East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Service (WRAS), which has a casualty care centre in Horsebridge, says it has so far responded to more than 230 incidents this year.

This last weekend alone, more than 70 phone calls were received reporting casualties.

Founder Trevor Weeks told the Gazette it was the charity's busiest start to a year in its history.

He said, "This is usually our quietest time of year but we have been extremely busy.

"At this time of year our average is normally five to 10 calls a day — this is more than three times that number."

Among the casualties that volunteer WRAS rescuers were called out to deal with were 23 oiled birds along the Sussex coastline, a fox with an injured leg at Horsebridge, a pigeon trapped in a building in Eastbourne, a blackbird attacked by a cat in Eastbourne, a road casualty woodpigeon in Hailsham and a pigeon attacked by a hawk, also in Hailsham.

At one point over the weekend, WRAS had 10 volunteer rescuers on the beach searching for oiled birds, mainly guillemots and razorbills.

Trevor said, "The last few years the number of oiled birds we have dealt with in East Sussex has been fairly low with just one or two a day coming in but we are experiencing days when more than 10 come in.

"Our experienced rescuers are giving emergency treatment on the beaches where possible to help stop the oil causing problems and killing the birds and then sending them up to the RSPCA to deal with."

WRAS has been using its Horsebridge Casualty Care Unit to give initial treatment to the oiled birds before sending them across to the RSPCA for more specialist washing facilities and aftercare.