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Derek is spoiling Albert rotten but Albert still is not a happy chappie when you leave him in a room. Rocky is leaving his foot alone today so perhapshis anti-biotics are calming the infection down.

I forgot to tell you that the heron went home yesterday so that was a success. A deer came in late last night. Graeme, one of our volunteers had been to fetch it and got here just around 10.30. I dressed its wounds as it had already seen a vet who had put a pressure bandage on the wounds on the leg but wanted it removed once she got here.

She’s got some nasty wounds from a dog attack and is fairly out of it. I was surprised to see that she made it through the night but Lisa has had a quick look but said to wait and see. I can see that she is moving around the pen on the cameras but she is still in shock.

The Dartmoor crew got home about 3 p.m. Very exhausted but no doubt, proud that they made it. I’m sure there will be some stories to tell tomorrow!

Derek and I managed to do a bit of gardening but not enough to make an impression. I was quite late going down to do the deer and was amused to see that the badger cubs were all waiting for their food.

Badger huddle waiting for dinner!

Another late callout tonight as some people brought in a badger that had been in a road accident. We took it in to the vets as it had suffered head trauma. With no obvious injuries, it has come home having had anti-biotics and steroids to reduce the swelling on the head. I’ve made him as comfortable as I can for the night.

Ozzy had to have a late swim and bottle and I’ve just checked the RTA badger now 1.40 a.m. and certainly he is not worse. I hope both the deer and the badger make it through the night.

I’ve allowed the deer to go out by the enclosures to give them more grass. They really are looking well and I’ve got them down to just one feed of milk, coarse mixture and lots and lots of chopped apples and carrots but their still eating a lot of browse which I usually cut from the motorway bridge. Its getting to the point where I can’t reach much now !

The deer have more space now

I’m still in charge of Debbie’s Noctule bats while she is away on holiday so the evening is spent watching television and feeding Dizzy and Ned with mealworms. They tuck away over 30 each but spit out the heads all over the table. Derek ( husband ) watched tele in the other room – can you blame him !!

Ned ( right) and Dizzy

We have been very lucky to have a kayak donated to us by Alex at Avoncraft. It was arranged through Simon King’s sister at Simon King Wildlife Productions. They had come out with it a previous week. They came out to film the kayak being handed over and, while they were here, they went to release a swan and then got called out to cygnets needing help at a camp in Burnham so they filmed it all. They were so pleased that they had produced a 15 minute film of what happened and so they came out to show us. Simon King came over as well as he lives locally and it is some time since he has been to our Centre to see the changes. He brought his little girl with him and she was fascinated with all the animals – and the play area!

Our new kayak and 1 swan about to be released - the best part of our job!

One swan very glad to get back on the water

Several late calls out in the middle of the night this week including a 3 a.m. call by the police for a deer. One late call at 2.30 a.m. meant me getting out of bed as the late bell was ringing. It was a taxi driver who had hit a herring gull on the road. He had put it on the verge and then decided it was cruel to leave it so had brought it out to us. It was sitting quietly on the floor in the front of the car but certainly flapped its wings when I picked it up. ” How hard did you hit it ?” I asked. ” Really hard”,  replied the taxi driver. “I thought it would be dead ”

 Giving it a quick check over, I couldn’t see anything wrong with it and by the time I had sorted a tub under heat, he was standing. Amazingly he was perfectly ok the next morning and went for release. A very lucky herring gull.

Friday was a really wet day – not a good sign for the weekend with a forecast of showers on Saturday and torrential rain for Sunday. The fox cub from Bristol went home and the coal bunker badger was released as well – even so we still seem to be fighting for space !

Stuart curled up in the grass

We did not leave Lyme until 4 but must admit I was jazzed out by then !

I was straight down to the fawns to see how they were. Lisa had let them out into their paddock on Saturday so they were all out in the grass and looking great. They had all freaked when she went in to fill up their bowls while I was away so there was no point in trying to syringe feed Rob and Derek. As I went into the paddock Derek and Rob came up to me for a fuss but neither wanted a syringe feed so hopefully everyone is lapping now.

 I got a lovely picture of Stuart laying up in the grass and they were all excited to get fresh browse. I noticed the buzzard in the long pen by the fawns. He is flying well. Found a couple of days ago on the side of the road, he must have been clipped by a vehicle. He will soon be ready to go home.

The buzzard looking much better now

 I have just seen the fawns all curled up in their shed and the red’s back in their inside pen for the night. It’s good to be back.

The injured fox that came in last night seems to be suffering from concussion but it has eaten all it’s food so we are going to continue supporting it and see how it progresses.

The young deer, I’m almost sure is blind and the leg injury is an old fracture. The sight problem would be the reason for it just sitting on a drive in a housing estate. It freaks out when you touch it so we have put food around it and will leave it quiet for today.

The other fox cub that came in from a vets on Saturday night, again is eating his food but obviously has some neurological symptoms. A lot of the pigeons, crows and magpies were picked up over the weekend to be released by the people who brought them in so our aviaries have emptied a little

Helen, our work experience student, is on her third week and is feeling more at home. She certainly is a great help and today was busy in the hospital room – mainly pellet feeding pigeons and many other baby birds! Students are so much help at this time of year.

Helen, our work experience busy in the Hospital Room

Luckily we are going to be able to use an enclosure that one of our supporters has in his garden for a group of fox cubs as all our grassed enclosures are full. Most of the fox and badger cubs are being fed at night now so it lots of bowls of food that all has to be made up for the evening shift.

Managed to do a bit of weeding in the evening while Derek, the roe fawn charged around the front garden. There was quite a few visitors to so it was past 10 by the time we sat and ate our dinner. Still very hot even in the night.

Great Tits, some of the many birds needing feeding in the hospital room