Tony attended on site within 20 minutes and luckily she was not badly hurt at all. Apart from a few cuts and bruises she had a couple of wounds to her rear and no broken bones. She was checked over at Horsebridge vets before being taken up to the Sussex Horse Rescue Sanctuary at Uckfield where she has been staying in a stable for the past week. Hopefully today (Wednesday) she will be suitable for release.This is, however, the hardest part of the job with deer as when they are in a healthy condition they are much more lively and therefore more difficult to control. There were three more deer incidents over the weekend. Two unfortunately died on site and one on the Uckfield bypass ran off.

This week has been a busy week again for gull call-outs. Most of the gulls have been juveniles which are learning to fly. If you find a young gull down on the floor have a look at the wings as this will give you the best indication as to how old it is. The longest flight feathers on the tips of the wings should be touching if not crossing if the bird is close to flying. As with garden birds the gulls need to build up muscle strength in their wings before they can fly off and sustain flight. If the young gull is close to flight you should leave well alone as long as the bird is not in danger of being run over. Those in danger should be ushered into a garden or park or beach if close by. Alternatively, you can also put them on a shed or garage roof or even back onto the house roof which they have come from as long as you do not move them too far away from the roof they have come from.

Feeding youngsters down on the ground can be problematic. We do not encourage people to feed wild animals and birds as it is not normally necessary. However, youngsters which come off roof tops and are close to flying sometimes need a bit of food to sustain them. Please be careful and monitor food being put out as the youngster may be attacked by other gulls when you put it out.

We are rather disappointed that Eastbourne Police are not taking seriously the problems of shooting in Eastbourne. There have been 10 shot gulls in the Eastbourne area recently and unlike their colleagues in Bexhilll and Hastings who took the issue very seriously and sent out press releases, Eastbourne Police do not seem that interested and our calls about shootings have, so far, not been returned. There is a serious human safety issue here as people are shooting out of windows, across public areas, even in public areas and across gardens etc. This shooting could easily hit a human. Do we really have to wait for this to happen before this shooting is taken seriously? Since the publicity and effort of Bexhill and Hastings Police a couple of months ago, there has been just one shot gull in there area.

WRAS's committee would like to express its thanks to WRAS carers Julia and Ian Gould for putting in so much time and effort in looking after fledgling birds this spring and summer. They have had an amazing success rate of 72 per cent being returned back into the wild. Ian has been extremely helpful in constructing pens and avaries to use for pre-release.

MoniCa, another of our WRAS carers, is starting to get snowed under with hedgehogs. Last week a hedgehog gave birth to several babies whilst in care.
They are doing well but we have to be extremely careful not to disturb her so she will continue looking after them.
It's much easier for the mum to rear her young than it is for us to do it for her. We are getting youngsters in as well as adults. A few of the hedgehogs coming in have been injured by strimmers with head and leg wounds.

We are looking for some people to donate newspaper to use on a regular basis, we are getting through a lot and our supplies are getting low at Horsebridge. If you would be willing to recycle your newspapers to us that would be extremely appreciated. Could we also be very cheeky and ask that when you go shopping next if you would be willing to purchase a few tins of fish-flavoured Whiskers cat food. We are low on this and we are trying to save as much money as possible with so many casualties coming in for care at this time of year.

Please also do not forget WRAS's Companion Dog Show at The Dicker Village Hall on Coldharbour Road, Upper Dicker, off the A22 at Hailsham on Sunday July 27. Entries are £1 from 12noon and judging commences at 1pm. Details are available on our website at www.wildlifeambulance.org
For enquiries, schedules and even if you would like to volunteer to help out with baking cakes, helping with car parking etc please ring 440054 – this is not a WRAS phone line so please do not ring this number about casualties.

Thank you.