It is rare for us to have herons in our aviary, despite the fact that they are our second largest common bird after the mute swan, and so this young bird attracted more interest than usual during his short stay with us.

His striking appearance, with an enormous body, long neck and spindly legs, makes him an interesting species to observe.

He was brought in because he didn’t seem to be able to balance on both of his legs properly and this had affected his ability to feed, making him massively underweight and unable to fly (hence us being able to catch him).

Many wild birds are badly injured or extremely sick by the time they allow themselves to be caught, making their chances of recovery quite slim, but this youngster rallied quickly and ate copious numbers of sand eels.

How do we know he is a young heron, given herons leave their nests at almost full size?

Juvenile herons are darker than adults, with much less white plumage, and they lack the long crest plumes on their heads and neck.

Herons are not an endangered species, and their numbers are thought to be steadily increasing, but they suffer greatly during severe weather.

starvation

This is mainly due to starvation, but deaths also occur due to the birds being caught on telephone wires or in barbed wire, and some have been shot by unscrupulous garden goldfish owners.

Our heron has now been ’soft released’ in Castletown, which means he will be given sand eels daily by a wild bird rehabilitation expert, but he is free to fly.

Castletown is home to several heron nests, called a colony or heronry, which are located in tall trees and are usually made from twigs and grass.

We are confident that our youngster now has a good chance of life, and that he may live as long as 25 years.

Mini and Georgie have already had a long and happy life, but their owner sadly died and these cats came to the MSPCA for rehoming a couple of weeks ago.

They have now been fully health checked, and we would like them to find a retirement home as quickly as possible.

We think Georgie, a white and tortoiseshell colour, is the grand old age of 18.

She doesn’t have many teeth left and she isn’t very active, but she is very sweet natured and just likes a quiet life.

Mini is mainly black with a white chest and legs, and she’s a few years younger than Georgie but she’s not much more mobile because she’s very overweight (her name is just a little ironic).

Her new owners will need to carry on with a more regulated diet and encourage her to be reasonably active.

Georgie and Mini will make excellent house cats, and they will have simple needs - number one being a lap to sit on!

Please come and meet these special girls, and give them the loving home they are used to having.

At the other end of the age spectrum, the small animals unit has become a nursery after one of our recently arrived rabbits, Bluebell, gave birth.

She is currently nursing four baby rabbits, called kittens, and enjoying motherhood.

We will post photographs of the kittens on Facebook as soon as they come out of the nest Bluebell has made for them.

open day

You can see Bluebell, along with many of our other rescue animals, at our open day on Sunday, August 20.

Entrance is free and we have lots of activities for both young and old to enjoy starting at 1pm, with the option to have everything indoors if the weather is inclement.

What better way to spend a wet summer Sunday!