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 January 2026 This is the final look back at 2025 taking us through from the busy month of July to the quiet of December.  The summer months of July and August were dominated by the young gulls with 77 admitted.  With one exception these were herring gulls, with one lesser black backed gull which was an unusual guest for us.  The difference in the youngsters was quite subtle, slightly different beaks and the lesser black backed had slightly darker plumage.  The last of the gulls was not released until early September. The six mallard ducks that came in as small ducklings in mid-May were released in July to a safe place near Ford & Etal, they were with us for about nine weeks.  From this point onwards, the cygnets took over the large pond area, gradually maturing to the stage they are at now, which is very large and turning to white, much more steady on their feet than they were over the summer.  They are now quite possessive of their area, posturing with their wings when we enter to feed them. In August, lots of very young birds were brought in following damage to their nests during storm Floris.  The totals for the month were twenty pigeons and fourteen songbirds.  New arrivals included: two baby goldfinch, two young doves, a baby sparrow, and four pigeon squabs.  Most of them needed hand feeding regularly from dawn to dusk which required a lot of dedication from the team.  Six baby rabbits were brought in during August, though sadly only four survived.  They grew up quickly and were quite a handful, starting out being hand reared at home by Pat before coming to the Rollo Centre.  They moved around their cage incredibly fast, in fact they were so lively that after several unsuccessful attempts at capture we often just cleaned up around them.  They had strong burrowing instincts and hid together in the back of their little house. Nine more owls were admitted in the second half of the year, eight barn and one tawny, taking it to twenty for the year.  The tawny owl that was with us from a very young owlet, was released in August.  This was a nice success story as it had been rescued from the nest where both its sibling and a parent had died.  Despite being very inquisitive and fairly tame as a young owlet, by the time it left us it was behaving like a wild bird.  It was released by a friend of the Trust who left food out for it at first and has seen it a number of times since. In the final three months of the year, the admissions dropped away for most species but there were still a number of pigeons and hedgehogs.  At the end of the year, we were housing two barn owls, the three cygnets, around thirty hedgehogs and a few pigeons including the two wood pigeons that came in as youngsters and are now about ready to go.  It is nice to look back at the variety of different species we have helped across twelve months.  The Swan Trust relies heavily on volunteers and we are looking for more people to help.  If you would like to get involved and can spare a few hours a week, please get in contact with us and arrange a visit.  The work is generally messy but there are opportunities to help in handling the animals and birds if their care requires it.  The hours can be flexible if you need them to be. Gill Powell 22nd January 2026 At this time of year most of our work centres on Hedgehogs. We have 34 in at the moment. Only nine are in the warm room. These hogs have to be kept relatively warm so that they stay awake and eat well. We only have one hog under 600 grams. The others are all just around or coming up to 700 grams. Hopefully all of them will be able to have a short hibernation time before they are released later in the spring. The remaining hogs are either in the big room, where I feel it is colder sometimes than outside, or in the Hibernation shed. All these hogs are over 700 grams. Some sleep for several days then, when we get a warm spell, they wake up and eat for a couple of days. Most of the ones in the shed are asleep. We do have one persistent one who has stayed awake the whole time.  All the hogs are doing well, and we luckily don’t have any that are causing us any worries. We have been spending this quieter time to prepare for the coming of spring and the influx of injured and lost baby birds and animals. Orphans take a lot of care and attention and we want to make sure that we have all the equipment and food supplies to hand when they are needed. Without doubt the hardest work of all is the influx of orphan gull chicks. The problem with Avian Influenza means that we have to keep these youngsters separated from others to stop any infection spreading. Last year we used some plastic play pen type of container for them. These worked very well and kept any infection rate down. We are checking the condition of these pens and may have to buy another one or two, for this spring. This brings me on to an article in the Northumberland Gazette about making it illegal to feed seagulls in Eyemouth. This is being proposed by a Berwickshire Councillor. The photograph that accompanied the report showed the councillor standing in front of our premises with our sign prominently displayed. We know nothing about this councillor or the proposed legislation. No one has contacted us about this article, or the fact that our premises are being displayed. Why was the article even in the Northumbrian, it is about Berwickshire. No-one from our organisation has made any comment to the councillor or the newspaper. Our three cygnets have been thoroughly enjoying being back on the Big Pond. They have hardly left the water in the last few days. During the cold weather a couple of weeks ago the pond froze over and could not be kept clear of ice. We moved the birds to the Small Pond pen, this pond was frozen solid, so it was fenced off and the birds just had buckets of food and water which could be changed frequently. Once the weather turned mild again it took several days to thaw out the Big Pond so that it could be emptied cleaned and refilled. It takes a whole day to fill the pond so the birds had to wait very impatiently. They stood at the fence between the two pond pens looking longingly as the water flowed into the pond. As soon as it was filled they were moved back. They all had a splashing about bath and spruce up. I hope we don’t get too much cold weather this winter or they will back to buckets again for a while. Pat Goff 15th January 2026 The photo of Errol was taken last Thursday morning, it was bitterly cold and he didn’t even want to open his eyes to say hello.  We were joking that they were perhaps frozen shut.  The big pond froze over, and the swans had to be moved out for a couple of days.  Thank goodness it is now a bit milder.     Continuing the New Year look back, as reported last week the trust helped a total of 114 mammals and 364 birds, an increase on 2024 when we admitted 166 mammals and 276 birds.  This number is not spread evenly across the year, with most of the admissions from April through September.  As you would expect, this ties in with the breeding season for young birds and mammals and at the peak, something new was coming in on most days taking our aviaries close to capacity.  At the start of the year, there was a kestrel on site which had been with us since the summer and, of course, the hedgehogs.  The shed was full and there were a large number inside amounting to around 60, many more than the 37 that we have this winter.  January was a very cold month and the wildlife had to cope with storm Eoiwin; quite a few birds were admitted in its wake: three pigeons, two buzzards and a tawny owl became residents.   February and March, on the other hand, were fairly mild and we were able to release the kestrel in March, it had taken many months for its feathers to fully fill out and it was great to see it go on its way.  The quarter also saw a further four barn owls come through the doors. In April, we began to release the hedgehogs continuing through into May.  One of these was the albino that we had from a baby.  It had grown into a lovely big hog despite causing some concerns early on whilst we better understood its special needs, particularly being kept in a darker environment.  We also had the Houdini hedgehog that somehow managed to escape from its hutch in the big room during the night and took the Thursday team quite a long time to find before it was assigned to an outside hutch ready to go on its way.  This month also featured tawny owls with three coming in.  Firstly, there was one that arrived all wet having fallen into dirty water that refused to have a bath to clean its feathers and get rid of the smell.  It was quite angry after its ordeal but flying well so quickly released.  Secondly, an adult tawny came in that had been caught on barbed wire.  It recovered and was later released.  And thirdly, a young tawny came in whose mother and younger sibling had died and we were able to release it fully grown in the autumn. In May we had a lot of ducklings to cope with, two groups of ten with their mothers that we luckily managed to guide safely from their nesting area down to water, and a group of six mallard ducklings that came in as tiny balls and rapidly grew to a healthy set of ducks which were released in early July.  June marked the start of herring gull season with 32 in this month alone.  This year we invested in some big pens to help us separate the gulls into manageable groups.  We were also able to buy some new incubators for the youngest chicks which proved invaluable thanks to donations from our kind supporters. Gill Powell