Orla the tawny owl was aprox 8 months old on arrival to us during first week of jan 2010. She was found by side of road having been hit by a car. She was badly concussed with a few cuts and both eyes firmly closed. After 1 week she had both eyes open but her responses were very slow, so we took the decision to take every opportunity to start stimulating her senses by having her with us at all times at home and talking to her, even watching the tv and listening to the radio. She still will not feed herself and was really indifferent when introduced to Tegan our resident tawny. 4 weeks on and her responses are very quick but she is very friendly which for a wild owl of her age leads us to the conclusion that when she was hit by the car her memory was damaged, we are hoping it will return soon.
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This is Izzy the little owl who came to us at 5 weeks old with a broken wing. After having wing strapped up for 2 weeks and spending 1 week exercising her wing, she went in small aviary to build up her wing muscles. 2 weeks later she was successfully released back to the wild.
This is Baldrick a 5 week old hedgehog weighing 240 grams who was suffering with mange on arrival to us. As a result he had very few spines. He responded well after a course of 3 Ivomec injections and 10 day course of baytril. His mange is gone but the few spikes he had have all fallen out and do not seem to be growing back. Research and advice made us repeat the ivomec course of treatment but as yet no spikes are growing. Its december now and Baldrick still showing no sign of growing spikes. He now receives a massage every other day of almond oil with few drops of tea tree oil to keep his skin soft and stop it drying out. Baldrick is healthy in every other way and currently weighs 920 grams.
This is Minty who came to us at 3 days old. She was bottle fed for 2 months before the weaning started, but still liked a bottle of milk a couple times a day. At 3 months old we found her a lovely home for life at Hillside Animal Sanctuary where she is with a small flock of sheep.
Morag the moorhen was just 1 day old on arrival. We had difficulty getting her to feed to start with until we offered her food from tweezers with one prong coloured red and one prong yellew to mimick her mothers beak. simple! When she was 14 weeks old we tried to release her at a lovely lake with Moorhens. She would not go, even putting her in the water several times, but got straight out and settled down where we sat. We took her home where she seems to want to stay. Morag has during her stay with us shared her large night time pen with pheasants then seagul chicks and the last 3 weeks with baby wild bunnies. Morag's best friend is a female pheasant called Phillis.
Boris the Noctule bat came to us weighing just 14 grams, (an adult weighs upto 40 grams). After 3 weeks his weight was 32 grams, but still was not showing any signs of flying. We passed Boris on to a very knowledgable and experienced bat expert at The Walcot seal and bird sanctuary for his flying lessons.
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These are Pebbles and Steven two of 15 seagul chicks which we reared this year. Steven weighed 38 grams and Pebbles 45 grams. When old enough they were let out of pen and given the run of garden till they flew away. We have 3 which come back in the late afternoon for a feed. Seagul chicks can be very playful and were often seen playing with balls and sticks in the garden.
This is Millie the hoglet. She weighed 73 grams on arrival and weighed 850 grams on her release. We have had over 60 hoglets and hedgehogs this year. 75% of all hoglets born this year never live to see there first birthday, this is for a variety of reasons but death crossing roads claims a big percentage, and these beautiful creatures are very prone to catching lungworm just from eating what they normally eat like worms and snails. Beetles and catapillers make up over 50% of a wild hedgehogs food intake. poison and slug pellets claim lots of lives to. We love hedgehogs at foxy lodge and when releasing always try to find a suitable large open garden away from busy roads and the owners then leave a meat based cat food out for them as well as a dish of water. We fall in love with each and every one, but they are always given the best possible start. Millie was released during september into a large open wild garden with a hedgehog box and is fed nightly by garden owner.
This is Rambo the Mistlethrush. Came to us from a very caring couple who rescued it while away on holiday and kept it 2 weeks. Our job was to get him wild and feeding himself, not an easy task as he was so tame and friendly. After a couple of days we noticed he was in fact eating seed left out for him, so we ignored him! 2 weeks later we couldn't get near him so job done we released him.
Tegan the tawny owl was about 5 weeks old when she arrived. Her right eye was sore and red. While bathing it we found and removed some wood splinters. We tested both her eyes and found her blind in this eye, a visit to the vets confirmed she was blind in her right eye. We didn't think a one eyed owl would survive in the wild so gave her a permenent home with us. A male tawny would land on her aviary most nights and they would call to each other, which made us feel sorry for her being held captive. With further research we found that a one eyed owl can actually survive and thrive in the wild so after 8 months in captivity on a night when the male tawny came calling on tegan we let her free to go off with him. In captivity she could have lived 20 years, but in the wild a tawny will only live 3 to 4 years on average. We hope she mates with her persistant male friend and has the time of her life.
One of 5 baby squirrels that we took in during september/october 2009. this one weighed 102 grams on arrival and is around 6 weeks old. 4 of the 5 survived to become adults and all live together in a very large garden full of large tree's and still come for the fruit and nuts put out by the gardens owner.
