Farmers are reporting that this winter has been the worst for more than 30 years, with prolonged periods of cold, wet weather that have lasted well into May.

They have had to provide more food and shelter for their livestock than they would do normally, but at least the worst is now over.

The natural world has also needed to adapt to a long, hard winter and late spring - frogs have spawned later, migratory birds have arrived later, and young birds and wild mammals are being born later.

By the middle of May 2017 we had more than 50 birds in our aviary, many of them fledglings and chicks.

This May, so far, we have had less than a dozen.

The young jackdaw, pictured, fell out of his nest (which was high up in a tree, and so he couldn’t be put back in it) and he was too young to fend for himself.

He makes it very clear when he’s hungry, though, and by having such a wide mouth he is able to take food from a spoon rather than from a tweezer or pipette â?¦ which means he can digest relatively large quantities at any one time.

He will grow quickly and rapidly develop his feathers, and when the time is right we will ’soft release’ him by opening up an aviary door and allowing him to fly in and out as he chooses, for as long as necessary.

Unlike our jackdaw, the migratory birds that reach our shores have often lost up to half their body weight, and they are on the edge of survival.

The RSPB is warning that the lack of food this year will make their situation even more precarious, and they state that ’these last few months are going to have a long legacy when it comes to the bird population. We desperately need a good summer to kick-start nature again’.

We can all do our bit to help: make sure your bird feeders are topped up, and clean them regularly to prevent the spread of disease. For those birds that feed upon insects, like many of the migratory ones, having a garden or patio full of flowers will help nectar and pollen-feeding insects to thrive.

This, in turn, will mean that the birds can spend less energy in their search for food, and more time on rearing their young.

The majority of phone calls we receive at this time of year relate to baby birds, with callers concerned about the birds’ welfare and safety.

Regular readers of this article will know all about the following advice, but we still need to issue it annually.There are some rules of thumb that generally apply when a young bird seems to be abandoned: if the bird is injured it will need veterinary attention (which a vet will provide free of charge); and if it doesn’t have feathers it needs to come to the ManxSPCA for hand rearing in conjunction with another island charity, Wild Bird Aid.

However, if the bird is uninjured and has feathers, and it is able to hop or run, then it is a fledgling and it should be left alone.

Fledglings are almost always being watched over by their parents, and they need a couple of days on the ground for their flight feathers to develop properly.

Some callers are worried that a fledgling might fall prey to cats, or wander onto a busy road, and if the danger is a real one then the bird will need to be handled and moved as a last resort.

It is vital that the parents should still be able to see and hear their offspring, and so it needs to be placed out of danger but near to where it was found. An option is to place the fledgling into a bucket, lined with a towel, and then to suspend the bucket from a washing line or equivalent - out of the reach of cats but accessible to the parent birds.