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... 10th July 2025 Firstly this week, I must thank everyone that has kindly donated dog food to our collecting bin at Tesco. This is a huge help to us as every can donated, is one can we don’t have to buy later on. Last year with over 50 hedgehogs with us throughout the winter and we got through a mountain of food. We were receiving donations but we still spent hundreds of pounds on food. This year we are hoping to build up our supplies a bit more so we are ready for the winter, so, if when you are shopping, you can add an extra can of dog food to our bin, we will be very grateful. Kay has been busy caring for several tiny hedgehogs needing milk feeds at two or three hourly intervals. As soon as they are eating for themselves they will come down to the Centre. We are very pleased that one of the older hogs that has been with us some time is finally improving. She came in with a strimmer wound to her head which took many weeks of daily cleaning and medicating to heal. Then she would not eat. We tried painkiller again, which we had stopped once the wound had healed, and she started eating. We kept her on a low dose of painkiller as we were worried it may have been a nerve pain. She began to pick up and now she is off the painkiller and in the mid 500 grams in weight. She was only 300 when she came in so she is at last going in the right direction. We never give up on an animal unless we have to. On the 19th July we are having a table at the Big Beastie Hunt in Castle Vale Park 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Do come along and enjoy that afternoon. There is always plenty to see and do and we shall be there with a quiz for children and maybe something interesting from the Rollo Centre. On the same day we have a table at the Town Hall where we shall be offering 2026 calendars, cards, and crafts, more details next week. We have had some releases this week. A Wood Pigeon and a Herring Gull were sent off on Saturday and last week, a young Blackbird and a Starling that had both been raised at the Centre were released into the garden. The next few days will see Owls moving from one aviary to another as they progress towards release. The smallest Tawny Owl is at present in the Longridge Aviary in the Big Room and is far too people orientated. When we were cleaning out the baby gull pens in there on Sunday he was flying up to the best perch so that he could watch what we were doing. When his aviary is cleaned he is quite likely to come close by and watch what is happening. He needs to be away from people as soon as possible. It is always difficult to keep away from hand reared birds as they are friendly, but it has to be done if they are to be released into the wild. The largest of the Herring Gull chicks will probably be ready for release next week. When they get almost ready to go they bully the younger ones, so as soon as they are ready small groups are released together well away from the town, but where there is food for them to find easily. The six ducklings are growing now and just starting to show their wing flashes. As soon as they are released the Cygnets will take over the Big Pond. Pat Goff 3rd July 2025 This week I am starting with a nice little success story. A couple of weeks ago, a gentleman brought in four baby sparrows that had been abandoned in the nest. They looked like they were not long hatched: they had no feathers, their eyes were closed, and they were mostly mouth! I was doubtful of their chances of survival, but the four chicks were put in the safe hands of Barbara who fed them some mealworms before putting them into one of our new incubators to keep them warm. Bringing hatchlings like this up is very labour intensive, for the first two days they needed to be fed every half an hour from early morning to the end of the day. With four young chirping birds all vying for the food, it was important to make sure each one got their fair share. As they grew, they took less food indicating that feeding could move to once an hour. After only a few days they began to grow some feathers and at this stage they were able to be moved out of the incubator and their little nest was put into a cage. By the end of the first week they were fully feathered although their wings still had to develop. They left the nest on day 8 and wouldn’t go back into it, instead they hid under a little shelter inside the cage. They made incredible progress in the next few days, beginning to flutter and then fly, and they also started feeding for themselves. Barbara started to put the cage outside around about day 12 to get them used to the outdoors and by day 15 they were ready to go and flew out into the garden where they are still hanging out! Hopefully they will stay together and join the local sparrows who can show them the ropes of being a wild bird. We always strongly advise leaving fledglings where they are rather than bringing them into the Rollo Centre as their parents will have gone in search of food and will be back. These sparrows left the nest several days before they could fly and this would have been the case in the wild so although fledglings appear vulnerable, they are most likely still being cared for. The parents are by far the best placed to bring up their youngsters. This week was another busy week at the Rollo Centre. We had a very young cygnet brought in via the vets that we hoped would be able to share the same pen as the two larger ones that came in two weeks ago, but unfortunately they picked on it, so it will have to remain separate until it gets a bit bigger and able to stand up for itself. The 6 mallard ducklings have moved to the big pond and are enjoying being able to have a longer swim. We have reached 20 young herring gulls which are spread throughout the centre according to size. Some are thankfully now outside where they are easier to clean with the rest in various boxes by size. The crow that was being hand fed is now outside although not yet able to fly. It is in an aviary divided in half and shared with the bald jackdaw. They spend quite a bit of time on either side of the divide sizing each other up. Hopefully they can soon share the same space. The other two fledglings, the starling and blackbird are growing well and will soon be ready for release. Gill Powell 26th June 2025 Late May and all of June is our busiest time for taking in lost or orphaned babies. The picture this week shows the latest baby to arrive. Still with eyes closed needing feeds every two hours. This little one is not being at all co-operative. She takes milk so slowly it takes half an hour to feed her, so Kay has reduced her to three hourly feeds so she can do something in between. Kay has other hoglets, a little older almost ready to wean so it is a full time job. The six Mallard Ducklings are growing quickly. They are being moved to the Big Pond Pen this week. Here I must thank Guy who has done a beautiful job on repairs to the edge of the pond which was breaking up. Thanks to him we can now use the pond just as we really need it. Thanks also to Ian who is making major repairs to the sides of the pen. He is also doing little running repairs as he goes too. There always seems to be something, somewhere, that needs a screw or nail, or some sort of adjustment to get it to work. The two Cygnets are growing very well but not yet ready to join the ducklings in the big pond. Thank you to the person that donated some lettuce for them. They can easily eat four round lettuce every day. They don’t eat the iceberg lettuces. We would really appreciate any lettuce blown or otherwise for them. Barbara has had great success rearing three little Sparrow chicks, released in her garden and still coming for food, so a good soft release. Jackie and other volunteers have been hand feeding a Blackbird, Starling and a Crow, all fledglings. They are all now outside and feeding themselves. The Robin released in the garden of the Rollo Centre still calls in for food when the other fledglings get their bowls. We are using ideas that Jackie came across on her course and have been feeding the young birds on hand mixed fresh, not canned food. This has been a big improvement but gives us another job mixing and making the mixture. Next year we shall make sure we have plenty made ready in the freezer. Sadly, some casualties are so badly injured when they arrive they have to be put to sleep but we and the Vet do our best. Saturday a Jackdaw with a badly broken leg and two tiny pigeon squabs that fell from their nest and came out of their egg shells too soon to survive. The young Tawny Owls are in aviaries now and rapidly growing up. They do give all the volunteers a lot of pleasure watching them. They are very inquisitive birds, checking out anything new in their aviaries. Then of course there are the Herring Gull chicks.  I think we have about 17 now but one or two at least are coming in each day. Some have to be taken to the Vet for euthanasia as they have injuries they would not survive. Their cages, used when they are small need cleaning out twice a day. Thankfully, with so many in, they soon learn to pick up food very quickly. We constantly seem to be cutting up fish into tiny bits for the little ones or hosing and washing cages after them. Thankfully after a couple of months all these youngsters are away and fending for themselves. Thank you to everyone helping us with food and cleaning materials, we use so many sponge scourers we should have shares in the company. Thank you to the kind people that are using our food collection bin at Tesco. Pat Goff