Diary The latest news,events and stories from Claws'n'Paws & the Bird & Animal. Rescue Team February/March 2010 In February we had pretty bad and cold weather. Keeping all our inmates warm and comfortable was a real challenge. We had frozen pipes quite a lot of the time and little heating. But we survived the snow and ice. Sadly we lost one of our chickens through a chest infection, and one of our quails just disappeared from one of our aviary cages which was a bit of a puzzle until we found the smallest of gaps at the back of the cage where we think it may have got out from. Thanks to our volunteers this month for helping to build fences, allotment work on weeds and cleaning out our hutches and aviary cages on a regular basis. We received 3 more Ducks from Horden in March. A male and two female Mallards. The old gentleman who owned them had had a stroke and was unable to continue looking after them. we haven't named them ... yet ?? Our in-house duck pond is now taking shape. March brought slightly better weather but again sadly on 16th March one of our long term residents 'snippy' finally fell into a poor state due to her having a parasite on the brain. We knew she had this condition when she came to us and she had a long and happy last part of her life. The vet said she had been wonderfully looked after but sadly she had to be put to sleep due to the ravages of her illness.  January 2010 OUR FIRST CHICKEN COUP  It was so essential that we got some accommodation for our Cockerel and Hens and due to receiving some specific monies for start up costs from our funders we were able to get this super home for them. It accommodates up to 15 small hens and Bobby (Cockerel) and the other hens are now enjoying a much better quality of life. We've named all our hens and have given them coloured plastic leg rings. We know their name by the colour. So green for example is Gena . Easy really !! Maybe you'd like to adopt a hen or even Bobby? Why not contact us for details - see our Home Page for contact information. October 2009 WHAT A PRIVILEGE 20th October 2009 saw the start of our Allotment Project which seeks to build an ecology pond, wild garden and grow food for birds and animals in our care. What a privilege it was to see a young man, and another with a clear disability, pick up a spade and clear more grass and brush in an hour than I ever could in the space of a whole day. We were so privileged to be able to give an opportunity for members of MIND (Hartlepool) and from our Country Wardens Team, together with our H.A.R.T Members to begin to bring our allotment project to fluition. We are so grateful for the help already provided just for this one day. Our photo below shows ClawsnPaws Chair, Erika Nugent standing in what was just an overgrown allotment at Catcote Site, Summerhill, suddenly transformed in the space of one day. At the end of the morning one young man from MIND asked if it would be possible to come and see the ClawsnPaws animals ? I tell you what - it will be a JOY to show him round and anyone else who helps us. I am humbled that he had to ask !
SUMMER 2009 (JUNE, JULY, AUGUST)
It has been so hectic we've never stopped. Thanks to all who are now helping and to our sponsors and those of you who have made donations - please, please keep your gifts coming in - every penny counts. In the last 3 months over the summer we have been inundated with babies and fledglings from sparrows to swifts, swallows, juvenile seagulls, and pigeons. We have also rejoined one lost dog (who we called Chester because he was found in Chester-le-Street, but his real name was Danny), to his 82 year old owner and discovered he was a retired police dog. He just rolled over and over on the lawn when he was returned - happy to have been re-united. (the dog that is !!) SPOT
Spot - Baby seagull Kath called us and we picked up a baby seagull from her who had fallen from his nest and could not be returned. We called him Spot because of all his spotty feathers. We nurtured him for weeks through to the day when in front of our eyes he simply fledged and flew straight out of our Wild Barn. He came back that evening to have his last sardine and then we watched as he flew into his new life of freedom. Just recently we have taken in Chicken Pie and Twinnie, a Cockerel and Brood Hen, and very lately our very own sweet little baby wild rabbit (named Malone, after Bugsy!!). We reckon he was only 6 days old when he came to us from a man in Hartlepool who'd found him on the moors left all on his own, perhaps dropped by a Bird of Prey. He had a small sore on the back of his neck!!... He's doing fine now though, cuddling up to our resident cat Baldrick, who can't of course see him (as he's blind) but the two of them look real friends together! - more photos here soon.... SPRING 2009 (March, April, May) MAY 26th 2009 We had a stall at Hartlepool's European Good Neighbours Day held on the Burbank Estate. We raised £50 for ClawsnPaws, all of which will go towards the welfare of the birds and animals currently in our care. YOu can see a movie of the day and our stall by clicking on the link below:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qI0T30MMgiU BIRDS & ANIMALS UPDATE (July 2009) We now have in our care : 1 Orange Winged Amazon Parrot (called Sally), 1 Nanday Conure (called Harry), 1 Jenday Conure (called Daisy May), 6 Zebra Finches, 2 Canaries, 1 Rabbit (called Snippy), 1 Alsation (called Grizzy), 1 Old Blind Cat (called Baldrick), 2 Aylesbury Ducks (called Roger and Gertrude), and 2 rescued Mallard Ducks. We have room for more ducks, poultry generally, rabbits, guinea pigs, any wild birds including Owls and Raptors but NOT dogs or cats at present as we are awaiting the re-build of NEW facilities. Currently we are preparing for our usual round of victims just after the breeding season when the young wild birds, gulls and animals get into all sorts of 'situations'. Our picture galleries show our successes and sadly some failures in the past but we are now looking forward to opening better premises and with donations and funding, better facilities. NEW FACILITIES A few pictures will follow soon of the new site. The NEW doors securing the barn for wild aniamls, a view of the paddock where ducks & aviary will be and a picture of an old poultry house which is to be fully repaired again. To make a donation from as little as 1 pound simply click on donations from the home page and make your donation on line by debit or credit card. Here are some of our Claws n Paws Family When Harry met Sally !!! Grizzy - in the Mobile Home !!!
JANUARY 2009 BREAK-IN SEALS SOOTY's FATE
Just after New Year 2009, intruders smashed down a back gate at Summers Hill and either took Sooty (Black Rabbit) or opened his cage and let him go. He has not been seen since ! We think the intruders were disturbed when we let Grizzy out for her last breath of fresh air that day, otherwise they may have opened ALL our caged animals! This kind of malicious mischeivous behaviour doesn't help our work at all. Hopefully sooty will be OK - he will be sadly missed by our volunteer workers from H.A.R.T and we just hope he is OK - he was found running about in the wild and so we must presume he can survive on,his own now havin g had the best care we could give him for several months. DECEMBER 2008 HAPPY CHRISTMAS and NEW YEAR to all our Members and Sponsors !! Our December committee meeting has been postponed until early January due to quite a few committee members being ill or unable to come. Hope its not a trend SUNDAY 14th December 2008 sees our first Boot Sale at the Sedgefield Racecourse. Come along and help if you can - we have a van full of items for sale. All funds raised will go towards the upkeep of the animals. RIP OLLIE
Sadly one of our little friends won't see Christmas. Ollie the rabbit passed away in the night of 6th December 2008. He had only been off his food for one day and the next ... he was gone..... All we can say is that he had a good comfortable time here at our ClawsnPaws Summershill Site and will be sadly missed, particularly by the young children who looked in on him from time to time. Goodnight Ollie, we hope we did you well ! NOVEMBER 2008 This month Claws n Paws were successful in getting further forward with an allocation of land. The OFCA Community Farm site at Summerhill Country Park have offered some land. A lot of planning has to go into it before we can be given a final yes, but things are looking good at present for early 2009. Claws n Paws have engaged the services of Peter Gowland at HVDA who is helping tremendously to get through lots of red tape. OCTOBER 2008 In the early part of the month a friend of Claws'n'Paws reported that his wife had seen a seagull in distress. We sent our HART on-call crew and picked up the hapless bird. He was looked after until 2nd November 2008 at the ClawsnPaws Summershill site - we called him BOB !
He was very unsteady on his feet at first but did fine ! After a week and a half of tender love and care, Bobbie started looking skywards at the other seagulls flying overhead and trying his best to jump up and down and take off. He was reaching a height of about 3 feet on Saturday 1st November and by Sunday 2nd ..................... he had gone !! Just, flew away ............... back into the wild. Another success for the HART Team and ClawsnPaws rehabilitation. HARRY HEDGEHOG In early Autumn Harry Hedgehog was found injured in the road. Took him home and he weighed two and half pounds. Kept him for a week, he was feeding well, especially loved the raw egg. After putting him in a run, he decided he wanted to go back to the wild. Although the garden is full of the cursed slugs and snails, I found him a few weeks later on a path in the garden, practically asking to be picked up. Found he only weighed one pound. OLLIE was MISSING but a miracle happened !! On Sunday Morning 19th October we gave Ollie his bath (which he has to have every so often to keep his hind quarters from getting infected!). He was left to dry in our kitchen area. Next thing Grizzie opened the door and Ollie was gone !! Unfortunately these things happen now and again and so we put out leaflets and posters in the surrounding area. Nothing happened....... However, at Lunch Time 23rd October, after 4 days on the run OLLIE miraculously re-appeared out of nowhere in his empty hutch, large as life, as if he'd just been on holiday !! We're really glad to have him back BUT it shows how much our animals know where the grass is greenest and where they prefer to be !! Nice one OLLIE - you had us all worried - but just where did you hide ? There were no magician's Top Hats lying around!! SADLY - see above December 6th 2008 - Ollie died - RIP !! SEPTEMBER 2008 This month saw the demise of one of our little friends, Henry - see his picture and short story in the left hand column aside. It's been a month of meetings and looking for suitable land, sadly so far without much success. The H.A.R.T. Residents Group however are supporting us well, with around 20 signed up helpers and volunteers. The group meets monthly for updates as to progress and what local volunteers can do to help. This month has been a month of watching out for oung seagulls in difficulty - there have been a few, cignets and goslings at our reserves and parks - all need that bit of extra tlc if you can spare the time just to go and see they're ok, in places like Saltholme, Rossmere, Warrior and Cowpen Bewley Parks. We've made a contact with some of Hartlepool's country wardens who will refer any wild birds or animals to us that they may find on their rambles and of course the geese (grey lag and canada) are now flying in to Dormans Pool over the RSPB site in larger numbers now every evening. Its a great sight if you can get down to see them all flying home to roost every evening and flying off again every mornng to their feeding grounds throughout the Tees Valley. You've got to be there just past dawn however !! We've seen one or two foxes this year in town and in the country areas, mostly looking healthy and keep an eye on the eider ducks on the sea at The Headland and around the coastline at Mainsforth Terrace or Newburn Beach. WE will be talking to HVDA next month about funding for Wildlife and beginning to set up our Charitable side of Claws n Paws and gaining fnding for H.A.R.T. Remember the HART Meetings , for members AND new members are held on the first Monday every month. More details - email erikanugent@gmail.com . Al our resident animals are doing fine - we still need your DONATIONS please !! AUGUST 2008 This month we were involved in 3 rescues. The first in the early part of the month was reported to us by a lady at the Headland. She had found what she described as a wild bird with feathered feet, in a bad way, on the ground. Upon arrival we identified the bird as a Swift. It was a very young Swift and had either become disorientated or had lost its parents or indeed may have collided in mid-air as they often do, The problem is that Swift's eat and even sleep on the wing and this individual was in a pretty bad way. Despite trying dried insects and water and keeping it warm over night, sadly our friend missed the big migration this year and died the following morning. We were all saddened that we were unable to save this small bird but we know we gave it the best of care and it was not alone when it died. Our 2nd rescue a young seagull. One of our observers noticed a young lad taking off his coat and about to beat this poor seagull just for being in the road. We managed to chase off the lad but the bird had already had a few blows. It suffered a broken wing and was taken to Summers Hill for recovery. We called him Peck as he was very prone to pecking everyone who tried to touch him. After a few days Peck tried to fly on numerous occasions and one morning had disappeared. We believe he may have recovered enough to take to the wing and hope he is now part of the Hartlepool flocks again. Our 3rd Rescue was a small de-hydrated hedgehog. We knew immediately where we could take him. He was placed into a small handbag ! (that's all that was available) and taken to the well known hedgehog Sanctuary lady in town. There he joined with 16 others to be looked after and kept in shelter for the long sleep ahead this winter. (c) 2009 ClawsnPaws, Hartlepool. Sponsored and Maintained by Paul R Nugent.Com |
