Hogs don't disappoint

'Noisy' enjoying his food

Just spent a fabulous hour and a half having close encounters of the prickly kind! My back garden truely is the best place to watch Hedgehogs.

Lying only three feet away from the ground feeder, I enjoyed priviledged views of no fewer than five Hedgehogs as they made their way over (more or less) one by one. Each one continued to enjoy the feast whilst I snapped away with my camera and their little personalities shone through.

The first was what Cesar Millan would call 'calm, submissive', walking purposely over to the feeder to calmly enjoy its contents. Suddenly a very bold individual appeared and 'Calm' made a sharp exit! 'Bold' happily ate its fill for three minutes before heading into the night. Barely five minutes later and I was joined by a more cautious hog who initially paused, before heading fully into the light to enjoy the food reward.

'Cautious' exercises discretion when 'Noisy' shows up

It was only three minutes before 'Noisy' appeared (so called because most of the time I spent with him he was grunting away to himself!) and 'Cautious' immediately gave way to him. 'Noisy' clearly had other things on his mind and he quickly chased after 'Cautious'! Courtship ensued only 10 feet away, but it seems that she was unimpressed and soon gave him the slip, at which point his stomach got the better of him and he returned to the feeder! When he had had enough he walked straight over to me, sniffed my hand and then wandered off, perhaps to try his luck with 'Cautious' again!

Nine minutes now went by before a very nervous hog appeared. This poor thing took quite a while to pluck up the courage to fully come into the light and then flinched every time my camera shutter fired. Sadly, my assumption that it would get used to the sound was flawed and after only a minute on the feeder, it slunk away.

At this point, I decided to call it a night and after a moment enjoying the view of Saturn in the clear sky, I headed inside to review my images!