Trevor's Week - 25 March 2009
We have had numerous rescues over the past week or so. These have included a call from a lady in London who had found a woodcock in Victoria Street, central London.
WRAS advised her of her nearest rescue centre and the bird ended up in the care of London Wildcare.
We have also had a cat attacking a gull in Saltdean, a cygnet being the subject of a dog attack at Ditchling Common, an underweight bat at a manor near Horam, a swan with an injured wing at Lewes Rugby Pitches, calls about toads migrating from Friston Forest to the flood plains, a badly injured badger at Butts Brow Eastbourne, an injured goose at Piltdown Pond, an injured gull at Bexhill, a cat attacking a baby dove at Bexhill, a crow with a head injury in Eastbourne, an injured buzzard at Hooe, our second baby fox cub found at Bexhill on a pavement, a crashed swan at Crowhurst, an old greylag goose with severe arthritis at Downash, a domestic duck in a road at Telscombe, a road casualty swan at Upper Dicker, an injured kestrel at Asda Eastbourne, another heron caught in netting at Windmill Hill and an injured fox seen playing at Fort Fun on Eastbourne seafront, to name a few.
We had a rather worrying call to a deer running round at Framfield at the weekend too. For several days now a deer has been seen running around with some wire and what is possibly a fence post attached to its rear leg.
It is possible that someone cut the deer free after it became entangled on a fence. Rather than calling WRAS for help they cut the wire away, resulting in the deer trailing the wire and post around.
WRAS had a call to an oiled guillemot on Seaford seafront on Friday. The bird was well underweight and unfortunately very poorly, despite looking alert. The bird had internal bleeding and was passing blood. A big thank- you to Beechwood Vets in Stafford Road, Seaford, for helping out of hours to end the bird's suffering.
You never know when you might need WRAS's help and most people think "It'll never happen to me" so please add WRAS's rescue line number – 07815 078234 – to your phone in case you need us.
Last week a swan crash-landed near Pevensey. Unfortunately, the person who witnessed it did not have our number and knocked on the door of a former volunteer.
The message about the rescue ended up getting to our rescue line a while after the incident and our rescuers had to work with little information and contact details of the person reporting the incident.
As a result, we could not find the swan. The following day WRAS had a call about the swan which was in a very poor state near Pevensey and had apparently been in a field all night. The swan was very cold and despite our hardest efforts to keep the swan alive it passed away.
I know we can't afford to respond to all calls but we always try our best to respond to the calls that really need our help, especially emergency calls such as these.
AS some of you may have seen in the Herald at the weekend, WRAS spent a frustrating 45 minutes trying to rescue a hedgehog caught in a drain at Spring Lodge Close, Langney. Kathy Martyn and myself eventually managed to get the hedgehog free.
We ended up using a dog grasper, which is a pole with a loop at one end, normally used by rescuers for catching and securing badgers and foxes.
WRAS is urging people to keep an eye out for uncovered drain holes and to put covers in place to ensure hedgehogs can't get stuck.
This rescue covers two major concerns of WRAS: uncovered drains, which pose a major problems for hedgehogs, as well as oil and chemical pollution, which causes a lot of suffering to wildlife.
We urge people not to ignore these issues but to take responsibility and get something done about it if they see a problem.
The hedgehog was taken to WRAS's new Casualty Care Centre at Whitesmith, where it was medicated and given a bath before being bedded down and given a hearty dinner of cat food.
WRAS hedgehogs carer Monica Russell from Eastbourne has taken on the hedgehog, which is doing great.
WRAS will be holding a spring fair on Saturday, April 18 from 9.30am until midday at the Clinton Centre, opposite Barclays Bank in Seaford Town Centre.
We have also booked the Wesley Room, Cross Way, Steyne Road, Seaford, for a waterfowl awareness course for Tuesday, April 28 from 7.30pm to 9.30pm. We have had great feedback so far about these courses and they are enjoyable too. They cost 7.50 booking in advance or 10 on the door. All money goes to help WRAS casualties.
You can now follow WRAS in various ways.
- Via Facebook, look us up on "Causes" using East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service.
- Via Twitter go to www.twitter.com/eastsussexwras – don't forget to click on the "follow" button!
- Via Myspace go to www.myspace.com/wildlifeambulance
- Via YouTube search for the channel "East Sussex WRAS". You can also keep up to date with our work at www.wildlifeambulance.org
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.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Eastbourne
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -6 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Light sleet showers
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
