Seasonal Advice ~ Spring

Cyril the Pigeon, apologies for poor quality.

Spring is well and truly here, April showers quench the thirst of the freshly bloomed bluebells, daffodils have given way to brightly coloured crocuses and the birds seem to be singing louder and longer.  Just after reading the RSPCA's newsletter a few weeks ago about what to do if you find an orphaned spring baby I stumbled upon a spring baby!  

I was walking Suki and noticed a magpie pecking at something on the floor underneath a tree, the magpie flew away as Suki bounded towards him and I noticed the "thing" he was pecking at was an injured baby pigeon.  I am not sure whether the magpie had inflicted the injuries on the pigeon (who I decided to name Cyril) or whether he was taking advantage of his vulnerable state.  I knew the mother must be close by and sure enough she was sitting in the nest above us watching the goings on closely, I moved away and watched from a distance  to see if she tried to assist the injured bird.  After some time Cyril attempted to limp towards the undergrowth and I could see he was in pain so decided to ring the RSPCA for some advice.

The lady on the phone was extremely helpful and after a 25 minute conversation it was decided that although the mother was close by it would be unlikely that she would be able to assist the baby therefore the RSPCA dispatched a member of their team to collect Cyril and rehabilitate him before releasing him back into the wild where hopefully he will go on to live a long and happy life, hopefully it won't involve him venturing to close to my Nan's bird feeder as she can be quite discriminative towards the pigeons who help themselves to her bird seed, "it's only for the little ones" apparently!

If you should stumble across a Spring baby of your own, here is some very useful advice from the RSPCA of what to do.  

Also here is a very useful article about Spring time dangers for pets.