Nighttime visitors to the allotment

For a long time I could only guess what is happening on the allotment in the night. I assumed there might be a hedgehog as I found faeces but never saw one. Until I got my wildlife cam.
This is a nice little waterproof camera which can be left outside where you want it, to capture images and videos of wildlife. The camera has a motion sensor which activates the camera as soon as something moves in front of it and an infrared beam for nighttime shots. I have programmed my camera to only activate during the night to avoid taking videos of all the birds frequenting my allotment during the day (at one time I had about 50 video clips of various blackbirds in just one day).
So thanks to my wildlife cam I now have a much better idea of all the nighttime visitors on my allotment.

So what did I find? Firstly, I was right, there really is a hedgehog visiting my plot. A nice healthy-looking one, coming nearly every night. The last time I have seen him on the camera was on the 24th of December which was quite a mild night. Apparently hedgehogs do not hibernate deeply but wake up now and again when it is milder to eat something and defecate. I also found out that hedgehogs don`t seem to like eating big slugs as in one video clip I could see quite a large slug which was completely ignored by the hedgehog.

My allotment hedgehog

This slug is completely ignored by the hedgehog

The hedgehog is snuffling around the compost area

 I made a little film about the hedgehog which you can watch below.

Other nighttime visitors are little wood mice which I am quite fond of now. Often you just see a pair of tiny glowing eyes first, before it becomes apparent that you are looking at a little mouse. They are very skittish, always expecting a predator behind the next bush. And they are right to be careful. In one of the video clips I saw a cat running off with one of my wood mice in its mouth, quite a disturbing sight!

A little wood mouse sitting on the compost heap

Below you can see a short video featuring the wood mice.

Which brings me to the next visitor, not a popular one with me (but cat lovers might disagree), namely cats! There are all sorts of cats on my plot at nighttime, black ones, brown ones, long-haired ones, fat ones, thin ones, you name it. Sometimes I think the whole neighbourhood cat population finds my plot irresistible. Poor little wood mice. At least the hedgehog does not seem to be bothered, he is well protected in his thorny coat.

Cat on the prowl, looking rather well-fed

A few times I have also had rabbits on my plot, but apart from digging shallow holes here and there they don`t seem to do a lot of damage. Not so on my allotment neighbours plot. He likes to grow parsnips and carrots and always leaves some in the ground to overwinter. I had a look last weekend, and what can I say, there is not much to harvest anymore. All the tops have been completely hollowed out, with tell-tale signs of rabbit poo nearby. It does not take much to name the culprit here.

A rabbit on the way to my allotment neighbours carrots

Other visitors to my plot are wild rats. Some people now probably say: Yuck! Vermin! Kill them all! But I think they are part of the wildlife on the allotment site and have as much right to be there as the hedgehog and the wood mice. There are only a few, they don`t do any damage and they generally keep a low profile (it is very unusual to see them during the day). There is even the added bonus of quicker composting as the rats like to dig tunnels through the compost which helps with aeration and mixing.

One of the wild rats visiting my plot

One of my favourite rat images, a sweet little youngster eyeing up some treats

Last autumn I found some faeces which looked suspiciously like coming from a fox but so far I did not have one on my camera. I have seen one a few years ago when I was on the allotment very late, the wind was blowing towards me and the fox did not smell me. I kept very still and watched the fox walk past me only about 10 m away, an exhilarating experience. So there are foxes on the allotment site, I just need to get one in front of my camera. A little challenge I set myself this year. Watch this space to see if I am successful.

There is another little video I made with the hedgehog, little wood mice jumping around, the wild rats and a rabbit which can be watched below.