10 June 2009
WE HAD a mixture of calls this week. First off, a badger was rescued from a garage in Heathfield. It was fairly lively but suffering from numerous territorial bite marks to the head and neck.
After being give emergency treatment at our Casualty Care Centre it was bedded down for the night then seen by veterinary surgeon Chris Hall at Henley House Vets in Uckfield.
The badger will be moved over to our badger pens at Bexhill shortly, where he will be looked after by WRAS rescuers and carers Tim and Jean.
WRAS rescuer Tony Neads attended an unusual rescue of five fox cubs in Eastbourne last week.
The five cubs had fallen 6ft down into a basement area of a block of flats.
As it was midday the cubs could not be caught and just released so they were picked up and taken in by Tony and given a good feed and check.
In the evening, Tony and I returned them. A fox den was found further round at the flats and the cubs eagerly returned.
As we were about to leave, mum was seen returning with food for them.
Video footage of the cubs being released can be seen on our YouTube channel.
Kathy and I rescued 12 ducklings and their mum who became trapped in a courtyard at Burgess Hill last week. The ducklings were caught and released at a nearby pond.
Other rescues included a baby green woodpecker in Eastbourne, a fox with nasty injuries next to the railway line at Bexhill, numerous gull chicks fallen off rooftops, several jackdaws that had fallen down chimneys, a swan wandering round the road near Princes Park, and another shot gull in Eastbourne.
Kathy and I also removed three gull chicks from the top of a block of flats in Kemp Town. They were removed using a Natural England General Licence.
WRAS only does this is under exceptional circumstances – and I certainly hope I don't have to climb scaffolding and walk across a roof that high up too many times this year!
I am pleased to report that the herring gull is now on the RSPB's Red List.
I was looking at the number of breeding pairs in the UK and there are now 139,309 pairs of breeding herring gulls in the UK but, amazingly, there are 580,799 breeding pairs of puffins – more than three times the number of herring gulls!
There are 270,000 pairs of breeding moorhens and there are even 1,420,900 pairs of guilllemots – more than ten times the number of herring gulls. And people are still calling herring gulls overpopulated!
These numbers are nothing to do with the reasons why some people call for a cull of herring gulls, it is some humans' inability to live with the nature that exists on our doorsteps.
Dirty humans teach the gulls bad habits by encouraging them with food and leaving our waste lying around.
Tony and I have been using the ladders of our ambulances to get gull chicks back up onto roof tops this week.
It is not always possible to get them back and it is important that they are put back on the correct roof or the wrong parents could attack and kill the babies.
Despite being touched by humans, the gull chicks are welcomed back by their parents and all is forgiven and the divebombing parents stop upsetting everyone and go back to looking after their young.
East Sussex WRAS will be at the East Hoathly Church fete this coming Saturday between 11am and 3pm, so please come along and say hello or bring some blankets, towels or pillow cases as we are getting short again.
East Sussex WRAS is a voluntary organisation which relies on donations. We do not receive funding from government nor the RSPCA. Anyone wishing to make a donation should contact The Treasurer at PO Box 2148, Seaford, East Sussex, BN25 9DE. www.wildlifeambulance.org 24-hour rescue line: 07815 078 234
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Weather for Eastbourne
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Light showers
Temperature: 13 C to 21 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: West
