Review 2016.

Its been another busy year with 93 birds of prey looked after, 51 of which were successfully released back.They include, 28 Tawnies, 13 Barn Owls, Little Owls,long eared owl,short eared owl, 19 Kestrels,6 Sparrowhawks,16 Buzzard, Goshawk, Kite, Marsh Harrier and Peregrine. 5 were illegally shotgun shot, 3 were illegally fen trapped. Various other wildlife including 14 mute swans,6 badgers, 2 otter,a weasel,fox ,a Common Crane, Gt Crested Grebes,kingfisher,Manx Shearwater,herons,woodpeckers,common scoter,common gull, many hedghogs, pigeon and garden birds. A rich variety of wonderful British wildlife. Its been a good year for renewing and replacing the old aviaries. Portakabin arrived with volunteers to knock down and put up some new aviaries and made a wonderful job. They have housed swans, buzzards, Glaucous and Common Gull, ducks, geese and will be so very useful. Craig Ralston and a hard working team of volunteers arrived to knock down the old bird of prey aviaries, quite a task ! They soon had it done and 2 skip loads later the ground work was cleared ready for Charlie Heap to build new aviaries. Alan Hunt had kindly donated an original painting which was raffled and the money donated to build the aviaries. Charlie and his brother Ed worked hard and they are now up and in use. I'm so pleased with them.

My grateful thanks to Mark Naguib experienced wildlife vet at Battleflatts , Stamford Bridge, York for all your work with wildlife.You and your team make a tremendous difference. A Glaucous Gull stayed a short while here in the New Year and was successfully released back wearing a smart new darvik . It will be interesting to hear of his travels in the future. I've 2 barn owls in, a tawny and wing pinned kestrel, lots of hedgehogs and a pretty white dove. Here's to 2017.