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. For those unable to read these items, and those living outside the Berwick area, here are the last few editions... 17th July 2025 This Thursday, I was able to get “hands on” with the cygnets as it was time for a regular weigh-in.  They don’t really like being handled and you have to watch out for the projected nervous squirt, making sure the back end is pointing away from your trousers!  The young birds are surprisingly strong and wriggly, and cheeped loudly during the trip to the weigh scales.  I didn’t know until I carried them that the cygnets have short scratching nails at the end of the “toes” within their webbed feet.  The bigger two weighed in at 1.6kg and 1.25kg, with the younger one at 0.65kg.  The smaller one is still being kept in a separate pen as the bigger ones picked on it when we tried putting them together, it would be nice if they could socialise but they aren’t far away from each other.  The cygnets are still all fluff with no adult feathers yet.  Their favourite treat in the morning is the lettuce which goes down really well, it helps to remember to give it to them first so that they don’t follow you around and get under your feet during the clean up. There are 29 herring gulls with us now and we are trying a new type of pen for the young ones and the new arrivals.  We have four of them, they are a cross between a tent and a paddling pool, much easier to clean than the plastic tanks.  The gulls seem to like them, the tops can be left open with the younger ones so they are less enclosed in this hot weather.  There are two or three in each pen giving them plenty of room to move around.  The young birds are also taking it in turns to have some time in a shallow bath to cool off in the afternoons until they are big enough to go outside where they can access the pond.  None of the juveniles have been released yet but a group of the older ones are now ready to go.  They are quite comical as they are very curious and try to take part in the pond cleaning process, Barbara was nipped several times this morning. If you take the time to read the jottings from the Rollo Centre every week and feel like you would like to get involved in helping with the local wildlife, then please do get in touch.  We are short of volunteers at the moment and would welcome people to join the team who could spare half a day or more each week.  If you get in touch, you will be invited to have a look around and have a try-out so there is no pressure to commit until you have experienced it.   The work differs according to the seasons with more variety in the summer but always involves a lot of cleaning and feeding!  It isn’t generally “hands on” with the wildlife as our role is to rehabilitate and release, but there is lots of opportunity to get close and observe the behaviours.  It is very satisfying work, particularly when you see the journey from animals coming in abandoned or injured through to their release, lovely to have played a part in saving them. We have a table at the Marie Curie Summer Fete that is being held in Berwick Town Hall on Saturday 19th July.  There will be stalls, tombola, a raffle and face painting among other things, so please come along and support us if you have some free time.  A perfect opportunity to ask more about volunteering! Gill Powell 10th July 2025 Firstly this week, I must thank everyone that has kindly donated dog food to our collecting bin at Tesco. This is a huge help to us as every can donated, is one can we don’t have to buy later on. Last year with over 50 hedgehogs with us throughout the winter and we got through a mountain of food. We were receiving donations but we still spent hundreds of pounds on food. This year we are hoping to build up our supplies a bit more so we are ready for the winter, so, if when you are shopping, you can add an extra can of dog food to our bin, we will be very grateful. Kay has been busy caring for several tiny hedgehogs needing milk feeds at two or three hourly intervals. As soon as they are eating for themselves they will come down to the Centre. We are very pleased that one of the older hogs that has been with us some time is finally improving. She came in with a strimmer wound to her head which took many weeks of daily cleaning and medicating to heal. Then she would not eat. We tried painkiller again, which we had stopped once the wound had healed, and she started eating. We kept her on a low dose of painkiller as we were worried it may have been a nerve pain. She began to pick up and now she is off the painkiller and in the mid 500 grams in weight. She was only 300 when she came in so she is at last going in the right direction. We never give up on an animal unless we have to. On the 19th July we are having a table at the Big Beastie Hunt in Castle Vale Park 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Do come along and enjoy that afternoon. There is always plenty to see and do and we shall be there with a quiz for children and maybe something interesting from the Rollo Centre. On the same day we have a table at the Town Hall where we shall be offering 2026 calendars, cards, and crafts, more details next week. We have had some releases this week. A Wood Pigeon and a Herring Gull were sent off on Saturday and last week, a young Blackbird and a Starling that had both been raised at the Centre were released into the garden. The next few days will see Owls moving from one aviary to another as they progress towards release. The smallest Tawny Owl is at present in the Longridge Aviary in the Big Room and is far too people orientated. When we were cleaning out the baby gull pens in there on Sunday he was flying up to the best perch so that he could watch what we were doing. When his aviary is cleaned he is quite likely to come close by and watch what is happening. He needs to be away from people as soon as possible. It is always difficult to keep away from hand reared birds as they are friendly, but it has to be done if they are to be released into the wild. The largest of the Herring Gull chicks will probably be ready for release next week. When they get almost ready to go they bully the younger ones, so as soon as they are ready small groups are released together well away from the town, but where there is food for them to find easily. The six ducklings are growing now and just starting to show their wing flashes. As soon as they are released the Cygnets will take over the Big Pond. Pat Goff 3rd July 2025 This week I am starting with a nice little success story. A couple of weeks ago, a gentleman brought in four baby sparrows that had been abandoned in the nest. They looked like they were not long hatched: they had no feathers, their eyes were closed, and they were mostly mouth! I was doubtful of their chances of survival, but the four chicks were put in the safe hands of Barbara who fed them some mealworms before putting them into one of our new incubators to keep them warm. Bringing hatchlings like this up is very labour intensive, for the first two days they needed to be fed every half an hour from early morning to the end of the day. With four young chirping birds all vying for the food, it was important to make sure each one got their fair share. As they grew, they took less food indicating that feeding could move to once an hour. After only a few days they began to grow some feathers and at this stage they were able to be moved out of the incubator and their little nest was put into a cage. By the end of the first week they were fully feathered although their wings still had to develop. They left the nest on day 8 and wouldn’t go back into it, instead they hid under a little shelter inside the cage. They made incredible progress in the next few days, beginning to flutter and then fly, and they also started feeding for themselves. Barbara started to put the cage outside around about day 12 to get them used to the outdoors and by day 15 they were ready to go and flew out into the garden where they are still hanging out! Hopefully they will stay together and join the local sparrows who can show them the ropes of being a wild bird. We always strongly advise leaving fledglings where they are rather than bringing them into the Rollo Centre as their parents will have gone in search of food and will be back. These sparrows left the nest several days before they could fly and this would have been the case in the wild so although fledglings appear vulnerable, they are most likely still being cared for. The parents are by far the best placed to bring up their youngsters. This week was another busy week at the Rollo Centre. We had a very young cygnet brought in via the vets that we hoped would be able to share the same pen as the two larger ones that came in two weeks ago, but unfortunately they picked on it, so it will have to remain separate until it gets a bit bigger and able to stand up for itself. The 6 mallard ducklings have moved to the big pond and are enjoying being able to have a longer swim. We have reached 20 young herring gulls which are spread throughout the centre according to size. Some are thankfully now outside where they are easier to clean with the rest in various boxes by size. The crow that was being hand fed is now outside although not yet able to fly. It is in an aviary divided in half and shared with the bald jackdaw. They spend quite a bit of time on either side of the divide sizing each other up. Hopefully they can soon share the same space. The other two fledglings, the starling and blackbird are growing well and will soon be ready for release. Gill Powell