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... 24th October 2024 This week the last of our in care adult hedgehogs was released. It is getting too late now to release any babies that came in as tiny orphans and have not lived out in the wild. They will stay with us and have a period of hibernation during the winter with us. Please if you are able sponsor one of our young hedgehogs it helps a lot with the costs of feeding and heating as well as laundering their towels. Sponsorship also makes a lovely Christmas present. Chose a name for the hog sponsored receive a card with picture and details of the chosen hog. There is a hedgehog calendar showing some of the hogs from last year. In the spring we will give an update on when the hog was released. We still have over thirty hogs in our care so there is plenty of choice. I must make an apology here to anyone at the Ford and Etal event last weekend. The organiser kindly offered to promote our Hedgehog Sponsoring, so we quickly got extra leaflets copied out ready to give them. Unfortunately, we used a leaflet saying our hedgehogs had a sprinkling of mealworms on the bowls, which had made one of the visitors very angry, saying we should not be feeding mealworms. This leaflet was superseded by another when we changed to feeding just a sprinkling of dried calciworms to the hedgehog bowls, a few years ago, but the old leaflet was still on file in the computer. Just to set the record straight we do NOT feed hedgehogs mealworms, and I have deleted the old leaflet from the files. I was doing my share of cage cleaning on Sunday and I noticed that the young hedgehogs, as soon as the cage was clean and fresh food put in, rushed to the bowl and gobbled up the six or seven calciworms sprinkled on the top. Having polished them off they snuggled up back into fleeces and towels and went back to sleep. The picture this week shows a Buzzard in our under cover pen. The bird was brought in on Saturday after being seen by a Vet. The Buzzard seemed unable to fly after being found at the side of a road. We decided to give him a bit of peace and quiet to allow him time to get himself together. At least he had shelter from the rain and stormy winds. On Sunday morning he had not touched his food but was flying very well and was not happy with anyone getting too near. I think after a couple of days rest he can go back into the wild. Sometimes it is all we need to do to help. Give a safe place and time to recover, some food and water and they can go on their way. Our Barn Owl was released last week. It has gone back with the man who brought it in and he has a barn for it to soft release it so all should go well. We are waiting for a window in the weather to release the Kestrel. Just a few days of lighter winds and dry weather will give it a better start back out in the wild. On Saturday 26th October we have a table at Galedin Veterinary Practice Open Day, Ramparts, Berwick Upon Tweed from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. We have calendars and cards as well as craft and gift items. Do come along and see how the Veterinary practice looks after pets and wildlife. We also have a table at the Guildhall on 30th November when Berwick Riders have their Christmas Fair. Do come along and visit us there. More details later. Pat Goff 17th October 2024 For a while now at the Rollo Centre there have been no swans or cygnets in our care. Last week however, a cygnet was brought in when it was found at a pond on Holy Island with a damaged wing. Alison thought it could have happened when the family of swans on a pond owned by Natural England, took a first flight together. This youngster may have had a bad landing. We checked out the cygnet and took it up to the Vet. An x-ray showed no fracture but we have noticed that one of the cygnet’s wings has feathers not growing quite in the right direction. It is not a full on Angel Wing but will cause the bird problems later on. It has enjoyed a little rest in the little pond pen, has had painkiller medication, and this week will be going back to be with his family. Alison is able to monitor the birds and may have to bring him back when the adults start to chase of their grown up youngsters off the pond if he is unable to fly. The area has a spreading patch of rushes, which is reducing the length of the pond that the swans use as a take off runway which may need clearing a little to help the youngsters fly off in early spring. If we have to re- locate him he will be fine on the River Tweed where a lot of young swans spend a couple of years before finding a partner. Swans unable to fly are able to manage well on the river. It is a full time job for volunteers and staff trying to deal with the hedgehogs that are constantly arriving. One hoglet that came in last week just over 100 grams, is causing us concern as it refuses to eat solid food and will not take any puppy milk. Barbara has taken it to try to hand feed it when she does the other three babies she is rearing. They are doing very well so far. Most of the other hogs are gradually putting on weight, although we seem to be putting at least one on to ‘First Aid’ remedy every day to get them going. I think there are probably three adult hogs that may go back to their own territory before winter, but it will depend on the weather. The rest will be here through the winter. We have eight hogs in the big room the rest are in recovery with an overspill of five or six in the surgery. The Tawny Owl was successfully released this week, but Kestrel needs a bit more flying time. Barn Owl, hopefully, will go today or tomorrow. Jackie, meanwhile, as well as managing the Rollo Centre, is studying for a qualification in Wildlife Rehabilitation. This is mostly in her ‘spare’ time. It is a very involved course and she will get a good qualification at the end which I think is in April after hands on in a very large centre in Somerset. She will have a busy winter. B.A.R.K. have an Open Day on 26th October and we are having a table there. 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., so do come along and see us there. 30th November sees Berwick Riders have their Christmas Fair at the Guildhall. I think the times are 10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. but will check this out before then. We shall be selling Christmas cards, calendars, crafts, and maybe a tombola. I have to say a very quick thank you to the secret person that brings us a box of canned dog food every Sunday morning. We never see who brings it but we do appreciate it. Thank You. Pat Goff 10th October 2024 I have not been able to get a picture of the three tiny hoglets that are being hand fed. When Barbara brought them in on Sunday it was impossible to get them all in shot together not looking like little blobs. This weeks picture is one taken a week or so ago of a slightly bigger one than the three, this one weighs about 110 grams but the three tiny ones have not yet reached 100 grams each. They seem to be doing well at the moment. We have another hog that came in as an adult some time ago and hopefully that one will be away this week. We have not got any others that are the right weight to be released. We have eight in the surgery, which is used as an overspill room to the recovery room. All of the hogs in this room are under 400 grams. The ones in the recovery room are all under 600 grams. We are going to have a busy winter. We are currently spending nearly £80 each week on food, just for the hedgehogs, even with the kind donations of loaf dog food that are left for us. Thank you to everyone who has donated in this way. At this time of the year hedgehogs are eating as much as they can to build themselves up so they can withstand their hibernation. They lose 100 to 200 grams in weight during hibernation so need to have enough fat stored to be able to cope. If you have a hedgehog in your garden do try to give it some help by leaving a little bowl of dog food and some water. If you see a small hedgehog about do get it checked out to make sure it is big enough to cope. Any hog under 600 grams probably won’t survive hibernation. We are happy to check them out. I took home three Collared Doves and a feral pigeon to soft release from one of our aviaries. If they come back at night I shut them in and open them up in the morning. The feral pigeon always comes back at night the Collared Doves sometimes do. When Dick came to pick me up from the Rollo Centre this morning he told me that our three Collared Doves were now five.  They must have stayed out with friends last night and brought them back for breakfast. At least they are meeting up with other birds and learning about life in the wild. We have at the Centre a Kestrel, a Barn Owl, and a Tawny Owl all ready for release. The Kestrel seems to have finished his moult now. They should be released later this week if the weather is good. The Barn Owl has a place to go where he has shelter so that is ideal. We don’t want to release them just as it is due to rain all day and night. The Feral Pigeon that was dragged through a cat-flap is now flying well so he will be able to go shortly. His only injury was caused by the cat-flap not the cat. We are having a table at the B.A.R.K. Open Day on 26th October 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. so do come along. We shall be selling our Christmas Raffle tickets as well as calendars, cards, and craft items. These can all be bought from the Rollo Centre. We were looking through our stocks of Christmas cards and we realised that Errol our Tawny Owl mascot has been with us for over ten years. He always features on our cards so I think its time we had some new pictures of him. Pat Goff