Latest News Friends of Wildlife.  Click here to find out more about the Swan Trust Friends of Wildlife scheme.  "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.. 15th August 2019 First of all this week I would like to thank everyone who helped with the Open Day. Also many thanks to the Eyemouth Gardeners for their generous donation, also to a group of people in Hutton that arranged a Barbecue recently and sent us some of the proceeds. A very useful donation was also received from Rievers fish bar in Duns. They gave us the money charged for carrier bags. We rely totally on donations and it never ceases to amaze us what people do to raise money for us. One of the Eyemouth Cygnets is with us as it was unable to use it’s leg properly. We took the bird to the Vet to find out if there was a fracture.  The result came back negative. We are giving painkillers and antibiotic as it has a very swollen joint. What really worries us is that it cannot use the leg at all at the moment. He is eating so we are hoping time will work wonders. This week we had a case of ballooning hedgehog. A little 300 gram hog had been brought in and a few days later began to swell up and look like a 600 gram hog. The swelling is air in the animals body. It is caused by trauma or an infection. He was taken up to the Vets and Emily did a great job of piercing the hog and syringing out the air. He came back a much more acceptable size. He is on antibiotic in case thee is any infection. The air may come back when the syringing will have to be repeated. The leveret I have been bottle feeding is weaning successfully and I hope he can be released later this week. He s a lovely little animal and I shall miss him jumping up my wellies for his bottle when I go in the Lomax Aviary where he is living at the moment. We had a Cygnet in from The Hirsel. It was the last of a brood of Cygnets, the others had all died over the past month. Sadly this one also died before we could get it to the Vet. The Vet did a post mortem and could find nothing physically wrong with the bird. This year the unusually high temperatures seem to be taking a heavy toll on young birds. At our next Open Day on 21st September we shall be starting our hedgehog sponsor scheme. By this time we will know the hogs that will be with us through the winter. We are hoping that a lot of the little ones with us now will be able to go before the end of September. Sponsoring really is a great help to cover the cost of feeding and cleaning the spiky animals so do come along on 21st September, choose and name the hog you would like to sponsor. You will receive a card with pictures and receive an update later in the year. Pat Goff 8th August 2019 What a great day we had at the Trust’s open day and AGM last Saturday, where supporters old and new could see the wildlife at the Rollo Centre and find out how we look after them. Some of the visitors had brought animals in recently and were coming to see how their rescued hog or bird was progressing. Among  them were Poppy and Joseph with their mum and dad, who had brought in four tiny cygnets about three months earlier from their home  in Foulden. They couldn’t believe how big the cygnets had grown when they saw them  swimming about on the pond. They’ve now lost most of their soft down as their first  juvenile feathers have grown in, but their white feathers won’t be fully in until next year.   Keeping the cygnets company on the pond enclosure were four ducklings and two still  downy younger cygnets, which had just been moved from the Lomax aviary to join the  older ones and were thoroughly enjoying a paddle in the water. The four tawny owlets were a popular attraction; they are now almost adult size and  feistily ‘buzzing’ anyone who enters the flight to change the lining paper or refresh their  water bowl. Our three young crows were also on top form, although they’ve recently been heard  coughing a bit from a touch of lungworm. Through the week I’d had to help Jackie catch  them to take them in to Kay for the first of three weekly injections to treat the infection.  Like the tawnies, they have minimal human contact now, so the next two times we have to chase them round to box them up is not going to be fun for them or us.  In complete contrast, there’s the young pigeon that was brought all the way from  Cramlington with a nasty head injury. His wound is completely healed, but he needed so  much care that he’s imprinted to the point where he’ll fly at you excitedly whenever you go  in his aviary to feed him, and it’s just about impossible to fend him off. The feeling is he wouldn’t survive out in the wild, and one of the  volunteers is going to give him his ‘forever home’.  Returning to the open day, the raffle (which was run by new volunteers Alice and Rebecca as a kind of initiation ceremony), tombola, gift  sales, donations and refreshments raised £1007, which is a great boost to a local charity that is totally reliant on supporters’ donations.  And on the subject of all the interest taken in the work the Trust does and the fantastic support given by local people, I mustn’t forget to  thank the organisers and guests of the Hutton charity summer barbecue and the Eyemouth Garden Club for their recent generous  donations. To contact the Trust, phone 01289 302882.  Elfrieda Waren 1st August 2019 We shall be busy this week preparing for our Open Day and A.G.M. which is on Saturday 3rd August. The David Rollo Centre Ramparts Business Park Berwick Upon Tweed TD15 1TU will open to visitors at 10.30am. Have a look around at the wildlife casualties we are caring for. We also have some great stalls where you can spend your money. Some super cakes and biscuits will be available to enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.  The Centre will remain open until 2pm. Then we will set up for our A.G.M. which will start at 2.30pm. Everyone is welcome. I have not been down at the Centre much this week as I have had an allergic reaction to insect bites which has left my face red and swollen. I look a bit like the farmers wife in the ‘Pig’ films. I have been busy at home with four remaining House Martins. They came in as five but one had a badly broken leg and had to be put to sleep. The four left are doing very well and constantly calling for food. They have eaten there way through three boxes of mealworms in a week. Each bird can eat four or five mealworms at a time and they are fed about once an hour from 6 am to 10 pm. So I have still been busy even when I’m home. I also still have the Leveret to look after in one of our home aviaries. He knows me when I go in with his milk but as soon as he is weaned I shall not see him again. He should be able to cope on his own in the wild in September. Kay has all he baby hogs down at the Centre now. We have eighteen tiny hogs inside and four outside waiting to go back to where they were found. We are getting more and more hedgehogs in each year and finding little huts and cages for them at a reasonable price has been a difficult job. Every year we come up against new problems because we never know what will come in to us. This is all part of the work we have to do. Last year we had 50 Herring Gulls in during July this year we have only had round 20. Last year Tawny Owlets numbered 9. This year we just have 4. Do come and visit us on Saturday. I think you will be surprised to see what is going on. Pat Goff