Latest News "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... 27th January 2022 The first thing I must mention this week is the dreaded Avian Influenza. Cases of this disease have been found in seabirds on our local  beaches.  In view of the close proximity of the disease we are not taking in any seabirds and we are only taking other birds with physical  injuries.  The Vet is also not taking in any wild birds. They will take birds from us needing euthanasia but they will deal with them outside  the building. We have to do this to protect the birds we have in our care at the moment. We felt so sorry for the people at a Windsor  swan rescue centre that had to have all of their swans put down as they had taken in a sick bird. For this reason we are also not allowing the general public into the Rollo Centre as a precautionary measure. Hopefully later in the year the restrictions can be lifted.  The blown down shed has now been checked over, all the panels and the roof stacked ready to be reused. It is going to be rebuilt much more  strongly and well secured to the ground. We were just so unlucky that  Storm Arwen struck when it did.  The hedgehogs are all doing very well in the big room in their little huts  stacked on tables. About half are asleep the rest are either wide awake  or sleeping for a couple of days then waking up and clearing their bowls.  It is so much easier on the volunteers doing them in the big room than  outside, although we all think its colder in there than it is outside! We  still have fourteen in the recovery room in the warm another few weeks  will see most of them up to hibernation weight but a couple of weeks  ago one came in at just 300 grams. It will take a bit longer. It was very  lucky to survive.   The Tawny Owl that was being treated for an eye injury is doing very  well. We have put him in the under-cover aviary so that we can make  sure he is flying well. He eye is looking much better, the swelling down and pretty well fully open now. He went off his food for a couple  of days when we first moved him to the aviary but he is back to eating his chicks and mice now.  The Buzzard in the big flight aviary is doing really well. I think he tries to scare us when we go in to check his food and water. He swoops  right down and then up again on to his perch using the whole length of the aviary. He is looking very fit and strong now. We are still working on our booklet about the Trust to bring us up to date with our 30 year anniversary. It has been very interesting to  look back over the years and to find photographs to include. I went to the Knit and Natter group in Scremerston today and met the ladies  there who had kindly donated us £600.00. One of the ladies there remembered the horror of watching in 1991 when oiled swans were  shot on the river. This was the incident that so horrified David Rollo that he knew something had to be done locally to help the swans.  The following year the Trust was formed. I took the photo as the ladies were all hard at work, knitting and nattering. We hope it will be  ready for our first Open Day and 30th Anniversary Celebrations in June. We plan to have two Open Days this summer when hopefully  Covid and Avian influenza will not be causing problems.  Pat Goff 20th January 2022 Things are really getting busy at the David Rollo Centre now. The little huts that we planned to put in the new ‘Hogward Shed’ are now  installed on tables in the big room. This now looks cluttered but the huts put on tables are a super height to work at, also the huts are a  very good size both for the sleepy hogs and for ease of cleaning. All this shows that the shed would have been ideal. The worry is  another storm like Arwen. Jim and Ian have looked at the remains of the battered shed and as we had a very kind donation to help  rebuild it, they are agreed it can be repaired and strengthened. We also have to repair our back fence which lies almost flat at the  moment. At a recent committee meeting it was decided to rebuild the shed and see what we thought when it was done. We could use the little huts in the big room on tables and then store them in the new shed when not needed. It depends how strong the rebuilt shed will  be. We don’t want to house hogs in it unless we feel it is safe to do so. Meanwhile many thanks go to Jim and Ian for their perseverance. We are also planning to celebrate passing the Trust’s thirty year milestone. We hope that we can have a couple of Open Days to show  that we may be operating differently to when the Trust was formed but we are still doing our best for wildlife in the area.  Details will be  announced soon. On Sunday we caught the Buzzard that came in with a horrible eye injury, from the Big Flight. Dick caught him at the first swing of the  net impressing Kay and me. We needed to make sure there was no infection in  the eye at all. We are pretty sure he is blind in that eye although Kay found it  reacted a little to light. We have been able to see that he can land on moving  branches and manoeuvrer around the aviary. We decided to give him a little  more time to adjust to the loss of the eye, so he will stay with us for a few  more weeks. The photo shows a close up of his eye, note that Dick had a good  hold of his feet and beak while we took the picture. In the ‘Claw and Talon’ room we have a Tawny Owl, also with a damaged eye.  Last week the eye was completely closed but he has been having daily eye-  drops. This week the eye is half open. The swelling around the eye is reducing  and he is beginning to resent being in a cage. He is eating well although still  underweight. We are going to put him in the under cover aviary to give him  more room but where we should be able to catch him up to check on him fairly  easily. We think he needs time and a bit of space to stretch his wings. We are  still not sure how good the sight is in the damaged eye. All the hedgehogs are doing fine, as are the Cygnets. More of them next week. At our last committee meeting we spoke of the sad death of one of our most loyal committee members, Ron Shaw, a very quiet clever  man who, together with his late wife Shirley,  had been keen supporters of the Trust. Ron never seemed to recover from Shirley’s death,  although he still came to committee meetings when his health permitted. He will be very much missed by all who knew him.  Pat Goff 13th January 2022 This week the photo is of a Tawny Owl that was brought in to us on Friday evening. It was found in the middle of the road in Norham. His  right eye was closed and his beak was very bloody, although his wings and talons worked well. He spent Saturday in the ‘Claw and Talon’ Room at the Rollo Centre. He was given some chicks and a dish of water. On Sunday morning we noticed he had devoured one chick and  he saw us approach so his left eye was working fine. We had to examine him properly so Kay caught him up He was taken to the  examination room where we checked his beak and mouth, although bruised there was no infection showing. His eye was also bloody so  he had some eye drops put in so it did not dry up. He was weighed and at 351 grams was quite underweight for a male, which should be  420-450 grams. He is a red Tawny although at the moment he seems fairly placid,  he does use his talons with intent.  He was put back in the ‘Claw and Talon’ room,  in a clean cage and  more chicks. He needs to eat to build up his weight and a bit of  time to recover from the trauma.  I will let you know how he goes on next time.  On Sunday, I went to check out the Buzzard and see how much of his pigeon dinner  he had eaten. There was nothing left but the wings, spine and ribs. He had eaten  the lot. I cleaned up all the messy leftovers and prepared his next meal which was a quail. We had taken out of the freezer a road kill pheasant but as it was cold in the  big room it was still slightly frozen. The quail are very useful when we can’t find any  roadkill for birds like Buzzards. We do prefer to feed them the sort of food they  would eat in the wild. Most Buzzards eat carrion so any road kill we find is very  useful. This cold spell of weather makes it uncomfortable to work outside at the Trust. It  also sends the hedgehogs into hibernation. The complicated set up of little huts in  the big room are much easier to check on than the huts outside. We have 21 hogs  in the big room and on Sunday only eight were still awake. The trouble with  hedgehogs hibernation is that sometimes they wake up, just for a night or two, and  eat. This means we have to check on them all every day to see if they are eating. We have one particular hog that has been waking  every six days, when he eats and then goes back to sleep. We do get to know most of the hogs as individuals but we do have our special ones. Mary Maggot is sleeping now as is Scabby. We still have 15 in the recovery room well awake. So please keep the newspapers  coming in we find it difficult to get enough of them.  This is supposed to be the quiet time of the year for us, although, it seems to be busier each year. Kay and myself are very busy at the  moment writing a history of the Trust to celebrate our thirtieth year. We are busy looking out old photos and notes to get everything in  the right order. It is surprising how side-tracked you get when looking through copies of committee minutes, but we are getting things  started.  The book will cost quite a bit to get printed so I shall be begging for help in a couple of months.  Pat Goff