Latest News Sponsor a Hedgehog  Help the Trust by sponsoring a hedgehog. For further details click here. "Swan Notes" News items written by Trust members and volunteers and usually appearing in the “Berwick Advertiser" newspaper each  week. Unfortunately, sister newspaper the “Berwickshire News” are no longer following suit. For those unable to read these items, and  those living outside the Berwick area, here are the last few editions.. 4th March 2021 At last the Barn Owl was released last week. She had been with us a fair while but it was best to wait for a spell of better weather to give her time to settle back into the wild.  Another release was the swan that has also been with us through all the really cold weather. It came in weighing 7.5 kilos. When it was  weighed on release it was 10.5 kilos, fit and healthy. There was a delay in the release as the river was a raging torrent some days and  when Dick checked it out last week, there were huge pieces of timber being tossed down the river. Thankfully this Monday the river was  flowing much more gently, so another release was accomplished. Late last week we had a Meadow Pipit brought in. It had flown into a window and was  unable to fly. Since it was probably very stressed we put it in a cage with food and water  and left it in a quiet warm place. Kay could not feel any fracture in the wings so we hoped  that David Rollo’s ‘Lets give it time’ might help. On Sunday the bird was much brighter  instantly pouncing on the mealworms we scattered in the cage and gobbling them up. It  was not happy being in such a confined space so we moved it into the Longridge Aviary to  give it more room.  In here it attempted to fly although it could not get much lift. We are  hoping a few days will make an improvement.  With the milder weather some of the hedgehogs outside are waking up. It’s a little early for  this, but when the milder weather arrived, they felt it was time. We can’t release them yet  as we may still have a sudden visit from the ‘Beast from the East’ and if they are released  to a place they are not familiar with, they will not know where to shelter. So some of them  are off the dried food and on to fresh to build themselves up. We only have five hedgehogs  inside in the warm now. In view of the heartening news about Covid restrictions, we are tentatively planning a couple of Open Days this year. Allowing that re-  opening up may take a little longer than hoped, we thought July 24th or 31st and then we can get another in on October 9th. We also  will have to fit in our A.G.M. somewhere along the line, so it may be after one of these Open Days.  As ‘Friends’ meetings are quicker to organise we can fit a visit earlier as soon as restrictions allow.   We also have plans to build a shed for overwintering hedgehogs next year but we have to check building regulations and check out a  suitable site so just at the moment I can’t give precise details. Hopefully in a few weeks will see the plans finalised.  Pat Goff 25th February 2021 Last week we took in our first hedgehog of 2021. It came in needing quite a few small ticks removing but otherwise healthy. Too small at  360 grams but must have just woken up. It was put in a cage with a heat pad and a bowl of food and the next morning we found the  bowl licked clean and he had wrapped himself up in his towel to sleep of his meal. We shall have to check him in a few days to make sure  there are no missed ticks. He should be ready to be released in the spring. We have two imminent releases. One is a Barn Owl that came in after a road traffic accident at the  beginning of November last year. When she was brought in her head was covered in blood, both eyes were bloody and her beak was full of blood. We took her to the Vets where her right eyelid was stitched by the  Vet. We had drops and ointment to put in her eyes three times a day. She looked a very sad sight for  several days but soon began eating her chicks and mice. She hated being in a cage so as soon as we had  stopped doing the eye drops we moved her outside. Although she looked OK we discovered later that she  had lost he sight of one eye. When she went into the big aviary we were pleased to see that she was  landing on perches and finding her food despite only having sight in one eye. She has gone on from  strength to strength and is now ready to be released. She will be taken to where she was found where  fortunately there are lots of owl boxes. We are just waiting for a couple of dry calm days to give her time  to find her way about again. The second bird due for release is a swan that came in on 2nd December last year. He came in from  Foulden and was very unsteady on his feet. He seemed to tip forwards as he tried to walk. After  examination we could find nothing physically wrong so he was put into the little pond enclosure to see  what he could do for himself. He was a reasonable weight at 7.9 kilos. After a few weeks he began to  improve and has been fine for several weeks now. He wants to join the other birds (cygnets) in the big  pond but when we tried to introduce him he hated the youngsters and chased them all round the pond. We had to remove him after he was trying to drown one of them. We decided if he was fit enough for that he  was fit enough to release. The trouble is that just at the moment the river is a brown torrent and full of all sorts of debris that could  cause a swan nasty injuries. So he will be with us a few more days. Many thanks for your kind donations cash and kind all very much appreciated.  Pat Goff 18th February 2021 What an awful weekend we have just had. Friday was bad enough, but on Sunday morning after slithering down our lane coming in to  the Rollo Centre, we found conditions even worse. The pathways at the centre were just a sheet of ice, and around the big pond it was a skating rink. Dick collected up the frozen food buckets for Kay and me, by hanging on to the fence all the way round. The swans had kept  half the pond free of ice so they were able to have their lettuce broken up on the water. The feed buckets were put in the surgery to  thaw out overnight. It is difficult to remove left over food from solid ice, so they are cleaned the next day. Fortunately, we have enough  buckets. We made up fresh buckets and we just went through the gateway to the  pond, which luckily was dry and not slippery and pushed the buckets like curling  stones along the icy paving. That was about all we could do for them. We tottered  about round the hedgehog huts and owl aviaries changing the frozen water bowls.  We were frozen ourselves by the time we had finished. This morning (Monday) what a change, the snow and ice is slowly disappearing and  there is very little wind. I took this photo of volunteer Wilma checking the  hedgehogs in Hotchi Mews. She said it was pleasantly warm after the recent cold  snap. Jackie was able to clean the pond area properly and hopes to empty and  clean the pond on Wednesday which will be a week later than normal so the  Cygnets will enjoy the clean water even more. We would like to thank Mrs. Gardener who called in today with more of the heat  pad covers she kindly makes for us. She makes them from old fleece blankets and  they are so useful to us. We would like to thank MacDonald’s for the left over  lettuce they send us. We are very lucky to have so many people helping us. We must also say a very special thank you to Jenna Patterson whose mum Jayne  died very recently. Her brother was Michael Lambert who was one of the founding members of the Trust. Jayne used to bring volunteers  Tom and Carol from Duns every Friday. We have missed all the volunteers from Duns, who have been unable to come for a year now due  to Covid. Jenna is raising money for us on Facebook in memory of her mother, which we hope to use towards the cost of our new  hedgehog hibernation shed. More news about this next week. We are hoping to plan a couple of Open Days later in the year and also a few ‘Friends’ days. We just have to wait and see how  restrictions will work.  Pat Goff