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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 !

The swan was not very easy to get to!

Tuesday June 23^rd

Late last night I was feeding the fawns in the kitchen and the alarm bell went again. It was nearly mid-night so out I went only to find the same lady back with another water vole. She’d only just got home when the cat walked across the drive with another one in its mouth so she turned around and came back out again! I put it with the other and hoped there would not be a third!

Clinton Rogers was here this morning to film some of the animals having picked up my press release on the cruelty that we have come across in the past few weeks. Hopefully a piece on tv may get the message across.

Luckily we had a boat handy!

Graeme and Vicky were busy yesterday with releases. The first was a swan that was beaten up by another swan in Bridgwater Bay. Simon and Graeme went out in our boat to catch it. The swan was trapped by some railings. Luckily it only had superficial wounds and hurt pride! It had been in with us for a few days and was ready for release.

We would normally take the swan to a different location if there had been a confrontation but Graeme had seen a single swan nearby when the family of swans were attacking so went to have a look before collecting the swan from our Centre. Sure enough a single swan was there with no sign of the aggressive male and his family.

So the swan was taken that afternoon back to Bridgwater Bay. Continue reading Pauline’s Blog!

We'll continue to monitor the swan over the coming days

April 4^th Marie and Cindy rescued a swan last night that had been hit on the A370 near Lympsham. It had managed to get back into the water, but Cindy ( who has a fear of water!) waded in and got it out. The swan looks settled and the wing has been bandaged so we shall have to see how it goes.

Another busy call out day today with 3 badgers, 2 buzzards, an injured duck and shot goose to name but a few. The young ducklings love their morning bath and climb up on the big teddy in their pen to get nearer to the heat lamp to preen and dry. We shall have to get our duckery units up and ready for the season. The units allow the duckling to go into the water and then they can rest on a soft plastic wire floor with a heat lamp over the pen to keep them dry. The wire floor allows the dropping to go through and keeps their feathering clean.

Managed to get a couple of hours weeding in the garden. Thank goodness Carol comes in and does a few hours – almost every day. With all the plants that she has brought in, the centre will look very attractive for the Easter Weekend. Here’s hoping for good weather for that weekend. It makes all the difference. Continue reading Pauline’s Blog – 4th & 5th April