Release Pens

This weekend has seen all this years orphaned fox cubs move on to release pens…. They are now starting the last part of their release programme………Here they can complete their rehabilitation, already they are now semi wild and in just a few weeks they will be fully wild and ready to take on the world as healthy young adults…………..

Orphaned Fox Cubs

Every year we take in orphaned fox cubs…The vast majority are orphaned as a direct result of Man’s actions, we seem unable to co-exist with any creatures, but foxes find ‘us’ a tough prospect in every respect………. We hunt their parents, we set snares and traps for them, we poison them, we shoot them, we dig up and destroy their earths and we kill thousands on our roads every year.  Between Feb and June, every dead adult means cubs left to go hungry…. some will survive with just one parent, as long as they are able to reach a couple of months in age. Many will not….they will simply starve to death…….. These are a few of the lucky ones……

Maeve and Maisie

Magda at five weeks old

Maisie at five weeks old

 

ORPHANED OTTER CUB

This stunningly beautiful creature is ‘Cerridwen’  Very sadly she was orphaned at only five weeks old.

Otters have young at any time of the year, but this very cold snap must have made parenting especially tough. Quite what happened to mum is a mystery, but this beautiful young lady was truly fortunate to have been found by a very caring man who did everything just right. Before jumping in and rescuing her, he phoned for advice, and then expertly caught her and get her warm until our wonderful rescuers, Helen and Andy could get there to pick her up.   She is doing well and her future looks bright, she is being bottle fed 5 times a day and will eventually be released back into the wild. Otter cubs can spend 12 or 18 months with mum, learning all there is know about being an otter, and so she will be a very welcome guest for sometime……….

As a footnote…… We are extremely grateful to Darren Butterworth of Trafalgar Fisheries of Fordingbridge who has donated free of charge, enough small trout to feed Cerridwen for many weeks once she’s weaned. As a volunteer organisation with very limited funds, his generosity is greatly appreciated…Many thanks Darren………

(The photo’s Sandi and I took of Cerridwen were distinctly rubbish, and so we are extremely grateful for these superb photographs taken by Sally Adams of the Bournemouth Echo)

Fundraiser

GREAT NEWS   The Wonderful Schelmish (probably the World’s very best Medieval Rock Band) are to play at a fundraising evening for us on    Feb 28th 2009 at 8pm

The Hamworthy Club, Magna Road, Poole.

Tickets are very limited…. if you’d love a great night out and raise money for DWR please snap your tickets up asap……..

Tickets are £12 and available from us…..    

Send a cheque made payable to S. G. Eaton,  to 

Dorset Wildlife Rescue, 25, Goldfinch Rd, Poole, Dorset, BH17 7TA

ANNOUNCEMENT

The worst of all nightmares happened last week..Our computer CRASHED……

Not the end of the world exactly, but it has caused a major crisis in the fact that our supporters records are now out of date… SO TO ALL OUR SUPPORTERS… if you have moved since Jan 07, or are a new supporter since then… PLEASE  do email your address to us at

dorsetwildliferescue@ntlworld.com so we can ensure you get the newsletters  

AND… please check with any friends/relations that you know support us to ensure we have up to date records

THANKS A MILLION     Nick

Freedom at last

Every year we take in orphaned fox cubs and at ten to twelve weeks old they are transfered to fox release pens.  Now is the time they are given the chance to start their lives back in the wild. We owe a HUGE debt of thanks to Dawn and Barry who year after year take on the responsibility for these cubs. And every year they do a superb job and when August comes along a group of very fit and healthy yound adult foxes are given a second chance at life.. Thank you is to simpilsitic a phase, what we, and the foxes owe to Dawn and Barry is so very much more… the foxes can’t say thank you to them, but we can, and do, from the bottom of our hearts.

Tempted from the pen with food…( food is left out for a week or two, just in case )

Free at last

More bats than your average Belfrey

Helen and Andy, two of our most fantastic volunteer rescuers, have also taken on the role of foster parents to a array of bats that without exception, had been caught by cats. Helen and Andy are wonderul ambassadors for DWR and without their unstinting help, DWR would be very much the poorer.

As a footnote, they are also caring for one of our Sparrowhawks that is nearly as barmy as they are..

King of the Skies

We had a call for help from a chap who lives in a village outside Blandford and as I was 40 minutes away I called upon two dear friends (Tammy and Mike ) to see if they could help. As they live in Blandford they were there in minutes……. Arthur, a beautiful young Buzzard had crash landed and whilst he led Tammy and Mike a merry dance, he was quite unable to fly. By the time I arrived, they had managed to catch Arthur and had covered him up to relieve his stress.   Armed with nothing more than a towel, Tammy had managed to catch him and pop him in a carry box..  Take a close look at Arthurs talons and you’ll realise that had he chosen to, he could have dug them into Tammy’s hand, right down to the bone… Well done Tammy, you’re a real heroine.

Arthur had lost all the primary feathers from one wing, hence the inability to fly, and he had broken one toe…. A few days R & R in the treatment room and then he was off to another good friend (Gail) who kindly has one of our hacking pens in her garden. Gail will lavish love and care on him until he is fit to go back into the wild….

Bird of Prey worries

July and August are tough months for all young Birds of Prey, like young Simone here, (Sparrowhawk) they leave their parents care too soon or are abandoned. And with the RSPB report out today telling of the illegal shooting, trapping and poisoning of these wonderful creatures on the increase, everyone needs your help. Sadly the report states that even the magnificent Golden Eagle is under threat following the poisoning of one of the only breeding pair in the UK. The shooting fraternity have a lot to answer for…

So please do keep an eye out for young Birds of Prey and Owls that are grounded, it usually means they are starving and every one of them is precious….

Excuse the russish photo of Simone, she is most certainly not as keen to grace this website as our group of Kestrals… they are a tad vain and love to look their best…

Herne comes a cropper

This young man has been named Herne, after Herne the Hunter… because he and his kind are perhaps the very best hunters the English countryside can boast. He will catch hundreds of midges a night and all on the wing. But this very fiesty and ungrateful young man was too obsessed with catching his prey to notice a family cat watching his ever move. Thankfully a very kind lady rescued him before too much damage was done. Despite the big and tough facade they try to portray, bats and especially Pipestelles are tiny and very delicate. This chap has several holes in his wing membranes caused by the cats claws and whilst they will heal and he will be released back into the wild, his temporary stay with us for R & R is far from appreciatted. Bats are so characterful and Herne is no exception, his fained temper will subside once he has a full belly…..