Baldric's Bolthole

Baldric has been very busy over the last week. He’s eating about ½c of biscuits every night and is continuing to try to build a nest inside the feeder box – I have placed other nest boxes in the fernery for him but he isn’t interested in these to date. Last night he did the reverse though and pulled the lining newspaper out of the box. Funny Boy. 

Keeping him confined in the garden wasn’t an acceptable long or even medium term situation however so after a few days of head scratching I came up with a solution to the conundrum of Baldric being trapped in the garden. I spoke with Donna and we agreed on the best place to make a bolt hole through which Baldric could access the outside world via Donna’s garden.

Ye Olde Bolthole ...

It didn’t take long for me to make it and I blocked it up with bricks until night had fallen - blocking it off prevents Westley going through during the day. That night I made a tunnel out of the bricks to stop mine and Donna’s cat hassling each other through the hole, I installed my IR camera about 1m from the hole and went inside to await the morning when hopefully I'd have some Baldric snaps to views.

Well, he found the tunnel all right and at 4.23am he went though it …. only  to come straight back into the garden at 4.25!   

I left it a few more nights before placing the camera again – which was last night. 

This time he left at 3.24am -

and returned at 4.51am 

 so he’s extended his excursion time but is still basing himself in the garden. He is looking really good and has obviously plumped up which he darn well should have with the amount of food he is eating! 

This is taken a few days later and is absolute proof he knows how to use his tunnel - he hasn't left though!

I’m going to try to get one of my wooden nest boxes sealed and into the garden this weekend to hopefully entice him into build a nest in which would make it much easier to monitor his whereabouts and condition, but he may well not ‘comply’ with my wishes, little brat.