GGOWEROWER BBIRDIRD HHOSPITALOSPITAL KKeepingeeping wiwildlifeldlife wiwildld Issue 13 2009/2010 £1.75 Newsletter no 13 Gower Bird Hospital registered as a charity in 1996. All care is given to patients totally free of charge, but it does cost money. It currently costs around £50,000 a year to run Gower Bird Hospital which is a relatively small amount This male sparrowhawk (above left) had hit a window whilst for the work we do – a chasing a bird. Thankfully there were no broken bones and the salary for one person next day we were able to release him where he had been found . in some big charities! The eyes of a mature adult male sparrowhawk can be deep We depend entirely on Iolo Williams (one of the patrons of Gower Bird Hospital) chatting to orange. donations. Members of Simon and Karen in the treatment room. The young male sparrowhawk (above right) was brought to the public, the RSPCA Gower Bird Hospital covered in oil. A large factory had closed and private vets bring our supporters’ kind donations and down and he had mistaken a pool of waste oil for water. The over 1600 patients to us every year — standing orders. Thank you! sparrowhawk spent 20 days at the Hospital receiving treatment without Gower Bird Hospital there simply and the picture shows him cleaned up and being put into one of wouldn’t be anywhere for most of them to our rehabilitation aviaries before release. Note the difference in go to receive the specialist help they need. eye colour due to his age. Gower Bird Hospital only exists because of Born to be a hunter What’s inside Pages 6-7 Page 10-11 What people can do is look at the e often receive phone calls Hedgehogs are Wasking us how to stop position of their bird feeders. If your Getting our regular visitors to sparrowhawks taking birds from feeders and/or bird table is in an open patients up and the Hospital and about and back peopleÕs gardens. ItÕs important to area giving you a good view of the sometimes the into the wild is utmost skill is remember that sparrowhawks have birds, what may be happening is that you are providing the sparrowhawk our number one needed to save been hunting birds for thousands of priority. their lives. years and have evolved to be very with extremely easy targets. efficient hunters Ð they canÕt eat A clear flight path with little cover Pages 8-9 Page 12-13 anything else! makes it a lot easier for the How we stay Sometimes we sparrowhawk to catch the birds. Most in touch get some RSPB studies have proved that with old friends surprising visitors sparrowhawks do not reduce birds forage for food near natural cover with an eye always open for after they’ve flown rooting around songbird populations and a good the nest. the place. sparrowhawk population indicates a danger. Positioning feeding stations good healthy population of close to hedges or shrubs provides Published by Gower Bird Hospital. Designed and typeset by Eifion Jenkins ( 01834 813251. ( songbirds. more protection for the birds as they All pictures © Gower Bird Hospital & Chinch 01792 233649 (except where indicated otherwise) can dash for cover very quickly. Printed by AST, Cardiff ( 02920 493711. Cover picture: Tawny owl 2 3 Nurture needs special skills Pictures tell the story Sad but true Rearing a young bird on its in a tale of our tits own, talking to it and letting it become used to people is doing it no favours. Sadly, we get calls every year from people who have hand reared a young bird and are wondering why it won’t fly away. It won’t fly away because it has been reared as part of a human family and doesn’t know how to interact with wild birds. A hand reared bird can become humanised – it’s The blue tit nestlings. tame but also thinks it is human and looks to people for food and may even try to If a single nestling is brought to the Hospital, we have so many inpatients during mate with you. A sad, the busy fledgling season, there is a good chance that we are already confused and usually short rehabilitating some of the same species. These blue tits are not all siblings but life as people quickly are quite happy socialising with their new family group. BLACKBIRD NESTLINGS BEING FED — the bird is facing become fed up with bird away from the person feeding it and is responding to the droppings all over the movement of the tweezers. As well as not talking whilst feeding house. the birds, we also try to keep their focus on the food, not us. ver a third of wild bird casualties and start feeding it. Obrought to Gower Bird Hospital Is there magic or special skill or a are babies -young dependant birds relationship involved in the act of whose nests have been disturbed or feeding a baby bird? destroyed. Hand rearing these The skill is in avoiding youngsters is not just about feeding. developmental psychological For the best chance of survival in the problems. The relationship is in the The blue tit fledglings. wild they must be fed, but equally social grouping with other birds of the important is the mental development. same species Ð not the person. A couple of weeks later and the blue tits are almost ready for release. As soon If young enough, a baby bird will The magic is in releasing the birds as they had enough feathers to keep themselves warm they were transferred open its beak and beg for food from knowing that they can interact with into one of our aviaries and we continued to hand feed. They soon fledged out of any object (cat, dog, human!) that their own species, find their own food their nests and started learning the skills needed to survive in the wild – comes close to it. Understandably and not just survive but also find a perching, flying, finding their own food and interacting with each other. people find this begging irresistible partner and raise their own young. 4 5 It’s a wild wild world ... AndAnd that’sthat’s wherewhere wewe belongbelong ur rehabilitation Oaviaries often mean the difference between life and death for our patients. The aviaries are camouflaged so people cannot see in as this would only frighten the inpatients or, in the case of young hand reared birds, make them too accustomed to people which would greatly reduce their chances of survival when released. ABOVE — Collared doves are also regular Inside the aviaries we inpatients at the Hospital. provide as much natural material as possible Ð RIGHT — This woodcock needed special care plants and shrubs, soil and after being wounded by a bite from a dog. leaf litter on the ground and an extra privacy screen at the back so the birds can Care tailored to suit What is feel secure and take cover if FLYING THE NEST — One of a nest of three hand reared song tame? they feel they need to. thrushes (the other two have already taken cover!) an individual’s needs Food appropriate There does seem to be some confusion about the word to the species is OUR rehabilitation aviaries can be adapted to supplied and we “tame”. A gentleman once said can supplement the suit different species. “I’ve got a tame robin in my natural diet of Woodcocks have long tapering beaks to garden, what’s wrong with that?” The answer is absolutely insectivorous birds search out their diet of worms, beetles, snails nothing, the difference is that with mealworms and other insects. They spend much of the day the robin knows exactly what it scattered on the under cover and are most active at night. The is, it was reared by its own ground. All our woodcock pictured here was brought to the parents - it is a wild bird. aviaries have CCTV Hospital with a bite wound from a dog. Robins also follow large cameras so we can animals (not so long ago it keep an eye on our The wounds healed well and being able to would have been wild boars patients without recuperate in one of our rehabilitation aviaries rooting around woodlands) so disturbing them. played a major part in its recovery. The privacy following you around as you dig the garden looking for insects TEMPORARY and natural environment reduced the stress of temporary captivity and enabled the woodcock and worms in the disturbed soil LODGINGS — isn’t too far from their normal Inside one of our to feed itself, foraging through the earth and behaviour. aviaries. vegetation as it would in the wild. 6 7 It’s good to stay in touchGoneGone butbut notnot forgottenforgotten This great crested grebe was brought to the Goosander in aquapen. Gulls at the poolside. Hospital with a head injury resulting in a not so great crest. As well as our earth floored aviaries we also have waterproof and washing and preening is essential cormorants, shags, fulmars, gannets, kittiwakes, It received two aquapens – rehabilitation aviaries for water to keep the feather structure in tip top condition. coots, goosanders, great northern divers, little treatment from our vet and after a birds. The water pools are absolutely essential Many species of water birds have arrived needing and great crested grebes, mallards and tufted for all water birds as their plumage has to be ducks. couple of weeks these facilities including all species of gulls, recuperating in the aquapen was released fit What happens to our patients after weÕve and well.