Babies, babies everywhere!!

Things are really starting to get busier now and combined with the fact that we are now 2 staff down, I think that the coming busy season will put us all to the test.

We now have eleven fox cubs and amongst the other youngsters we have in at the moment are baby squirrels, two muntjac deer fawns, baby blackbirds and robins and several baby pigeons, all needing regular hand feeds. This is besides the adult casualties that we are dealing with every day.

Natalie & Helen's Arctic Trek

Natalie and Helen left for their 250km Arctic husky trek last Saturday and we had a text from them on Sunday just before they lost signal going up into the mountains.
We had another text this morning (they got a signal on the phone very briefly). They said it's been very hard, trekking about 50km every day, and is so cold at night that their sleeping bags and their hair freezes!
It is their last night under canvas tonight as tomorrow night they are in a hotel having their first shower and first proper meal for a week.
We are very proud of what they have done to help Vale - maybe it will inspire other people to undertake a sponsored event for us.

Here we go....spring again!

Well, fox cub number 6 came in today, a tiny little thing with eyes still shut. It was found under a shed, and from the sound of it, it should have been left exactly where it was. Unfortunately as the cub was passed to us third hand we have no finder details, otherwise we could have taken it back.

We already have three cubs of about the same age which came in when they were only about 2 days old. These are being bottle fed every three hours and are making great progress despite a bit of chestiness when they first came in.

We also have two older fox cubs, a badger cub (pictured) and our first fledgling blackbird was brought in today too. It won't be long now before our rooms are bursting at the seams with young mouths shouting for food!!

First 2009 Fox Cub

We have now taken in our first fox cub of the year. We normally start to get them in during March, although we have had them in as early as the beginning of February before.

This little female cub was found on her own with no sign of any siblings or her mum. She is much too young to be without the vixen so the finder had no choice but to take her in. In this case it was the right thing to do, but often, young fox cubs should be left alone. If in any doubt, ring us or your local wildlife rescue centre for advice.

We really need to get another cub of a similar age with her as soon as possible to avoid her becoming imprinted on people, which is difficult to avoid when hand-rearing a single animal. If we do not get another one in soon, we will have to consider finding another centre with similar aged cubs that we can pass her on to.

We have also had a fledgling tawny owl in which was found sitting on a trampoline beneath a huge tree. Although tawnys are well known for their ability to climb back up trees to their nests, there was no way that this one would have got to that height and it was far too high for us to get him back there.

Despite his fall, he was totally uninjured and is doing very well with us, now feeding himself. We will shortly be passing him on to The Barn Owl Centre where they have adult tawny owls which adopt any youngsters which are put with them. This is obviously much better for the youngster and he will eventually be released back into the wild, probably with other young tawny owls.

Difficult times...please help!

The recession is taking its toll on all charities although the larger ones often have large reserves to fall back on in difficult times.Small charities such as ours have no such safety net, and with donations down by about 30% so far this year, we are getting very worried for the future.Please help us to continue our work and to get through this financial nightmare.

Get all your friends to support us too.How about organising a fundraiser in aid of Vale? A sponsored event, a coffee morning, a jumble sale or some other way of raising a few pounds. Every little helps!

We will celebrate 25 years of helping Britain's wildlife in June, please help us to make sure we reach our 26th birthday too!!

Please call us for advice if you have any concerns at all about wildlife, we will be happy to take your call and will give the best advice we can.

Thank-you all for your support - please get everyone you know to support us and tell everyone about our 25th Anniversary Open Day on Sunday 07 June 2009.

Countdown to the 'Mad Season'

Well, the baby bird and mammal season is looming once again and before very long our Hospital will be brimming with tiny mouths calling out to be fed every few minutes. We have all been enjoying the quiet (ish!) winter months but we are now gearing up for the intake of the majority of our annual patient total which come in between April and August.

We could see fox or badger cubs any time now with baby birds starting to hatch towards the end of next month.

One plea before the madness starts: Please, please if you think you have found an abandoned wildlife baby, ring your nearest wildlife centre for advice before picking it up. More often than not it will not have been abandoned but the parent will not come back to it while you are anywhere near. Many baby birds will spend several days on the ground when they first leave the nest, before they start to fly properly, deer fawns will be left sometimes for many hours while mum goes off to forage for food. They should not be touched.

A majority of the baby birds brought in to us have been caught by cats. Please try to keep cats in if you know there are baby birds around, but if your cat does manage to catch one, please take it to a rescue centre as soon as possible as it is vital that the bird receives antibiotics within a few hours for it to stand any chance of survival.

Please call us for advice if you have any concerns at all about wildlife, we will be happy to take your call and will give the best advice we can.

No updates for a couple of weeks

This will be the last post for a couple of weeks but I will be back then to update everyone on what has been going on at Vale.

Things will start to get busier in a few weeks and I am hoping to be able to update the site at least a couple of times a week.

Please carry our number with you when you are out and about (01386 882288) - you never know when you will need us, even just to ask our advice.

Don't forget to spread the word about our 25th Anniversary Open Day on Sunday 7th June!!

And make sure you find us on Facebook and join the growing membership on there.

Back in a couple of weeks.

2009 so far...

We have now taken in over 70 casualties this year, which is a considerable number for the winter months, which is our quietest time of the year.

We have treated several foxes, mostly as a result of road accidents. We have also dealt with a few deer, again after collisions with cars.

A sparrowhawk was brought in after colliding with a window, suffering from concussion. After treatment and a couple of days recuperation, she was released back where she was found.

More underweight hedgehogs have been brought in and these are now tucking into regular supplies of cat and dog food, putting on weight, and will be released when the weather improves.

We are also busy organising our 25th Anniversary Open Day, to be held on Sunday 07 June 2009. It's hard to believe that it was so many years ago that I took in that very first tawny owl, the beginnings of Vale Wildlife.

Please tell all your friends about the Open Day and help us to make it a day to remember!

If you haven't already joined us on our Facebook page, please support us today and join by clicking on the following link:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=38936858194

Busy start & worrying future....

We have already dealt with quite a few mammals and birds in 2009 so it looks like being a busy year, particularly if we get the good summer (at last) which is being forecast.

Vale's name also seems to be reaching further afield as we are getting an ever-increasing number of calls from people all over the country as well as from vets and other rescue centres and wildlife hospitals seeking advice.

We have had quite a big mention in writer Hugh Warwick's new book 'A Prickly Affair, My Life With Hedgehogs' and have already received calls for advice from people who have read about us in it.

We are always happy to help whenever we can.

My biggest worry at the present time is the credit crunch. Although the takings in our local charity shop are up by about 20% as people are tending to buy more second-hand clothes and other goods, financial donations made to Vale have gone down quite considerably and if the current trend continues it will not take very long for us to start struggling. Although we are grateful to everyone who continues to support us financially, including the anonymous donor who has now sent us 3 donations totalling £720 (thank-you, whoever you are!!), we need all of you to remember our wildlife through these difficult times.

Casualty No. 1 of 2009

The very first casualty of 2009 was a fox, brought in by the RSPCA after it was found tangled in netting.

Wildlife often gets itself into trouble around netting of all kinds, garden netting, football and tennis nets, netting covering ponds, they all make good traps for unsuspecting animals going about their business.

It is a good idea to try to make sure nets are kept away from where they can cause problems - games nets should be taken down or tied up out of the way when not in use and other types should be regularly checked to make sure nothing is trapped in them.

This fox was lucky and lives to see at least a bit more of this New Year. He was carefully untangled from the net at the Hospital and as there were no injuries, he was taken straight back to where he came from and released back into the wild.