Latest News ......keep returning here to keep up to date.
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"Swan Notes" News items written by Trust members and appearing regularly in "The Berwick Advertiser" (and less regularly in "The Berwickshire News"), two newspapers covering the Berwick and Borders areas. For those unable to read these items, and those living outside the Berwick area, here are the last few editions..
2nd September 2010
Most of our patients are results of human action
I have been racking my brain trying to think of patients who
would have come to us if it hadn't been for involvement with humans. This train
of thought started when I heard someone say we were interfering with the balance
of nature by saving wildlife lives.
Few natural causes of sickness or injury come our way because
Nature has a way of finishing what it starts. Most natural predation results in
death and very few injured creatures are left to die a lingering death.
My computer is programmed to let me know when there are media
reports containing the words 'wildlife' and 'rescue' and hardly a day goes by
but I read accounts of birds, mainly swans, that have come a cropper through
involvement with fishing tackle. We are relatively fortunate in our corner of
the world, but you only need to go as far as Tyneside to find masses of
discarded monofilament nylon fishing line and hooks causing problems for swans
and ducks.
I was down at Eyemouth keeping an eye on the swan family of two adults and two
bairns who now spend most of their time in the harbour when I saw a Herring Gull
walking awkwardly. When I approached it I realised that its feet were hobbled
about two inches apart by a tangle of fishing line. By the time I went to the
car, got my rescue net and returned, a young boy said it had flown off when he
walked up to it. I suppose it was my own fault for not asking him to keep away
from it until I got back. When I approached a couple of youngsters fishing from
the harbour edge and asked them to make sure they didn't leave any waste fishing
tackle lying about, a rather belligerent gentleman told me to leave the boys
alone. I explained some of the problems caused by thoughtlessness and told him
about the gull. 'It would have been worse if it had been a swan' was his reply.
'Why should one species be more important than another?' I asked. I know gulls
can be a nuisance and that swans are pretty, but the same can be applied to
humans.
It is a mistake for me to go to look at swans. Only a couple of
days later I went to see if any of the swans moulting at the Tweedmouth slipway
had any identifying Darvic rings on their legs. The chap who used to ring the
Berwick swans emigrated to Australia a few years ago and his successor doesn't
come this far north, so fewer and fewer swans can now be identified as
individuals.
Back to the reason swan watching lands me with a problem though.
Anne asked why one of the Mallard ducks was standing on one leg. I said it was
probably just resting that leg, but when I moved closer I could see a green line
round the ankle joint which turned out to be a plastic ring. This time there was
nobody nearby to make the bird fly off while I got my net. I managed to trap it
just after it took off and on examination discovered that the two ends of the
ring disappeared inside the flesh. As gently as I could I prised the ring open
and eased the ends out of the duck's leg. A quarter of an hour later the leg had
been cleaned up by our vet and the open wounds sprayed with some new antiseptic
David was lucky enough to have been given as a sample. One painless injection of
antibiotic and the bird was made comfortable in a cage to recover from the
trauma of being treated. The ring did not appear to be a bird ring, although how
it got onto the bird's leg remains a mystery. Being a plastic material it was
obviously man-made, so once again fits into the human causes of problems that we
see. Please do not throw anything away, but dispose of it carefully.
BARRIE MORTIMER
26th August 2010
The mysterious threat to seals
It seems a while since I have written a column and to tell the truth it is. I messed up my diary a couple of weeks ago so managed to forget it was my turn to write the column. Thanks to Barrie and Pat for making sure that there was still something to appear in print! At least I remembered this week.
You may have seen some news reports on television, on the web or in the newspaper about what I am going to write about this week but I think it is still worthwhile highlighting even if you have heard about it. I am talking, or rather writing, about the subject of the mysterious deaths of grey and common seals that are turning up on the east coast of Britain with wounds that have been described as corkscrew like. The wound starts at the neck and corkscrews down the body. The dead seals seem to have been turning up for a while, at least two years, but it is only recently that this issue seems to have been getting the media coverage it should have been getting. There are also reports of similar seal deaths from other parts of the world, such as Canada.
There are theories about what is causing these injuries and the resulting deaths but not definitive answers. It could be boat propellers or fishing nets or something completely different. Because of it is not known what is causing the injuries it is obviously impossible to do anything to stop them occurring. For this reason it is very important to try to find out what is the cause of the injuries.
The scientists of the St Andrews based Sea Mammal Research Unit are one group that is looking into this but there are many interested parties that are involved in trying to find out what is the cause. Another organisation is the British Divers Marine Life Rescue. The Berwick Swan and Wildlife Trust received an email from them highlighting this issue and also asking that if anyone finds a dead seal with wounds then it needs to be reported. They were concerned that someone may just remove the dead seal not realising the cause of death. The email asked that their consultant vet, James Barnett be contacted on 07703 855 399 and explained that even if there is no answer a message should be left.
Hopefully once the cause of these seals’ deaths is known this may allow something to be done to help stop the seals being injured in the first place so if you do find one of these unlucky animals on the beach please report it so that it can help solve this mystery.
That’s all from me this time and hopefully it will not be so long before I am writing the column again!
GRAEME WILSON
19th August 2010
Thank you to everyone who came to visit our stand at the Spittal Seaside Festival on Saturday. It was a bit of a battle to put up our gazebo in the stiff breeze from the sea. Fortunately we had sand bags and weights and we were able to tie up to the promenade railings. I hung on to the top whilst Dick and Terry got the sides up. At least the direction of the wind meant that if I took off I would get home very quickly. It was a good day and we met a lot of new people as well as our regular supporters a lot of whom went home with some nice prizes they won on the wheel of fortune. I hope the festival achieved its object of encouraging people to use the area. The seafront at Spittal is lovely. It was a pity the weather was not better and we were only able to attend on the Saturday.
Before we went to set up on Saturday we were called about a seagull with a broken wing at the lifeboat station so Dick picked this up on his way to collect the gazebo. David put the poor bird to sleep as its wing was an awful mess. Then there was a call from the owner of Budle Bay camp site about an otter which was seen crossing a road and then hiding in a hedgerow. He realised this was not natural behaviour and phoned us to help, but before we could set off the animal had disappeared.
Back at the shed our nine ducklings and four cygnets are all progressing nicely. A barn owl which has been with us for a while is still unable to fly and will have to continue to be monitored to see if it is making any progress.
We have a swan with a shotgun pellet lodged in its top beak and the vet is going to try to remove it this week, another swan had the tip of its wing amputated and it is making a good recovery. Two other swans are also doing OK.
A kestrel was brought in with a badly infected foot after an accident which also led to a fracture of one of its toes. The vet has now amputated the toe and the bird is doing very well and should be able to be released.
Baby Buzzard is doing brilliantly she can fly and land accurately although the branches really rattle as she lands. She is a heavy bird and very fit. Here I must say a big thank you to the people who have brought in pheasant, rabbit, hare a woodpigeon road kills in for her. At least its not just us and the vet picking up bodies from the road now we’ve got our members joining in too. It was very important that Buzzard could recognise food and this has been a huge help to us.
We appealed for the road kills at our A.G.M. and have been very pleased with the response. So could I also ask if anyone has any bolted lettuce please bring them in to us or let us know and we can collect. Our cygnets will eat them all day (and night) and they are expensive to buy.
Our next day out is at BARK dog show on 29th August so do come and see us there.
Till next time
Pat Goff.
12th August 2010
Being well known is a double-edged sword
Having a phone number that is quite well known can be a double edged sword. Graeme is snowed under with work and the Trust column completely slipped his mind. The Tweeddale Press has got my number however, so here I am trying to remember what has happened in the past week. Age has this funny way of making my memory selective and I can recall things that happened when I was a young lad, but last week can be a closed book.
If I work backwards it might come back to me. On Monday night at 10.45pm I got a call from a very apologetic gentleman. 'Sorry to call so late' he said 'I got your number off the internet and didn't know who else to call. I've just picked up an injured hedgehog from the road near Coldstream. I gave him directions to the Swan Shed and said I would set off immediately and meet him there. I decided to give our vet a call as I was putting on my shoes. 'Any chance David will be able to get to the Shed tonight?' I asked Kay, his wife, and explained that I was going to try and make the hedgehog comfortable in the meantime. 'Oh, we can head off straight away, so no need for you to turn out unless you particularly want to.' was her reply. It is now Tuesday morning and David has just informed me he had to put the poor beast to sleep. At least it didn't have to suffer any longer than necessary.
While on about hedgehogs, I must tell you that the wee fellow who had been going to be released by somebody just over a week ago has now put on weight and is nearly up to the release weight we insist on. When he came in he was 570grammes and he is now 880. Only another 120 grammes till he gets to our 1kg deadline.
Another hedgehog from Yetholm is not eating and has just been X-rayed to see if David can ascertain just what is wrong with him.
We've got a swan in from St. Boswells with a similar undiagnosed problem. All we can say is that it is miserable and off-colour. Sometimes a course of worming tablets and antibiotics can work wonders. Both the hedgehog and the swan will be kept under close observation to see if any recognisable signs show themselves.
Now on to my long-term memory. Many years ago, before we had our permanent home, I was offered some show cages from the Galashiels Bird Club. They have been stored in my garden ever since, but now they have been stripped down and the galvanised weldmesh panels have found their destiny. The four cygnets on show at our Open Day were getting a bit big for the enclosures in which they were housed. They now have a much bigger area in which to stretch their legs on the grass and the lightweight corrals can be moved onto clean grass every day
I'm in the doghouse at home. I got a carload of fish skins and fins from our good friends at D.R.Collin of Eyemouth with which to feed the gulls. Somehow some fishy water must have leaked out and despite having a great big sheet of plastic covering the car floor it now stinks of fish. That'll teach Anne to complain about having swans in the boot!
Graeme will be here next week.