Latest News We now have a YouTube channel with a number of new videos taken by Elfrieda Waren. Look on our Photos/Video Page. ******************************* "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.. 17th August 2017 This week I am begging again. People have been so kind bringing in lettuce and canned food and I must say we have had a lovely variety of lettuce. We have even had blown spinach which the swans and cygnets thoroughly enjoyed. Please can you keep bringing in lettuce, canned dog food preferably loaf which won’ft have two inches of jelly at the bottom of the can. We would also be very grateful for dried meal-worms and any brown or wholemeal bread. It doesn't matter if its stale, but must not be mouldy as mouldy bread can be fatal to birds. We need so much food for all the wildlife we are caring for. We have two swans, twelve assorted sized cygnets, two eider ducks, fifteen young or sick older hedgehogs, two crows, two tawny owls, one barn owl, a buzzard and a sparrow hawk. Finishing up with a young wood pigeon, and two herring gulls. As it is my day off there may be more when I go in tomorrow! Since I last wrote the Kestrel has been released. A sparrow hawk has come in discovered grounded. It has a fractured wing but the break is being splinted by the other bone. The vet has advised cage rest for five weeks. This is very easy for the vet to say but not so easy for Kay and me to deal with. Now that the bird is feeling better with regular chicks to eat, it gives us a real fight every day when he is cleaned out. Just shows what a bit of food and cage rest can do. We have four more weeks to go. The buzzard was unable to stand when he was brought in. He had a broken leg. David the vet made a fantastic job of pinning the bone and he is now able to stand and tuck into his rabbit or pigeon dinner. He was underweight when he arrived but at this rate will soon be up to his proper weight. He is a young bird and we think he came down to get at a road kill and was struck by a car. The sparrow hawk is also a young bird and the 'Claw and Talon' room has to be hoovered to clear the floor of feathers as fluff. The buzzard too has to have cage rest but is a much easier bird to handle once wrapped in a towel he takes his antibiotics and waits for the cage to be cleaned. Once back in his cage he puts on his 'be scared of me' pose glaring at us with his wings held up. He doesn't kid anyone. We missed Jackie when she was off for a few days with a badly sprained ankle but happily she is back now I think she felt cared for when we told her to stop moaning and get on with it. It’fs little touches like this that make people know they are needed isn't it? We shall have a stall at the BARK dog show at the end of the month, but in the meantime please help if you can with all the things we need to keep the wildlife clean and fed. Pat Goff 10th August 2017 As the current group of nine cygnets and two adults munch and dabble their way through the mealworms, lettuces, grain and bread, I was able to see what will become their natural habitat in a few weeks’ time when I went on Berwick Boat Trips’ early evening ride up and down the Berwick coast. As we sailed out from the Tweed there were dozens – if not hundreds – of swans lining the riverbanks and paddling sedately from shore to shore. It made me think of the trust’fs rescue work carried out by the trust over the last quarter of a century and how that effort must have contributed to the success of today’fs swan population in Berwick. If it hadn’ft been for vet David Rollo and his team of volunteers collecting, cleaning up and caring for swans affected by the chemical spill 25 years ago, the view from the boat that evening might have been so much the poorer without its ‘ewhite flotilla’f of local swans. Further out to sea I saw where this year’fs gull chicks were destined to live; it was great to see gulls cruising over the boat and coming to land on the open water, totally at home in their environment. While there are people around who are prepared to break the law by shooting gulls and wrecking their nests, there are also those who see them as an integral part of the wildlife of a coastal area, to be valued and protected in the same way as the swans. Making our way south towards Cocklawburn, we were also lucky enough to see seals bobbing their heads in and out of the water, and – the high point of the trip for most of us – bottled- nosed dolphins riding the evening waves.  Back at the Rollo Centre, two more majestic birds are making a recovery after being brought into the trust. Only two weeks ago a kestrel was admitted to the new ‘equiet room’f where she kept falling backwards and constantly struggling to regain her balance; it was quite distressing to see her confusion and touch and go whether she would survive the night. A few days later she was much more alert and able to take pieces of meat. She’fs still waiting for the ‘eall clear’f from the vet but as this week’fs picture shows, she could be flying free and hunting for herself very soon. The injured barn owl who had been ‘ein the next bed’f to the kestrel (a cage in the quiet room) has now gone into the large aviary. I was on feeding duty on Friday evening and he swooped the entire length of the aviary above my head as I went in to throw his two dead chicks on the ground. Of course, we don’ft ever see the outcomes of helping these creatures get back into the wild, but like the swans on the Tweed, they may go on to produce many generations years into the future. Elfrieda Waren 3rd August 2017 We had a great day on Saturday for our Open Day and A.G.M. Although we were only open for two hours we made the respectable sum of £403.00. Better still we took in over £100.00 in canned food and mealworms plus dried hedgehog food which was very welcome. Any visitors also brought in newspapers which will help us out too. Thank you to all who came and supported us. Our next fund-raising event is at B.A.R.K show at the end of the month. We are still having an influx of Herring Gull chicks although they are really almost fully grown now. We are also having to pick up shot Gulls several in the last week, Thank you to the people that have brought in these orphan or lost birds we do not have the volunteers available to collect them all. We have dealt with around 60 Herring Gulls over the last few weeks and it takes a lot of time to keep them cleaned and fed. Most of our other orphaned are released now Jackie has the last two House Martin babies and we have one Blackbird in the fledgling aviary that should be ready to go in a week or so. We have a lovely family group of swans and cygnets in the big pond now. We have two adult swans with a total of nine assorted cygnets. These birds act like a proper family now although they have only been together for a few weeks. We also have three other smaller cygnets that are so different in size we can't mix them yet. We sometimes think they are very slow growing but against the others they look very small. The Owls are all doing well but not ready to go yet. The Kestrel has to be checked by the vet to find out if the head injury has permanently damaged it's eyes. One other item this week is regarding a Goose that is around the slipway. We had several phone calls about this lame goose last week. Kay went down to check on the bird and although she found the bird and tried to examine it closely it could run faster than she could so she had to leave it. One of the regular watchers at the slipway told us on Saturday it was much improved and limping much less. Today (Monday) we had a phone call from a lady who assured us the goose was there trailing a leg which was most definitely broken. We sent Dick down to check it out. He found the bird standing resting on one leg with foot showing he got it to move and it walked with a slight limp. We are monitoring this goose but it is perfectly OK. It does not have a broken leg. Thank you to everyone who has helped us with food for hedgehogs and swans. We really do appreciate it. We already have 12 hedgehogs in the centre and Kay has two at home being bottle fed so we certainly need the canned dog food. Please keep up the good work. Pat Goff