The chick came to us in reasonable health, although he/she would not have survived long on the ground with no parents. After a hours or so in an incubator to get him warm, we could feed him. Owl’s have to be fed on as natural food as possible. They normally rip parts off their prey and eat all of it, including the fur, feathers and bones and later bring up a pellet of bones and feathers.

We keep a stock of bird of prey food in the freezer, ready for such occasions. After three feeds where we has to force feed, he now readily takes prepared food off us. It will be another few weeks before he will eat completely on his own and several more before we can consider moving him to an aviary to prepare him for release.

It can be quite difficult to rear single ducklings as they can become quite stressed and withdrawn on their own, constantly crying for their parents, fortunately this chap has done well and is now out of danger.

Initially we had to tube feed him, and put him with a feather duster for comfort in a warm incubator.  It’s over a week now, and he’s eating himself and bathing in his water bowl.

Firstly we need to assess the patient, we need to be sure of the breed and age to ensure we feed them an appropriate diet. We check them over for wounds, weigh them, check for parasites such as ticks, ensure they are not dehydrated and check their general health and treat them accordingly.

Quite often patients are cold, before we can even think of feeding them or administering medication, they need to be warm, for this we use heat pads or incubators. Giving them food or drink whilst they’re cold can lower their body temperature even further putting them at a greater risk.

Once checked over and treated for any immediate  priorities and they are warm, we can think about feeding them. This can initially involve force feeding them and they don’t recognise us as their parents. Force feeding should never be attempted by anyone who is not experienced and trained.

Our days revolve around the young, some need feeding every hour, some every few hours and some around the clock. This is very difficult, especially when looking after so many other animals and working full-time for a living. It’s a good job Beth has an understanding boss who lets her take a menagerie of animals into work each day!

This chappie has a break quite high up and so he’s in sling to support his weight. He’s quite happy in this position, he can easily feed and drink. In a matter of a couple more weeks he will be moved to the aviary until we are confident with his recovery, then he’ll be released.

After a few hours in an incubator he had picked up, allthough still very weak. In the morning we forced fed him and have continued to do so until Thursday when he has thankfully started eating by himself and he was moved to an aviary.

After 9 days of treatment, this guy was released last night after making a full recovery.

The local villagers were obviously concerned when he hadn’t left after a week, and tried to call the RSPCA with little response. Eventually we received a call, how could we not try and help?

After a few days with us to assess his health, we gave him the all clear today and then released him, in a location with other single swans where he’ll hopefully find a partner.

She could not even stand, she was very weak and dehydrated. We started by warming her up in an incubator, then after a few hours and warm, we had to force feed her. We didn’t expect her to survive the night, but we were amazed to see her beady eyes watching us the next day.

Over the next few days she grew stronger and stronger, taking food off us readily. She now rips up her prey, eating everything including bones and feathers. Unlike other meat eating birds, birds of prey cannot be fed cat or dog meat, they require feathers and bones in their diet. We buy frozen day old cockerels, the waste bi-product of the egg industry, its not nice but in this case their is no alternative.

This little duckling was brought in by a cat, fortunately the owner retrieved her from the jaws and took the duckling to a vets before later bring her to us.

Cats mouths are very infectious so it’s lucky that this duckling got away with minor damage.

Here you can see her in our pond with another duck we rescued a month ago. The duckling thinks she’s a human so she needs to spend time with her own kind.

Its times like this that makes the 6am 14 hours days seem worth while.

This time of year can get very depressing with the cold, wet weather and dark mornings and nights and the relentless phone calls and animals needing help, however releasing animals back into the wild makes it all worthwhile, it is so rewarding.

Money could not buy the feeling we have when we release an animal back into the wild, an animal that would have otherwise gone untreated and most probably died.

Today we released this swan, she was handed to our vets by a member of the public. Juveniles can often be driven away by territorial pairs, this is most likely what happened to him, he was very tired and weak when he first came to us.

At the same time today we released a duck that had been attacked and could not fly due to loosing so many flight feathers. She had spent two months in our aviary where she was secure, to allow her feathers to re-grow.

There are a number of conditions that she could be suffering with, from infection to a blocked digestive tract, so watch this space as we do everything we can to assess her and save her life.

UPDATE – Unfortunately we have lost the fight, despite our best efforts and our vets, this beautiful juvenile Swan passed away on Saturday afternoon, she now rests peacefully.

We are not sure whether she had been bullied by other swans or was suffering from vitamin and minerals deficiencies, all to common when wild animals are constantly fed bread by members of the public.

She is much fitter and healthier now and we should be releasing her next week.

UPDATED- Today Lulu was fit and well enough to be released. We took her to Straw Bridge Nature Reserve in Ilkestone. The lake, appropriately named Swan Lake, has plenty of swans for Lulu to make friends with and hopefully find a partner.

He is in a body harness to keep his weight off his broken leg, he will have to remain like this for a couple of weeks, before we can start to let him put pressure on it again. this is a very tried and proven method.

In particular we rear a lot of baby birds, yesterday we received our very first of the season, a young collared dove.

As they receive a lot of human contact, the birds become quite tame. It is the Charities Policy to release wild animals back where they belong, so we have to undo any imprinting. As soon as the birds are feeding themselves, we break all human contact apart from cleaning them out and feeding once a day.

They will then be moved to an aviary in preparation for release.

We don’t often rescue birds of prey, but when we do we are amazed by their beauty. This guy we believe has been handled and kept in a very small cage where he could not fly. Therefore he has little muscle tone and cannot currently be released into the wild.

Now in an aviary, we will have minimal contact with him so as not to get him tame, and we will allow him to fly and build up his strength so that we can assess him and what him progress.

It is always our intention to release wild animals back into he wild where they belong. We will assess this buzzard and only release him when he has a high chance of survival.