Red listed swifts arrive at the Sanctuary

Swift season is upon us and young swifts have started to arrive for care at the Sanctuary. We’ve already had a few from folks who brought us young swifts last year, so it’s great to see watchful eyes are about to help these wonderful birds. It’s important that any Swifts found needing help are brought to a centre for specialist care as soon as possible. It is a race against time to get them ready and flying fit for their migration. Swifts eat live insects and hand feeding is a time consuming process. Jo our Swift coordinator is a dab hand at feeding and keeping weights just right after years of practice.

Wildlife angels have been lending a hand and learning all about these miracles of the sky too. Swifts are on the RSPB red list. What’s a red list? Simply a list of birds identified in the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man in most urgent need of our help. Holding a swift just right takes lots of practice and our Wildlife Angel volunteer pictured below has shown great skill and confidence in handling them. It’s so rewarding to see young people learning about wildlife and developing new skills. Here Katy, a volunteer Wildlife Angel, is holding a swift and proving to be a natural at caring for them.

Feeding swifts requires lots and lots and lots of insects. Last year someone calculated we were feeding over 2,000 a day. As you can imagine this is an expensive business with regular deliveries of live insects required from specialist producers.

Please make a monthly donation today to help out efforts to save swifts still under threat. Saving a species takes time and needs regular support and we need to act now. As one of the only swift wildlife support centres in the area, your support can make a difference for them. You could also sign up and become a Wildlife Angel and help us care for so many birds needing our help.

Thumper was found after machinery nearly went over him in a field in Newark. What a cutie pie. The person who found him tried to move him away but he was distressed anbd petrified, so a quick call to the Wildlife Angels and he was on his way to the sanctuary for care. He seems to have settled a little and is bright and alert now after his ordeal. Fingers cross he will be making his way back into the wild soon.

This poor soul had been on his own all day with no parents and no food. A kind Wildlife Angel spotted him and brought him in to the hospital. His crop is very thin and he is very weak but such a fighter. We are not sure how he ended up like this but are optimistic for a full recovery.

Hedgehogs are still high priority for us with lots of cases of fly strike, ticks and babies coming in on a daily basis. This female hoglet was checked out by the great staff at Carrick Vets who found her underweight and dehydrated. So a little bit of good food and TLC is the order of the day.

If you find a hedgehog out in the day, chances are there is something wrong. They are quite secretive creatures and nocturnal (they come out a night), so always check to see if they look alert and are moving about. If in doubt, give us a call on 07872 421878 or 01246 455777 and one of the team will be able to advise on what to do.

A special, special thanks for the superstar who purchased us a cordless strimmer. It’s been on our wishlist for a while at Amazon, so it was a fantastic surprise when it arrived the other day.

The weeds have taken over and this is a god send. If you are a keen gardener and would like to help out at the sanctuary with planting, trimming hedges and keeping on top of the enclosures, we’d love to have you. We can offer tea and biscuits and lots of chats with the animals in return.

You can find our Amazon wishlist here if you would like to support the animals directly with a gift. Live insects are our priority at the moment but we always need wood based cat litter, cat biscuits (purina please as we have found this the best for under nourished and fussy cats), kitten and cat food, wild bird and pigeon feed, hedgehog food, cleaning products and disinfectant, bin liners, loo roll – the list is always long but you can always have a chat with Kate or Jo to see what’s urgent on the wish list.

We’ll leave you with chip and dale who have become quite the stars at the Sanctuary. They are loving their time with us and take great interest in all the comings and goings. If you would like to come and meet them, our Wildlife open days are every Thursday and Saturday 10am – 12pm.