Juveniles

Juvenile time of year with lots of young wildlife in to care for.
This little stoat came in with a nicked ear, still blind and needing warmth and lots of food.
She's doing well.

This fat Mistle Thrush is thriving, eating mealworms and cat food.

Young Tawny Owls come out to branch from their nests.
The parent birds are usually about but walkers pick them up and bring them in . They should rear well but would be far better off parent reared .

Mallard ducklings enjoying the sunshine. They will be ringed and released on the Lower Derwent Valley soon.

Spectacular Swift Release.

A long distance summer visitor was found floored last night by a dog walker close to home. This adult swift was wet through and being closely watched by the local cat population. The bird arrived here this morning , weighing 47g.It had dried out overnight and was tube fed with critical care.It flitted across the kitchen and looked bright and alert.

So off into the back field for release. Swifts cannot take off from the ground , their little legs are too short for them to gain momentum. Swifts have to be enthusiastically thrown into the air to return them to the element they are most at home in. So it was with this one , off it went wide and high , spectacular !

North Yorkshire Badger Cubs.

 These 2 little sweeties were found running the road alone and lost, sow badgers do not leave their cubs to chance.
A lady taking her children to school near Robin Hoods Bay found them and picked them up on her way back.
The RSPCA collected them and brought them here.
They were alive with fleas and lice but front line soon sorts that out. I tried bottle feeding them but they were too big for that.
I managed to syringe feed them and left them to rest in a warm pen with a straw filled hidey hole for the night.
They are about 8-10 weeks old, brother and sister and in wonderful condition, but where was there Mum ?

It is possible to put cubs back if you know for definite where they come from and can wait at a distance to make sure. This is a job for the more experienced badger worker.

These 2 were very mobile and could have come a distance from their home.
The protocol with rearing wild badger cubs is to tb test them 3 times before they are released in the autumn. The first test is done before they move and are introduced to other orphaned cubs. It is a sin to keep them alone , they are social creatures and need to be reared together.
I took them for tb blood testing to Mike Jones , Battleflatts Vets , Stamford Bridge, York. He's used to dealing with badgers with me and has shown great kindness over the years having to deal with persecution post mortems as well as the more pleasurable task of helping with cubs.

Badger cubs like Mike , they relax and trust him.
They ate well and settled down in the pen next to the big badgers which have now been released.
It was the Badger Trust Agm at the weekend and I took the cubs with me to Staffordshire . Secret World in Somerset are nationally known for badger rehabilitation and Pauline Kidner is the best person I know to care for orphaned cubs.They were much admired at the meeting where I kept their appearances to a minimum.  So they travelled down to Somerset after the meeting with Andy Parr, Secret Worlds release manager. Pauline's e mailed me to say they have settled well, and have eaten straight away .............they are Yorkshire badgers after all !

2 More Snared Badgers.

 This pair of badgers were found 100yds apart both in snares on a fence line, over looking the sea near Scarboro'.The boar had the snare round the neck and the sow was caught around the chest.

Mike Moor of the North Riding Badger Group attended and managed with great care to release and box both badgers working alone. He took them both to the vets where the instruments of torture were removed under anaesthetic.

 This was the site were the boar was caught, he'd tried his best to get away and chewed up the ground desperate for release.
It is illegal to set a snare to catch a badger so North Yorkshire Police WLO P.C. Graham Bilton and RSPCA Insp Geoff Edmond are investigating.
The badgers came here for treatment and I waited to see if the snare wounds opened up. I managed to inject them every other day with antibiotics and they settled and ate well, taking comfort from one an other in rehab.
After 8 days the dreaded pressure necrosis wasn't too bad and they were ready for release.
I took them back to the release site and met up with Anne and Mike Moor, the family that found them and Geoff Edmond.
It was raining hard , badgers like the rain , more worms to eat.

Here they are lined up and raring to go.
The sett was 80/100 yds away on a steep bank below the snare line where they were caught.
As you can see by the photograph they knew exactly where they were and were keen to go home.
They both left the boxes immediately, moved well and shot off down the slope for home.
Lovely to see them go but the thought of those dreaded snares damaging our wildlife rankles me no end.

Common Scoter

 An unusual and rarely seen sea duck , a Common Scoter, was found sulking in a garden at Bransholme, Hull this week.
The bird a last years female was migrating overland and heading to quiet breeding grounds.  The reason for her coming down in such an unlikely spot will never be known.
She spent a few hours here bobbing on the swan pond.
I rang Craig Ralston for advice and he said 2 Velvet Scoters were presently on the sea in Filey Bay and it would be a good spot to release this sea diving duck.

Craig and Lucy taking a close up before ringing and release at Filey.

About to go, Bella was more interested in the donkeys !

Craig releasing the Common Scoter into the surf. She flew/ paddled with ease, ducking under the breakers and headed off to the calm water beyond. Mega !

Thanks to Craig once again and Lucy got a ringing tick !

Bella on a donkey, we went on for fish and chips and a go on the swings, so all in all we all had a good day.

Big Red.

A large bird of prey was found grounded at Cawthorne Roman Camp, Pickering on a cold Saturday evening. Luckily Colin Dillcock a raptor worker was walking his dog in the area and gathered the bird up and brought him here.
The bird,a last years male Red Kite, was dopey and cold. I tubed him with warm re hydration fluid and left him to rest under a heat lamp.

Next morning he was still alive , still daft and sat on the floor. I tubed him again and left food in the warm shed.


The next morning I took him over to Battleflatts vets in Strensall for Andy Forsyth to see. Andy is an experienced bird of prey vet and he gave him a thorough examination. Here he is having a look at the back of the eye.

 This x ray shows his skeleton was intact , there was no sign of trauma, no shot, no fractures or wounds.
The birds plumage was immaculate and his feet were clean and pristine.
What ever had happened to him had been quick and sudden.
North Yorkshire has a terrible reputation for bird of prey poisoning and looking at this big birds predicament leads me to think that this Red Kite had been poisoned.
One of the illegal substances used is alphachlorose, it stupefies birds and drops their temperatures. If the victim is found quickly enough then keeping them warm and giving lots of fluids can save their lives.

 The bird improved over 2 weeks ,ate heartily and was moved into an aviary .
Red Kites are odd birds to care for, they have a tendency to sulk under stress and it can be difficult to tell when they are ready to go. I rely on observation and a knowledge of big birds of prey here in rehab.
I went into the aviary to feed him after a fortnight and he clearly expressed his readiness to leave !
I was reluctant to return him to Pickering and after speaking to Craig Ralston of N.E. one of the best birders I know, he was released onto the NNR near Wheldrake.
He was BTO ringed by Mike Jackson and took to the big blue skies once again. To see him soar and own the sky was a moving and uplifting sight, I'm a lucky woman.

Later on that same day Craig saw the Kite on a goose carcass on the reserve.

I can ask for no more.

Snared Badger Release.

I released this snared badger sow last night on pasture near her home on the A170 near Lockton.


These descriptive pictures give a flavour of how badgers caught in snares react, they were taken by RSPCA Ins Geoff Edmond who went out to collect her. He took her to vet Mike Jones at Battleflatts Vets Stamford Bridge ,York. He cut off the snare and put her on a course of antibiotics.

This first photograph shows how a badger tries desperately to get away from the tight thin wire cutting into its flesh.
She had dug and scratched and tried her damnest to move away and get away from the wire fastening her to the fence. Badgers are strong and determined and she will have given it her all to no avail.

 Here is the pressure necrosis wound on her neck. The snare tightens and cuts off the blood supply to the skin directly below the wire. After 4 to 6 days this wound opens like a pusy zip where the skin has died . It is almost impossible to bathe these wounds without k.o.ing the paitent. So she was filled with antibiotic injected every other day. She was given a warm heat lamp plenty of food and water and peace and quiet.






Here she is hiding in a short barrel which is really useful when rehabbing badgers. She hides in the barrel head first and her fine ample backside sticks out at the back. It is then possible to inject the drugs needed. If you're quick and carefull the badger finds it difficult to swing round and bite from this position. This not for the beginner !
She faired well and was good and tolerated the rehab with good grace.
She boxed well and was released in the moonlight back to her home territory.

It is illegal to set a snare to catch a badger. It should be illegal to set a snare to catch a fox for they suffer just the same in this antiquated method of control.