Flying High

We get many calls a day about baby birds that are orphaned and injured. From right across the Craven area, all different shapes, sizes and species arrive at our door. We do our absolute best to make sure they will soon be flying high.

Meet Woody. This tiny Great Spotted Woodpecker arrived with us because it was struggling. It wasn't able to climb the tree in the garden where its siblings were.

It just kept falling off the tree trunk and eventually its parents lost interest in it. When it arrived with us, it was frail and stayed at the house of Penny, our co-founder. She put a variety of branches in its cage, to encourage it to climb for its food and spent many, many hours on its care. As it started to get stronger, it was moved to the Rescue and went from strength to strength.

When it was ready to go back into the wild, it was collected by the man whose garden it came from. He was elated, not only to see that it had survived, but that it was ready for its own life in the wild.

We have birds of all shapes and sizes, but these wren fledglings are the smallest. The finders noticed that the parent birds had not returned to the nest, and the youngsters were getting louder and louder. Our volunteer climbed a ladder and grabbed all 6 tiny babies along with the nest from a fan flue! They went home with another volunteer, as needed feeding regularly throughout the day. These little ones were so hungry that it didn't need much persuasion to get them to take what we were offering, despite being very frightened. We have specialist bird food for every type of bird that comes into our care, and this includes every stage of their rearing. It shouldn't be too long before we can get these tiny bundles back out into the wild.

We have had lots of tawny owlets this spring. Apart from two siblings, they have all come in individually. They were all too small to be out of the nest and there was no way of returning them to it. Most owlets are cared for, on the first part of their journey with us, by separate Rescue volunteers who have been caring for and feeding them in their own homes, until the owlets are managing to eat independently. Like many orphans, they do better with at least one friend, and it helps them stop becoming imprinted to humans. We pride ourselves on our training of volunteers - a number of our volunteers have completed the Raptor First Aid and Rehabilitation course at the National Bird of Prey Centre. We will have more volunteers going again this year.

When the owlets are ready, they are put in an enclosure together, and they can grow and learn to be wild and independent. At that point, we have to be hands off and not even look at these adorable creatures. It's hard, but we want them wild and free and ready for their own life, when it's the time for them to return to the wild. If you are interested in supporting our work with owls, you can buy an Owl Sponsorship Certificate by clicking here.