Peregrine photos

Here are a few of the photos that we took while examining the young peregrine from Worcester.

2 Peregrine Falcons in one day!

Firstly, a huge thank-you to everyone who came to our Open Day on Sunday & made it such a success. The weather was brilliant despite the forecast saying we would get heavy rain all day. I am sure the forecast must have put a lot of people off but the turnout was still very good & we took over £5,500 on the day! We are very grateful to all our staff & volunteers for the fantastic effort they all put into the day.

Next to our patients. We are now in the middle of our busiest time with dozens of new casualtires coming in every day. Despite 70% of our intake being birds, we very rarely see a peregrine falcon. Today, we have had two in! The first was a youngster from a well-known nest in Worcester city centre. This one is the first of the four chicks to have flown the nest, & was only on it's third flight when it was mobbed by a seagull & then by crows & magpies & ended up grounded, & according to the reports we had, injured.

It was taken to the police station & we collected it & brought it back to the Hospital for examination. Luckily it hadn't sustained any injuries at all, we think that the blood on its face was probably from its last meal! It was however, very stressed so it was put in one of our seclusion aviaries to calm down. We have now arranged to return it to its nest when it is dark so that it will not fly but will have the night to get over its ordeal & by the morning it should be back to normal.

The second one, a male, was brought in this afternoon with a serious wing injury. Unfortunately the wing was dislocated at the carpal joint & the tendons had been torn so we had no alternative but to put it to sleep. The bird had a BTO ring on & when we contacted them they told us that it was a 10-year old male - very sad.

Hugh Warwick

Hugh Warwick, renowned author & hedgehog fanatic has confirmed that he will be attending our Open Day this coming Sunday (7th June). He will be giving an illustrated talk on hedgehogs as well as signing copies of his brilliant new book 'A Prickly Affair'.

Please come along & support us from 11am-4pm.

This will be your only chance to see what goes on behind the scenes in the Hospital & to see all the baby birds & mammals being hand-fed & looked after by our staff & volunteers.