Wildlife charity raises concerns after gulls shot in Berwick

Two herring gulls also had to be euthanised after they had been shot. One was found lying in a pool of blood shot through the eye but still struggling to fly. They were both found in Castlegate but we do know that they are also being shot in Tweedmouth.

Every year this happens and we are able to do nothing to prevent it. Perhaps it is time that air rifles should be licenced here as they are in Scotland.

We are now releasing hedgehogs. If you brought one in during the autumn or winter you will be hearing in the next couple of weeks when they will be ready to be collected.

Now is also the time to repeat our reminder to watch out when using a strimmer. We had a little hog weighing just less that 400 grams brought in on Saturday with a horrible head wound caused by a strimmer. She is doing very well, although small she is eating all her food every day and is putting on weight. She is being treated with antibiotics with the would cleaned and medicated. They are such brave little animals that keep going whatever happens to them.

Two pigeon squabs that had to be hand reared are now down at the Centre and flying well. They still have too much down on them to release just yet.

Jackie and Mandy did a table top sale at the Rollo Centre last Saturday to raise funds for an incubation unit for young birds and mammals. They are over £250 each and will be very useful. The table top sale raised over £350. We also received a donation of £200 to go towards a purchase.

We are now able to buy two of these units but we have found that the company has an offer during May of 15% discount, so, we shall be ordering them after 1st May. Thank you to everyone that came and supported us and also for the lovely craft items that were donated. We are also having a table at Wooler on Saturday 3rd May.

A tiny leveret was brought in on Tuesday weighing just 85 grams, so only a few days old. They are very difficult to get going and sometimes take four or five days to take a bottle but we can only do our best. Once they get going they normally grow very quickly.

Barbara was working on Tuesday and phoned Dick to see if he could help her with a call she had taken. A Mallard duck had made a nest in a walled courtyard and managed to hatch out her ducklings. They needed help to get to water. Dick went down and he and Barbara checked out the site. Dick said it was relatively easy to corner the duck and the babies under some ladders so she could not fly off. He then encouraged her into the box carrier they had brought and the ducklings followed mum. One managed to jump out of the box as Dick closed the door, fortunately, Barbara managed to grab it and pop it back in the box. It only took about 15 minutes so a nice easy rescue.

They took the family of Mallards down to the river away from the town and the herring gulls, where they were released.

Despite Avian Influenza we are still hoping to hold our Open Day at the end of May.