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... 29th May 2025 This week the picture shows six little Mallard ducklings that have lost their mum. These little ducklings soon get picked off by crows and seagulls if they lose contact with mum. They were only about twenty four hours old when they arrived on Tuesday last week. They needed to be put under the brooder to keep them warm. It is now six days later and they run around their cage, gobble up their food, have a drink and go back to sleep under their artificial mum. Every day they seem to grow. The legs on the brooder have to be raised to keep the heat just right. These are relatively easy birds to rear as they are not fed by their parents but can peck up by themselves. This is not the case with other fledglings. Please, try to leave any baby bird that is sitting looking lost. Nine times out of ten the adults will not be far away, trying to keep their eyes on several young birds, only having recently left their nest. The babies will call and the parents can find them, even if they have taken their eyes off them for a few minutes. When they are brought in to us it is very difficult for us, as these youngsters will refuse to take food from us, become traumatised when kept in a cage, and often die of the stress. Very young babies will take food from anyone, but these older babies just won’t do so. If at all possible please leave fledglings where they are. Their parents will find them. Recently we took in two pigeon squabs that I brought home to feed. They did very well and I took them back to the Rollo Centre to go in an aviary as soon as they were pecking up for themselves. They were still very ‘downy’ so they lived in the aviary for a few week, building up their muscles, and having plenty of safe flying space. The Lomax Aviary has a new roof, thanks to Ian who has done so much repair work for us. When the pigeons were ready to go, we opened the aviary door, leaving food inside so the youngsters could return if they were hungry. We have plenty of small trees and shrubs in the garden at the Centre for birds. We are pretty sure they have left completely now so it was a very successful release. We had a lovely surprise on Wednesday when a very nice lady called at the Centre with gift bag full of goodies for us. I had spoken to her on the phone and told her of the progress of the two little pigeons she had brought in, and she had called with gifts for us. It is so nice when people thank us. It makes it all worthwhile. We would do it anyway but just a simple thank you helps us enormously. I must admit, the chocolate goodies, donation of £20, and wine in the gift bag helped raise our spirits too. On Saturday 31st May 10.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. we are holding our Open Day. Come along to David Rollo Centre, Ramparts Berwick Upon Tweed. TD15 1TU.  See the baby Tawny Owls, and check out improvements we are making, and try your luck on our Tombola, or buy a raffle ticket. There are crafts and other sales items. Lovely rolls and cakes to have with a cup of tea or coffee.  Do come along, meet us and Errol Tawny Owl, who loves an Open Day. He loves seeing visitors, he is very nosy and likes to know what is going on at the Centre. Do come and visit. Pat Goff 22nd May 2025 Thank you so much Gill for writing the last few weeks jottings for me. I hope readers have enjoyed having a different perspective on the goings on at the David Rollo Centre. As I have not written for a few weeks I will do a quick catch-up on what is happening. Every year we seem to get a particular species of wildlife needing care. This year (apart from hedgehogs) it has been owls. We have one Tawny Owl in the big flight. He came in with a gash under one wing. He has been treated with antibiotics and the wing is healing nicely. He is building up strength again before release. This will probably be another week. It takes a long time to build up strength after a week or so cage rest to make sure wounds heal properly. A Barn Owl is occupying the undercover aviary. He got caught up and broke and bent some of his wing feathers. He was very underweight when admitted. He must have been hampered by his damaged wing for several days and not been able to find food. He had to be fed a little at a time to begin with but now he is eating normal amounts and gaining weight. The Vet trimmed the damaged ones so they were not hampering the bird when perching. He won’t be able to be released until new feathers grow in. He is able to fly a little which will keep his strength up using his wing muscles.   He can certainly fly enough to get to his box where he stays hidden all day. The Longridge indoor aviary is currently home to a young Tawny Owl. He came in a couple of weeks ago after he was found grounded on a very busy dog walking path. Needing hand feeding at first, he soon started eating for himself. He is now flying but his landings are not very stylish. After he has straightened himself on a perch he looks quite proud of himself. The picture this week shows Jackie moving him from his ‘Claw and Talon’ cage to the aviary. He is still very fluffy. We had one other very tiny Owlet in a few days ago. He also needs hand feeding. We are getting him Vet checked this week as he is not too steady on his feet. I will catch up on details next week. Hedgehogs are nearly all away, but they are also still coming in. The poor little one that had strimmer wounds to his head is now healed up after several weeks of daily cleaning and treating her wound. I am pleased that we are not treating it any more as the last few times she was getting very cross with us and lunged at me and bit my finger whilst I was cleaning her wound. We did feel guilty as she knew when we took her out of her cage what was going to happen. Even though she was given pain killers it must have been sore. Thankfully the tight Avian Influenza restrictions have lifted slightly in Northumberland. We still have to be very careful not to bring the disease onto our premises. We are trying to obtain test kits so that we can check any new arrivals for the disease but they are very expensive and will have to be used wisely. We are busy now preparing for Open Day which is on Saturday 31st May, 10.30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Do come and have a look round at the work Ian has been busy with, renovating pens and aviaries. All the usual stalls and refreshments I will tell you about next time. Pat Goff 15th May 2025 This week we had another successful rescue of a mallard duck and her family.  We assume the duck was leading her substantial brood of 14 ducklings down to the water but took a wrong turn and ended up in the top car park of The Chandlery in Berwick.  A team from the Trust, led by Jackie, slowly herded the little flock into a box and they were taken to the river to swim away.  So nice to be able to keep the family together and not have to bring any ducklings into the Rollo Centre.  If you are interested, there is a lovely little video of the release on Facebook. Last week was The British Hedgehog Preservation Society “Hedgehog Awareness Week” aiming to highlight the problems that hedgehogs face and how to help them.  This year the slogan was to “Give hedgehogs the edge”, asking for people to leave the edges of their gardens as havens for wildlife.  You can do this by leaving piles of logs or leaves in the borders and wild edges that will attract insects as food for the hedgehogs and provide some shelter.  With this in mind, it feels like a good time to update on the hedgehogs that were under our care over the winter.  So far, as of my shift on Thursday, twenty-seven have been released with a further thirteen ready to go in the coming week.  There are only five remaining in the big room, five in the shed and twelve in the hutches outside.  So, by the end of May all those that are at weight and fit to go will be away to enjoy the summer and find a mate!  There are just two under more intensive care in the back room.  This is all good news but does mean there is the job of deep cleaning the hutches hanging over the staff and volunteers!  Thank you to everyone who spotted the hedgehogs that needed help and that has recently collected them to return them back to the outdoors. The two tawny owls that I wrote about last week are continuing to do well.  The adult one is now in the Undercover Aviary, and I’m happy to say, is able to fly a short distance now that it’s wing injury is healing.  It sits high up in the corner making itself as thin as possible and closing its eyes so we might not notice it there.  The youngster is eating well and clacks crossly at us when we pick it up for feeding.  We also now have a barn owl that was admitted on Wednesday. It was found in the road and has badly damaged wing tips.  It is very underweight at just 188 grams but had eaten its first meal during the night on Wednesday which was a good sign.  It has to be fed back up to weight slowly at first so that it can properly digest the food. There are two pigeons in the JD Aviary that are growing up nicely.  They were reared from squabs by Pat at her home before being brought up to the Centre.  It’s good that they are a pair and can look out for each other.  They are quite independent and always fly down the end away from the door when we go in and sit on the swing together waiting for us to finish.  I expect they will soon be ready for release. Thank you to everyone that came to spend some money at our table at the charity sale in Wooler last Saturday. A total of £181.00 was raised. We hope to use this money to buy Avian Influenza test kits. Gill Powell