Messy work but it's rewarding for volunteers

The summer months of July and August were dominated by the young gulls with 77 admitted.

With one exception these were herring gulls, with one lesser black backed gull which was an unusual guest for us. The difference in the youngsters was quite subtle, slightly different beaks and the lesser black backed had slightly darker plumage. The last of the gulls was not released until early September.

The six mallard ducks that came in as small ducklings in mid-May were released in July to a safe place near Ford & Etal, they were with us for about nine weeks.

From this point onwards, the cygnets took over the large pond area, gradually maturing to the stage they are at now, which is very large and turning to white, much more steady on their feet than they were over the summer. They are now quite possessive of their area, posturing with their wings when we enter to feed them.

In August, lots of very young birds were brought in following damage to their nests during Storm Floris. The totals for the month were 20 pigeons and 14 songbirds. New arrivals included: two baby goldfinch, two young doves, a baby sparrow, and four pigeon squabs. Most of them needed hand feeding regularly from dawn to dusk which required a lot of dedication from the team.

Six baby rabbits were brought in during August, though sadly only four survived. They grew up quickly and were quite a handful, starting out being hand reared at home by Pat before coming to the Rollo Centre. They moved around their cage incredibly fast, in fact they were so lively that after several unsuccessful attempts at capture we often just cleaned up around them. They had strong burrowing instincts and hid together in the back of their little house.

Nine more owls were admitted in the second half of the year, eight barn and one tawny, taking it to 20 for the year. The tawny owl that was with us from a very young owlet, was released in August. This was a nice success story as it had been rescued from the nest where both its sibling and a parent had died. Despite being very inquisitive and fairly tame as a young owlet, by the time it left us it was behaving like a wild bird. It was released by a friend of the Trust who left food out for it at first and has seen it a number of times since.

In the final three months of the year, the admissions dropped away for most species but there were still a number of pigeons and hedgehogs. At the end of the year, we were housing two barn owls, the three cygnets, around 30 hedgehogs and a few pigeons including the two wood pigeons that came in as youngsters and are now about ready to go.

It is nice to look back at the variety of different species we have helped across twelve months.

The Swan Trust relies heavily on volunteers and we are looking for more people to help. If you would like to get involved and can spare a few hours a week, please get in contact with us and arrange a visit. The work is generally messy but there are opportunities to help in handling the animals and birds if their care requires it. The hours can be flexible if you need them to be.

Gill Powell