This year we are interracting far more with our colleagues at other sanctuaries around the country who, just like us, work tirelessly throughout the year to save as many wild birds and wild animal lives, often working extremely long hours in our aim to return as many such casualties back to the wild.

This year with the Covid-19 situation upon us all, virtually all of the rescue centres and sanctuaries are having to work with a greatly reduced number of staff and/or volunteers due to social distancing and isolation requirements; yet the quantity of wildlife being presented for care is much greater than ever due to people 'finding birds that cannot fly', or gardening too neatly and disturbing our mammals in their garden homes - meaning parents abandoning their young due to such accidental interference. Alas, many of these birds were needlessly removed from their parents and now many rescues have large number of imprinted birds - some to such degrees that they may never be fit to return fully to the wild. We do always stress to finders that birds needing hospital care need to be admitted asap and certainly within 3 days of any injury in order that bones can be set in the correct position, and baby birds should never be reared on their own to avoid becoming tame - alas this year people have struggled with this due to Covid-19 restrictions and the consequences will be far-reaching.

Sadly one consequence of such shortages has been that many sanctuaries have been unable to run their 'out-of-hours' phone-lines and have had to rely on people following advice on their websites. This has alas meant a number of people resorting to Google and other online search engines, and sadly there is more mis-information on the Internet than genuine help. We know that if you are reading this article, then you will already be assured that the advice is well-founded, and tried and trusted; please do share the information on this website far and wide, and let's try and save as many lives as possible.

Our own Helpline is very well-used, and fully available throughout the evenings and weekends when other rescue advice services elsewhere cannot currently be staffed. With over 120 collective years of wild bird knowledge and experience to share between our three trustees - mainly through our work with Three Owls - we are well-placed to help you out of most situations. As I have always said, "Knowledge is best when shared".

At present, some other sanctuaries may give out our number/website for advice when they cannot advise directly - this is all in order, even though that particular rescue centre/sanctuary may be hundreds of miles away. It is part of this country's network of caring for the birds and animals around us that we work together with the same ultimate goal in mind - to save and enhance the lives of those bird and animals that live around us.

So if you have come to our Website today from a far corner of the UK...or in several cases from throughout the World - then don't worry, you've come to the right place!

Nigel