be doing better than the solitary male. The females are putting weight on, weighing-in at 56 and 50 grammes. By comparison, the male is vastly underweight at 36 grammes and a source of concern. Mel is hand-feeding the male more intensively than the females which spend more time lapping from a small shallow lid. All are now on the 'glop', a mixture of quality puppy food and kitten's milk. It does now look like the females are developing teeth but their eye slits are still firmly closed. As you would expect with two of them now feeding themselves, there is also added mess as they will walk, fall over and roll in the 'glop' as well as getting it all over their head when feeding! All the Hoglets do still spend much of the time sleeping. Indeed it's still a case of sleep and eat at the moment.

July 2010 - Father-in-Law's Heron problem!

Friday 16th: My Father-in-law has a garden pond that gets admiring glances from a Heron, sometimes more than that, the Heron has skewered fish in the past. As this image shows, early morning and the arrival of the Heron. Now is it the same bird each time? Who knows but as my Father-in-law has spread a net over the pond to protect the fish. The Heron has been seen wading out over the net. It has deduced that if it walks onto the mesh then the mesh will sink and this may give it a better chance of trapping any slow moving fish, skewer and snack on it. One very smart Heron! These two photos were snapped by Hadi on the morning of the 11th July.

July 2010 - Hoglets!

Monday 5th: Today, the Hoglets, we estimate are 14 days old and they appear to be developing more-or-less as expected. Most notably they have grown larger and the pink skin has turned dark in colour and become firmer. Their facial features are now more pronounced. The eye-slits are now beginning to open and we expect in 2 to 4 days they will be fully open.

Their weight is below target for 14 days but we expect them to pile it on when they start feeding on 'glop'. Mel has spoken on the phone to get some advice from a local 'Hedgehog Carer' and this was very helpful, which is more than can be said for one of the more "well-known" Rescue-Centers that she rang!

The photos were taken yesterday, Sunday 4th. More updates as and when.

July 2010 - House Sparrow in the House!

Saturday 3rd: As you know, we keep a bowl of live mealworms just inside the backdoor and two female Blackbirds (one sometimes accompanied by the male) regularly come in to feed. But when they do, a gang of House Sparrows follow and will rob the Blackbird of mealworms and sometimes even sit in the bowl and feed as this fearless fledgling House Sparrow above shows! The House Sparrows sometimes wait until the Blackbird has a beak full of mealworms and just like Gulls do to smaller birds at the coast...chase and hassle her so that she drops some or all of the food. The common House Sparrow turning to piracy!

If the Blackbird snaps at the Sparrows as she sometimes will, they just ignore her! The majority of this piracy is carried-out by the females. It sure does make for an interesting sight to see a Blackbird with a beak-full of mealworms being chased at low-level back to her nest by several House Sparrows!


Last Saturday while some Sparrows were in the kitchen, the local Sparrowhawk came to visit the garden. She must have chicks herself as she is making more frequent forays now. The alarm-call went up and all birds dived for cover. Those in the kitchen scattered to a nearby bush but one panicked and flew out the kitchen door and up the stairs! She flew along the landing and into the bathroom then back out along the landing again and into the Study! Fortunately Mel and I were there to see this and Mel grabbed a couple of snaps.

Eventually, when the bird was settled, we opened the window and out she flew. This is not the first time either. As reported in this blog last year, May 19th, a couple of House Sparrows flew upstairs into the study were they both perched side-by-side on the back of the chair.

Going back a few years...well back to 2000, we had a fledgling Blue Tit fly into the house and cling to the curtains in panic. A photo of this is shown below. We did manage to get the bird and release it into the back garden where it met it's relieved mother.