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... 19th June 2025 Quite a busy week and lots to report this time. The crow in the picture was in his carry box ready to start his trip to Stirling University, when Jackie snapped a last picture of him. He is being used in a study of carrion crows in conjunction with the British Trust for Ornithology and Stirling University. He has lots of damaged feathers and there will be no chance of him flying until he grows new ones, perhaps later this year. He will be kept in an aviary at the university to call other crows down so that they can be fitted with coloured rings and a few of them with little transmitters. This will enable those studying the birds in the wild to identify each bird and to check on their travels. At the end of the study our bird, if he still cannot fly, will continue to be housed in his aviary at Stirling for the rest of his life. It was a perfect opportunity to help in a study of crows and give a home to the bird if he is not fit for release. A happy ending. We still have one other baby crow who still needs hand feeding. One thing we usually have at any time of year is a crow. Now is the time for Herring Gull chicks to fall from their nests and we have about a dozen in at the moment. The older ones have been moved outside to the Little Pond but undercover. I think they will be able to take over the whole area in the next day or two. The tiny ones are still indoors, although they are all feeding themselves. We are able to take in any gull chick but we are not able to come out and pick them up. We just don’t have enough volunteers available. Please phone before you come so that we can meet you outside the premises as we have Avian Influenza precautions in place. A tiny Robin that was reared by Victoria has been released. He was a lovely little bird. We also have a Starling and a Blackbird at the Centre being hand fed. These two are just about pecking up for themselves and are desperate to get some space. Barbara is also hand rearing three babies from a nest but I am not sure what they are. The six Mallard Ducklings are now getting feathers and they managed, after the rain on Saturday, to make Aviary One, where they were living, into a mud bath. They are moving to the bottom half of the Lomax Aviary, where there is a shallow trough for water with slabs around and plenty of grass, which will give them a lot more room. Last Sunday, we were surprised when we were asked if we would take two little orphan Cygnets. They were found walking along a private road on Saturday evening with no parents anywhere around.  They were only a few days old and I must admit it was lovely to hear their little piping calls at the Centre again. Over a week later they are nearly twice the weight they were when they arrived and are munching through at least three lettuces a day. If anyone has any spare or bolted lettuce (not iceberg) we would love to have them.  The Cygnets will go out into the Lomax Aviary at the top end, as they are too young to get very wet yet. They will be able to see the ducklings through the fence separating the two ends, so, when they are ready we can let them all share the Big Pond. Which is another story for another week. Pat Goff 12th June 2025 I always look forward to going into the Rollo Centre after a few weeks away to see how the sick residents are improving and what new mammals and birds have been admitted whilst I’ve been away.  At this time of year things change quite significantly as the last of the hedgehogs are released and we move into the summer bird season.  I returned from holiday for my Thursday shift having missed three weeks and the first thing I saw was a tawny owl in the Longridge aviary.  I assumed it was the adult tawny we had in, or a new admission, but was stunned to hear it was the tawny owlet that I had been holding and hand feeding on my last visit - it is now a fully feathered juvenile and able to fly very competently up and down.  Amazing how quickly they develop.  It likes to sit out in the aviary watching what is going on. The second tawny owlet that came in during my absence was very lively this morning, hopping about, it can feed itself and is able to jump up on to the perch that is in its box in the Claw and Talon room.  It’s quite a character and tries to interact with us and was very engaging on the Open Day, peeping through the bars and bobbing its head around. There is also a group of six mallard ducklings that came in two weeks ago as tiny balls and are now quite big and looking much more like ducks.  They had some tough love from Pat yesterday and had to spend their first night outside last night.  They did fine, sleeping in a little hut with a fleece and each other to keep them warm.  They were given a shallow dish of water this morning to splash about in which proved very popular, it will be taken away later in the afternoon so that they are dry for overnight and don’t catch a chill.  The ducklings are quite wary of humans and run inside their house when we approach which is a good thing as they are bonded to each other and not to us, they move around as a tightly knit group. There are now eight herring gull chicks staying with us housed in three groups of two, two and four as they came in at different times and are different sizes.  Gull chicks are quite unusual looking and not easily recognisable unless you have seen them before.  They were very vocal this morning and their call probably gives them away as gulls rather than their appearance.  At the Open Day last week, the younger children were fascinated by them.  These young bird admissions mean that the two new Brinsea incubators are being well used and we are really pleased with them. There is one wood pigeon which, before my holiday, was in a small box inside, and it is now outside in the Lomax Aviary.  It cannot get about very well and was sitting on a plant pot down the far end but it looked like it had spent the night on top of the hutch that is in the aviary, which is a good sign that it is starting to regain strength and be able to get up a bit higher. Finally, a call for donations.  If anybody has any cat food going spare, perhaps that your cat has decided isn’t its preferred brand, we would welcome it for all of these young birds.  I expect many more will be coming through the door in the next few weeks. Gill Powell 5th June 2025 Thank you to everyone who came along to our Open Day on Saturday. We raised just over £800.00. Jackie will be phoning raffle winners so they can collect their prizes. The day was a great success and we were lucky that the rain held off. I must thank Jackie and her crew of volunteers, who got everything ready for the day. Brian who keeps our grass cut and garden looking tidy and Ian who tries to keep up with all the repairs. The ‘Gull chicks falling off roof’ season has begun. We always seem to have a windy couple of days just as Berwick’s gulls eggs hatch. We have six in as I write on Monday so by the time this is being read probably a lot more. A couple were very tiny not long hatched so we were able to try our new incubator/critical care cubes. These units warm up and keep tiny chicks warm while they can be hand fed. The picture shows two little gull chicks warming up. Gulls soon learn to peck up themselves, we can then transfer them to a cage with others about the same size, using a heat pad where they will cuddle up together. We have to keep little ones away from the slightly larger ones or they will be bullied. Once they are big enough to go outside and more equal in size, they all go in the small pond pen together. It was nice to have something in our new Brinsea units so that we can show the equipment we are using to help care for young wildlife. The Mallard Ducklings are ready to move outside. They are not little round balls of down now but proper duck shaped. When ducklings are not reared by their mother they cannot be allowed to get too wet as their feathers are not waterproofed. When the mother duck covers them, she proofs the babies. This is why our ducklings only get a small dish of water, and even this they will try to climb in. They just naturally want to get in the water. As they are well over two weeks old now they will be proofing themselves as they preen, so can have a little more water. I think everyone enjoyed seeing our smallest baby Tawny Owl. He is very pale grey and extremely fluffy. When we arrive in the morning he moves to the corner of the cage to watch what we are doing. His head moves from side to side and he blinks very slowly as he keeps a check on what we are doing. When his cage is cleaned and he has to be picked up and moved he angrily clicks at us to let us know he doesn’t like it. When he is replaced in his clean cage he lowers his head and moves it from side to side keeping us in his sights all the time, just like the adults do. He is growing as he should be and eating all his food. Our older, young Tawny Owl still has fluff but is flying well and using all the room he has in the Longridge Aviary. We know that as we have to clean up his mess from every corner, every morning. He now has a bath which he uses almost daily too. He looks so skinny when he is wet, all his fluff plastered to his body. Tawny Owls all like to have a good bath. We rarely have a time when we have no hedgehogs. We still have six that are in need of a bit of extra care, so thank you to everyone continuing to bring us dog food, towels etc. Pat Goff