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.

June 2010 - Hand-rearing Hoglets!

Wednesday 30th: Unfortunately the Hedgehog either abandoned or orphaned the four Hoglets. As of last Thursday evening, Melanie has been hand-rearing these tiny Hedgehogs. When we checked on them late that afternoon, they were almost blue in colour with cold and looking like they had been left alone most of the previous night (as Hedgehogs hunt at night and can roam 2 to 3 kilometers) and all day.

They were obviously in some distress so the decision was made to take them in, warm them as a priority and then feed them. This necessitated me dashing down the road to the local Supermarket and buying a couple of cartons of Kitten's-milk.

Judging by the growth and firmness of the spines, we suspect that the Hoglets were born sometime last Monday 21st, so were initially suckled by the now absent Mother. As you can imagine with new-born animals, they require feeding every 2 or 3 hours and initially toileting. All credit to Melanie as she has risen to the challenge by following religiously a course of feeding through the day and night!

Various sources on the Internet have been checked-out for information on how to raise them. But alas last Saturday, the weakest and most underweight, passed-away. So we have three Hoglets: one male and two females. They are putting on 2 grammes of weight each day and as of yesterday weighed 30, 32 and 34 grammes.

Their eyes are not open yet and so are still blind We estimate that they will not open for another week. The Hoglets don't appear to require toileting now as they can go for themselves. So with fingers crossed and with Melanie's resolve we hope to rear these fine animals.

June 2010 - Hedgehog with hoglets in the Garden!

Wednesday 23d: Tonight Melanie discovered where the Hedgehog had nested...quite by accident. Let me recount the story...Last Sunday night, she found a rather large Hedgehog in the garden. We gave it some food and water and left it too it's own devices not thinking that we would ever see it again! Mel surmised that it was a pregnant female...Very astute of her because as it turns out, this Hedgehog has given birth to 4 Hoglets! The nest is in our garden and safe...well as safe as things can be. The spikes on the Hoglets are firm and the eyes on all 4 are still closed. So between last Sunday night and today, the Hoglets were born. Needless to say, we will be keeping a close watch on mother and babies.

June 2010 - Iberian Chiffchaff...at Potteric Carr YWT

Thursday 17th: In the birding fraternity, something that is termed "A MEGA" is considered an extremely rare visitor to the British Isles. Well on May 11th, an Iberian Chiffchaff took up residence at Potteric Carr YWT in Doncaster. This rather shabby-looking male has since staked out a territory and continually sings for a mate. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that he will get one, though there is another Iberian Chiffchaff that has taken up residence, but that is in Gwent, South Wales!

There have been only about 25 recorded instances of this Warbler in this country and this is only the 2nd ever in South Yorkshire! Well, late Thursday afternoon I finally got the chance to see this bird. Finishing work at 4pm, I crossed the road to the nature reserve. At that time of day it is always quiet as the site closes it's doors at 5pm. A good 20 minute trek to St. Catherine's Field where the bird has it's territory on a warm and sunny day.

As I approached the area, the Iberian Chiffchaff was conspicuous by it's song. Straightaway I saw the bird high up, atop a small tree but not so high that it was indistinguishable. Glad I carted my scope and tripod with me so that I could get some good close views of this once-in-a-lifetime visitor! Though binoculars served just as well. I was the only person there and had the Chiffchaff all to myself! It soon became apparent that the bird had a routine that it followed and by this I could take photos and alternate to either visual with or without the scope/binoculars.

For an hour and a half, I spent time in the company of the Iberian Chiffchaff, taking photos and just watching as it continued to sing. I could even hear it sing from some trees on the other side of the field although it was lost to view during it's set routine. The constant rumble of Motorway traffic close by was not a worry to it at all.

But as I said before, the bird had a set routine and I knew that after 10 minutes at the far-end of the field, it would be back. and of course it was. The best views were while the bird was perched singing in the small Hawthorn tree just a few meters away. These photos are taken while he was in that tree.

The song is, as you would expect different to the Common Chiffchaff that are Summer visitors to the British Isles and sometimes resident. Below is a short video of the Iberian Chiffchaff in song.

June 2010 - Hand-feeding a Blackbird!

Wednesday 9th: Early evening and as usual, the 3 resident Blackbirds have been in and out of the kitchen all day...closely followed by half a dozen House Sparrows. Now these Sparrows have become very bold in their actions. They will also fly into the kitchen to grab a mealworm and in some instances, hassle and rob the Blackbirds while they are collecting mealworms! In an effort to scare off the marauding Sparrows, the Blackbirds snap at the House Sparrows with their beaks but mostly, the Sparrows ignore the threats. So in an effort to make sure that this Blackbird got a mealworm, I decided to see how trusting she was, after all, the Blackbirds allow us to get very close to them and in most circumstances within 2 feet!

As you can see the Blackbird does take one mealworm from the palm of my hand but is very aware of the Sparrow watching it. She takes the mealworm and then jumps up onto the bench to take the rest (out of shot) of the mealworms from the bowl!

June 2010 - Drama in the garden!

Friday 4th: A usual working-day morning - came down to breakfast at 7:15am, put the kettle on, but no sooner had I made and was about to take a bite of toast, topped with strawberry jam, I was stopped in mid bite. A rapid wing beat from a large bird startled me. Grabbing my camera, I rushed outside expecting that the local Sparrowhawk had caught something! Imagine my suprise when I was presented with the scene as shown in this photo; a Wood Pigeon hanging upside down, wings splayed and motionless. All the other birds; Sparrows, Starlings and the Feral Pigeons just ignored it and calmly went about their business.

The unfortunate Wood Pigeon was trapped by it's leg and would never have freed itself from this predicament! The bird was surprisingly calm and motionless, it was not even struggling to free itself! Having a look, it was just a matter of gently folding the birds' wings, holding it with both hands and lifting the bird free and in an instant...it had flown. Shaken by it's ordeal, it nethertheless was in one piece and with no breakages, flew off to eat somewhere else.

Usually, this bird and other Wood Pigeons tend to perch on the fatball holder as it's just the right height from the sunflower feeder and they can eat fairly comfortably. On this occasion, the Wood Pigeon must have slipped and put it's leg through the gap between the two metal rods that hold the fatball feeder to the pole. As it's leg went through the gap, the bird went over the side, immobilising it! Fortunately the leg did not appear to be damaged in any way. One lucky Pigeon!

May 2010 - Bempton Cliffs RSPB

Friday 21st: As I came into this world on this day all those years ago, I decided to treat myself: take the day off work and drive out to the East Yorkshire coast near Bridlington for some birding on a gloriously hot and sunny day! My aim was to enjoy the coastal birds and see some Puffins. So where are all the Puffins? When I got to the Reserve I heard tell that there had been two seen today... but try as I could, I didn't see them! Scanning the cliff-face amongst the Razorbills and Guillimots is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Maybe it's early in the breeding season and they are all underground in their burrows. But surely the males must be constantly on the wing to supply their mates with a meal? Maybe the majority of them haven't returned yet...it may prove more profitable to make a return visit during June/July? I also over-heard someone saying that the surrounding North Sea is too warm and this will have an adverse effect upon their preferred prey; sand-eels. Well, lets hope there's a turnaround in the Puffins' fortunes and they return in numbers to inspire awe and wonder for visitors to this splendid coastal NR.




But the cliff-faces were lined with hundreds of Guillimots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes and Gannets. I never cease to look in wonder at the Gannets, such a large and sleek bird. When they are fairly close, as was one bird that can be seen from the photo gathering nesting material...they are huge! I also found an area where all the Rock Pigeons seem to congregate in numbers for safety, though I didn't see any of their predators, Peregrine Falcons. Too soon in the breeding season, I suspect later when chicks are out and about then these masters of the sky will be cruising the skies.

The sea water looks unusually clear. From the cliff-tops I could clearly see beneath the surface to the bottom and in some circumstances, see the patterns made by the volcanic lava that was laid down millions of years ago and now hardened to form rock. As can be seen with the photo of the Guillimots at the base of the cliff, large amounts of lava has hardened to rock and little holes can be seen where once the air bubbles escaped the cooling lava.

As for Passerines, there were plenty away from the cliffs. Pied Wagtails, Tree Sparrows, Chaffinches and Goldfinches are very common around the feeders. Carrion Crows and Jackdaws are the Corvids in residence. Lots of Barn Swallows were evident. Sky Larks and Meadow Pipits were in good numbers...but the highlight was the close sighting of a Whitethroat....which proved to be the one that got away as I spent a good 30 mins stalking it to get a photo which never happened!

Sunday 13th June - addendum:

I have since heard that some Puffins have returned to Bempton Cliffs! A work colleague, Jayne went to the NR with her family over the last Bank Holiday and her father saw 20 Puffins!