When looking through old infrared videos of mine, made when such infrared cameras were first available but of awful quality, came across one very short but amusing video, involving ratty and toerag, my cat.
Ratty I think was an escaped tame rat, who came to no harm.
It looks like our squirrel has taken up residence. I got some hazelnuts and we made a little cache to see if he would find them. He hasā¦ he comes, takes one at a time in his mouth, scampers off, digs a little in the grass and buries it. Heās utterly cute !
I was mowing at the campsite the other day, when I saw a hedgehog on the road outside.
I stopped & scooped him up in my fleece & stuck him in the pile of collected leaves
Unhappily it isnāt always good news.
While driving into a small village at noon a few years ago I saw a very young hedgehog running down the middle of the road. A cause for concern. I stopped and put him into my car.
When I got home, I couldnāt find him. I searched and finally located him inside the plastic bulkhead of the car where my knees would be while driving. Heād found a tiny gap.
I had to dismantle the whole of those plastic panels to get him out.
I said not good news because hedgehogs donāt usually go wondering around in broad daylight unless sick.
He was, and despite me doing my best with TLC, and some vet attention, he died a few days later.
There are some useful resources aroundā¦
Hedgehog Street
British Hedgehog Preservation society Found a hedgehog?
RSPCA
Who likes rats? Not many I suppose, but they have their place in this world.
Not hot and dry anymore, and very few birds come to the birdbath now, so I put down some birdseed food stuff. During that night a newcomer came to the birdbath.
I love ratsā¤
I love hedgehogs but my elderly girl has always insisted on picking them up and bringing them into the lounge where I wrap them in a towel and take them back outside and place them beyond my boundaryā¦she does the same with toads and frogsā¦
In U.K. rats were dispatched immediately if one ever dared to encroach on her territoryā¦there are no doubt rats round here but Iāve not seen oneā¦
She has a very specific bark that tells me thereās a hedgehog close byā¦also if thereās a pigeon in a treeā¦.my boys also have a very specific sound and demeanour if there is a hornet or a bumble-bee or wasp in the house and will leave me to deal with themā¦.She doesnāt she just catches them and dispatches them if she gets to them before I doā¦I have soft cloths and a mug and cardboard on hand to catch bumble bees and baby birdsā¦.
Sheās a terror and keeps me busy in my ārescue workā but I love her 
None of them are bothered by or try to catch butterflies
I believe Ratty is moving in to make a home under one of the birdbaths, and I wondered if he had ousted little Mousey who was there first.
They are both there and tolerate each other ā sweet to see. They live there now side by side as two close neighbours. I shall have to get some suitable foodstuffs to get some winter action videos.
Birds can feed during the day while Mousey, Ratty and a new young HedgyWog can eat at night.
Watch this space!
ps - at least 6 cats drink at night so they will keep Mousey and Ratty on their toes!
I shall be keeping my eye on these three little guys, especially the young hedgehog.
Iām hoping one of you wildlife experts can help me identify a little chap that I just spotted in a nice damp patch inside the garage door. By the time Iād got back with my camera heād gone. I first thought he must be a type of salamander as we do get quite a few round here but apart from the general shape, he was not really like one. He was perhaps nearly 15cm long, black but matt, not slightly shiny like a salamander. The skin appeared not to be smooth and the only markings were a narrow orange stripe most of the length of his back.
Best I can do for a description but has anyone any suggestions? Mr Google isnāt helpingā¦
Could have been a newt maybe?
I did wonder but he seemed quite big for the newts Iāve seen around here and also he was resoundingly blackā¦
And a word of warning to those of us that like to use āhumaneā traps to catch mice, dormice (loir/lĆ©rot, etc) using rectangular cages.
We set a couple of these humane traps around the house, and were quite successful in catching a variety of mice (house, wood, harvest), but to our horror we also managed to trap a hedgehog, which managed to get in, but of course could not get outā¦
I ended up having to cut the cage apart with wire cutters in order to free the hedgehog from its plight. Had we not been checking the traps regularly, it might well have died of cold and starvation. Fortunately, after managing to remove it, we placed it in some leaves under the creeping juniper, and a few hours later, it had moved on.
We think it was this one, which has become a regular visitor/resident since last spring:
Couldnāt resist this, Junior hedgehog 1 seen here with Mum. Junior 2 is elsewhere, probably filling up with catfood.
Junior 1 is stealing dry straw from two hedgehog homes and taking it to his own adopted home. Itās brief, so Iāve slowed it down a little - you can just see some trailing straw. Heās clearly caught in the act at the end.
The dark looking boxes with curved tops in the video are hedgehog homes, as is the cat box.
Donāt know how young they are when they start making nests or whether they share nests.
Putting birdseed & hedgehog food around the birdbath seems to have attracted more rats! They are very cautious and amazingly fast, but nothing dramatic to see.
There are three young rats, certainly, but thereās a fourth pair of eyes. Maybe they belong to the mouse who lived there before the rats.
Stopped putting hedgehog food down and the rats have gone away - they were making big tunnels under the birdbaths, meaning they were there to stay. Theyāre wild animals so will make their way somewhere else quite easily.
Hedgehogs have plenty to eat in the workshop, where junior shows some mettle!
Before bringing in logs for the fire I first tap them so most of the the dust and any insects fall, this little fellow had a lucky escape. Does anyone know what it is?
Our dog had a Coypu encounter a couple of days ago just 100 metres from the house, it was an adult and bloody big! Weāre aware of the den location as another dog caught and killed a youngster a couple of weeks ago but as this is roughly 500 metres away we were very surprised to see it so close to us as they donāt normally stray too far from home.
Looks like a Western conifer seed bug, we have had a few here.
Introduced from the USA with timber imports.
Alydus calcaratus according to this:
https://www.insecte.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=194819
and this:
http://aesgsf.free.fr/V5/punaises-alydus-calcaratus-es.html
