My vixen has been visiting nightly for a snack. She is feeding cubs somewhere and is now looking quite thin. I am thinking that she probably has quite a few cubs, as all her teats seem to be swollen and she certainly welcomes a little extra food every night. I’m hoping she brings her cubs to this feeding station in the next month or so. This clip shows her creeping up on the rats that also make the most of the food offering. I have recorded foxes catching the rats at this spot in the past and her stealthy approach certainly suggested that she had heard them in the hedge behind the camera. It certainly meant I had a great clips of her!
For the last few weeks, I have been delighted to have been picking up footage of a couple of hedgehogs at the fox feeding station. I put a small amount of dried dog biscuits and cat biscuits and this food has attracted them. One of them has a white marking on its back, indicating it is one of the individuals I released last summer, which is fantastic! I am hoping the other individual is also one of these released ones.
Last night I recorded a very special event! It seems that my two individuals are a male and female and are looking to increase the local hedgehog population! These two were mating for over half an hour in front of the camera! I’m pretty sure that, after that performance, there will be some hog lets on the way. Wonderful to know that this endangered UK mammal species is breeding in my patch!
I’m hoping to have the Prickly Diner feeding station camera set-up live streaming again on my website soon. In the meantime, watch out for my Great tit nest, Blue tit nest, Jackdaws (eggs due to hatch any day) and my lovely tawny who is coming to the end of her 30 day incubation. Her 4 eggs are due to start hatching mid next week!