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.

First we released a wood pigeon that we reared from a baby chick, then we released two young collared doves and a feral pigeon. One dove was also hand reared by us, the other came to us with an infected eye.

Following a trip to the vets to have the hook removed, it is now recuperating in a pen on antibiotics and painkillers.

Update 1 September

Yesterday we released this Mute swan back where it came from. We carried it to the lake and fortunately found its partner. A crowd gathered and it was a tear jerking moment as the two were reunited with each other.

Swans mate for life, so we were really chuffed to see the two back together.

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Swan being released, its partner eagerly watching.

The Swan takes the plunge after a week in our care.

So happy to see each other again.

Update 20 September

This chap was finally released into nearby woods.

Update 20 September

This guy is doing well. he is out of his sling and in an aviary being prepared for release.

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Update 27 September

Today we released this guy back into the wild. After his wing had recovered, we moved him into an aviary to allow his wings to strengthen, before final release.

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