Latest News Avian Influenza (Bird Flu) Sadly bird flu is now moving on from sea birds, to other species of birds, including geese, ducks and swans, and the Trust is receiving many calls from the public spotting sick birds. There is no treatment available and sick birds will often die within a day of showing symptoms. We cannot rescue or accept sick birds at the Centre as this would compromise those birds already in our care and could lead to the Centre being forced to shut down. Our advice, painful as it is to give, is to leave the bird and let nature take its course. Do not touch a dead bird or let a dog near it. The local Council is responsible for collecting them in a controlled manner. In some cases you may report findings to DEFRA on 03459 335577 or visit their web site for detailed advice here. *************************** "Swan Notes" News items written by Trust members and volunteers and usually appearing in the “Berwick Advertiser" newspaper each week. Unfortunately, sister newspaper the “Berwickshire News” are no longer following suit. For those unable to read these items, and those living outside the Berwick area, here are the last few editions... 25th April 2024 We had a great morning last Saturday at the table top sale in Spittal. Jackie had to work that day but she prepared everything for a tombola. Mandy took some of her lovely handicrafts and manned the stall with Debra. Kay and myself did the teas and coffees, cakes, scones and bacon rolls. We made just over £200 on the morning so we were quite happy with that. Look out for the table top sales. There is one every month at the Community Hall. At last the hedgehogs are moving along and the first ones are going off to their place of finding today. It has seemed a long winter with the hogs this year. I think because the weather has been so wet and not particularly cold the hogs have only hibernated for short times. Then we were running out of space as all the hogs needed moving to cooler conditions and the Hogwards Shed was full. Too full, it was difficult to move round between the cages as we had put a table in the middle to accommodate four more cages. The Big Room has been very useful as an overflow. Thanks to some donated kitchen worktops, Jim and Ian were able to make stands for more cages. We can now house 17 hogs in the room but we have used all the available wall space so won’t be able to put any more in. We still have hedgehogs in the Towers indoors waiting to be moved into the cool before they go. At least things are moving on now. All the hogs we have are in good condition, but a few still need to add a bit more weight after hibernation. We have thirteen boxes with runs outside to give the hogs a few days to get a bit of exercise before release. Hogs will be in these boxes for a few days and then they can be collected and returned to where they were found. The picture this week shows them being packed up ready to collect. It is good to see them going at last. Dick is releasing the three Cygnets today. We have been waiting for the river to go down a bit as these youngsters have no experience of fast flowing water. It really is time they went off to their life in the wild. I will show photos next week. We had a beautiful little leveret brought in last week about a week old. It was found on a path with three other dead ones. It was soaking wet and very cold and the lady that found it kept it warm and dried it out as she brought it in. I managed to get a little formula down it but it died after two days. The other young ones were probably picked up by an animal and this one may have also had internal injuries. We can only do our best. We also had a female Sparrow Hawk brought in. It was in superb condition, the feathers so brightly coloured but she had a damaged shoulder one wing not hanging properly. She was taken straight to the Vet but on examination they found that the bone was shattered beyond repair so the bird had to be euthanaised. Such an awful shame. As the Cygnets are away we shall be cleaning the pond areas now ready for new occupants this summer. The ponds are never empty for long and it is good to have a couple of weeks to clean them well and then leave them empty in the sunshine. The grass areas are thoroughly hosed and cleaned. New grass grows very quickly. Pat Goff 18th April 2024 At last the hedgehogs are moving outside. The heaviest ones that have been awake for longest (more or less) are going outside first. We only have ten outside hutches but each hog will have a few days to get used to the outside environment before they are released. I think all have people waiting to collect them and return them to where they were found. The hedgehogs are now taking up most of our time as they are all awake and all need cleaning every day. The ones that are using straw as bedding need their straw changing at least once a week as they soon get wet and mucky. It will be good to see them away so that we can get ready for the spring influx of orphans and injured young birds. There are a few D.I.Y. jobs about the place that need attending to. Jim and Ian are working on these jobs but it is very difficult in the rain to get much done. Lets hope we can have a few dry days together which will help. Dry weather would also help to get our Cygnets on to the river. The Tweed is running so fast and high at the moment it is impossible to release them. Only one of the three Cygnets has encountered flowing water and that was around six months ago. The picture this week shows a crow that has been with us since the end of February. He had lost a lot of feathers and had wounds on his back, we suspect were caused by a cat. He was unable to fly and we were not sure of his future but now he is growing back feathers and gaining strength. He is not good at flying as he still has few good feathers but he is improving. He has been in a small aviary but is now in a larger one so that he can (hopefully) perfect his flying skills as his feathers return. One of our Barn Owls will be away this week which is really good news. The other one is not quite ready yet. I will try to give an update next week. We have been receiving calls about gulls being caught in the netting on Morrisons and Tesco stores as well as others in the town centre. We are unable to do anything about these casualties. We cannot gain access to the nets which by law should be checked daily. The only people who can get the fire brigade out is the R.S.P.C.A. So if you spot a bird trapped in the netting do phone them. The sooner they can get someone out to release the trapped birds the better. It is understandable that stores do not want gulls nesting on the roof, with angry adult birds protecting the young by swooping on shoppers, but the netting must be checked daily and any trapped birds released. It is the responsibility of the people who put up the netting to ensure it is checked either by themselves or a specialist company. Our Calendars for next year and our new leaflet are with the printer so should be ready for our first Open Day of the year on Saturday 15th June. Before then, on Saturday 20th April, we have a table at the Table Top Sale at Spittal Community Hall, Middle Street, Spittal. It Opens at 10 a.m. and goes on till 1 p.m. We have a tombola and small sales table. We are also doing the refreshments, including bacon or sausage rolls, scones and cakes. There will be a lot of other stalls there so do come along and see us. Pat Goff 11th April 2024 Time is going on now and we are still not able to release the two Barn Owls we have been caring for. We are still waiting for a suitable break in this wet, now windy, weather. They have been with us for some time and one is a young bird. We have a place for them to go that will be very suitable but, they do need a settled spell of weather to give them the best chance. We are now looking at next week which at the moment is looking fairly good. The Buzzard that has no tail is slowly growing a new one but we were worried this week as Jackie picked up a broken feather, short and still in the wax sheath, in the aviary. We are worried in case it has been bitten off by the bird. We are checking with experts as to the possible cause. We can’t release the bird until the tail has grown in as it won’t be able to soar. It is flying well but needs to be able to soar high up to find food. Our three Cygnets are also ready to go. We find when the youngsters have been with us during the winter, when spring comes along they get restless and charge up and down the pond almost as if to tell us they are ready to go to the river. The trouble is the river is so high and fast at the moment they too will have to wait another week or two. All our overwintering hedgehogs are awake now. We are pleased we have not lost any during hibernation which can sometimes happen. We are now getting ready to give the heaviest ones some time outside before they can be released. We are also getting in more little hogs that have been found not doing so well after hibernating in the wild. One weighed only 350 grams, so must have only been about 500 grams when it hibernated. She is now up to 500 grams after a week of good food and some warmth. I doubt she would have survived if she had not been brought in. The hogs are keeping us extremely busy now they are all awake. Washing and filling 63 bowls and water pots each day is time consuming. We are using 2 dozen cans of dog food a day so they are also costly. Thank you to everyone that has brought us in cans of food for them it is much appreciated. Cleaning out 63 cages and relining with newspapers (an average of one thick newspaper to each cage) means we are also grateful for the donations of newspapers brought in. While all this work is done daily, we are also trying to clean some areas and prepare for the spring arrivals. Our new store room is looking very good. It means we can all find things in one place. We try to use every bit of space we have on the premises but there is never enough storage room to keep all the equipment that is used for a couple of months once a year. Heat pads used for young hedgehogs and perhaps baby birds are used more often. We have plastic cages for hedgehogs that are used in the autumn mainly and then as the hogs move on they have to be stored until the following year. Bird cages used mainly for fledglings are only in use during the spring and early summer but we need to hang on to them. When we are offered cages we sometimes have to refuse them as we cannot store them. The new room will help to to be a bit more organised. Pat Goff