Starlight Trust

11/01/2025

Hi All. You may have noticed our page was deactivated a couple of months ago. This was intended to be a temporary thing as we were going through a really difficult time personally and getting harassed by some trolls on here and I just didn't have the bandwidth to deal with it all.

However, with the recent changes at Meta now green-lighting anti-LGBTQ hate speech we don't feel that reactivating our pages is the right thing to do. We'd already closed our Twitter account a while back for similar reasons.

I'm going to be looking at adding a news/blog feature to our websites so you have a way of following what we do that we are always in control of but, in the meantime, we'll be trying out https://bsky.app/profile/starlighttrust.bsky.social

We hope to see you there but you will always be able to reach us via starlighttrust.org.uk and helpwildlife.co.uk

I'll leave this message up for a few days and will then be deactivating the page again.

All the best

Sarah

Small animal charity based in South London. Operating a pigeon sanctuary and HelpWildlife.co.uk which helps people who find injured wildlife. Advocating especially for the maligned and misunderstood.

09/11/2024

The love of my life, Donnie 🥰

(Sorry, Dave 🤭)

09/11/2024

Oh Chilli, you gorgeous beast you 😍

09/11/2024

It's hard to believe Banjo is 6 years old now. He still behaves like a naughty little boy! He's the pigeon who will invariably land on my head while I'm cleaning (actually quite painful), poo on my back while I'm bent over (hence me having a special fleece I wear in there for protection!), and land on/in the seed scoop when I'm trying to feed them, sending the seed scattering everywhere!

At least cleaning time is never dull!!

02/11/2024

Loved up couple Hazel and Caspar watch the world go by from their nest box 🥰

26/10/2024

Introducing the ridiculously gorgeous Floss.

Floss is a domesticated pigeon who was straying locally. We actually first heard about him through our HelpWildlife.co.uk helpdesk and local rescuer, Ruhee, attended to catch him and look after him. He then transpired to have picked up PMV and required a period of intense nursing.

Happily he made a full recovery but needed a permanent home due to being domesticated. We'd thought/hoped he was a girl and might pair with one of our single boys but such is life!

Floss is available for sponsorship. You can visit https://starlighttrust.org.uk/residents to find out more.

23/10/2024

About a month ago, I shared the very sad news that our resident pigeon, Lola, has passed away. I was quite concerned about her husband, Melvin, as they had been together many years and he's no spring chicken, being at least 10 years old now.

Well, the other day, I saw Sashi in Melvin's nest box. Sashi and her husband, Phil, do tend to move nest quite often so I thought she was rather insensitively trying to steal the nest Melvin shared with Lola. I then saw Melvin pass her some nesting material and I assumed that he was so devoted to this nest that he felt responsible for furnishing it even when it was no longer his.

What I didn't expect was to find him and Sashi snuggled up in there together! So Sashi appears to have dumped poor Phil and shacked up with Melvin instead! I'm very pleased for Melvin of course. A little sad for Phil but he's less vulnerable than Melvin and, I'm sure, will find a new wife without much delay. Plus he did the same to Cooper when he left her for Sashi so he's getting a taste of his own medicine ;)

Officially pigeons pair for life. But we do get quite a few swaps and infidelities going on. My theory is that it's because we don't let them have babies (we swap the eggs for fake ones). I think, after a certain amount of (what appear to them to be) failed clutches together, their instincts tell them to try with another partner.

Honestly, it's better than Eastenders, all the dramas out there!!

19/10/2024

Introducing the very gorgeous Piper 😍

Piper is an ex-racing pigeon who was found straying locally back in June. The original plan was that, like most of our other healthy racers, he would move to a larger sanctuary where the birds get to free fly. But he's actually rather tame so that could put him at risk. Consequently, we decided he should stay here.

As this photo suggests, Piper is quite a bold, cheeky sort of pigeon. Each day when I go into the aviary, he's amongst the gang waiting at the door to charge into the porch and try to find their way into the seed tub 🤣

Piper is now available for sponsorship. Just visit https://starlighttrust.org.uk/residents/ for more information

12/10/2024

Beautiful Rusty moved outside to the aviary today having won her battle against salmonella and various parasites :)

Salmonella in pigeons can cause joint swelling and Rusty arrived with a badly swollen elbow on one wing. Sometimes this can cause permanent issues in the joint and limit flight but early signs suggest Rusty has avoided this and should be able to return to the wild :D

25/09/2024

We are incredibly sad to announce the sudden and unexpected passing of our darling Lola. We found her today asleep forever in her nest :'(

Lola arrived here in 2016 suffering with canker and PMV. She was one of a small percentage of PMV birds who is left with lasting neurological issues so she stayed here as a permanent resident.

Lola was small, determined and full of fun. Despite her challenges, she would regularly climb the bars of the aviary in order to get to the very top branch for prime sunbathing spot. Her favourite thing was to run in excited circles around my feet while I cleaned the aviary. If she was being particularly pesky I would pick her up and give her big kisses and I swear I could almost hear her giggle.

Well, I say her favourite but actually her second favourite. Top of the list was Melvin, her dear husband for almost all the time she was here. The two of them were an absolutely devoted couple and my heart absolutely breaks for him having lost her.

I cannot begin to describe how much she will be missed. She brought so much sparkle, joy and mischief to the aviary, it will be a much duller place without her.

Fly free my darling girl x

13/09/2024

Do you work with websites? Could you spare us a little time?

I (Sarah) currently run our 3 websites but I really don't know what I'm doing. I can get by with content and structure (thanks to Wordpress and Elementor) but the background stuff like SSL, DNS etc goes right over my head. From time to time things break or I want to improve something but don't know how. It would make a massive difference to us to have someone 'techy' on side (even if just to liaise with our hosts so I don't have to feel stoopid when I don't understand what they're telling me!).

We wouldn't be asking for a regular commitment (unless you wanted to get more involved which would be very welcome), just to be able to call on you for help when there was an issue. We're talking perhaps a few hours every few months on average.

If you could help, please drop me an email on [email protected]. Thanks :)

10/09/2024

It's annual moult time again! It always amuses me how they all moult differently. Some do a barely noticeable very dignified gradual replacing of their feathers. Some, like Charles on the right, spend a couple of weeks looking generally moth eaten. Others, like Forrest, always moult one particular body part first. For him, it's his head. It's so cute seeing him potter about with a little bald head but, even cuter, is when the feathers start growing back and he has this adorable little bonce stubble going on

08/09/2024

🤨

03/09/2024

Did you just call us about a pigeon in New Addington? If so, please call back. We got cut off and our phone system doesn't show me your number to call you back, unfortunately.

21/07/2024

A rare picture of Meg, our most shy resident. She's been here since 2018 and is partnered with Forrest.

Not being one of our more showy pigeons means she's never attracted a sponsor :( Could you change that? Sponsor Meg or any of our other residents at https://starlighttrust.org.uk/residents/

In the background here is Hazel who came to us last September with a badly infected eye.

20/07/2024

I'm so very sad to announce that our lovely Randall degu has passed away :(

He came to us, along with various family members, in early 2020. It wasn't a good situation and there were lots of degus of both sexes living in one small cage with no hay. 5 boys from that rescue stayed here with us as we didn't want to separate them and we feared they would have health issues as a result of their bad start. Sure enough two of the others - Kevin and Miguel - had ongoing dental problems and have since left us.

Randall was an independent, free thinking sort of goo. Whenever I gave them their morning treats, the other boys would scrabble at the door to get theirs first. Randall would climb to the very top of the cage, sit on his favourite shelf, and wait for his to be delivered. He was very calm, gentle, and affectionate and loved a cuddle and a chin tickle.

When he refused his breakfast treat for the first time ever on Thursday morning it was clear something was wrong. I thought initially it might be his teeth but he went downhill really quickly and refused all attempts to syringe feed him, before slipping away peacefully.

Run free, darling Randall. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to you not sitting on that top shelf waiting for your treat 💔

14/07/2024

Lunchtimes can get a bit....dramatic!

Did you know, we spend about £50 a month just on seed? We feed a mix of large pigeon seed and good quality wild bird food with aniseed and sunflower hearts to peek their interest. It's important to us that they get the best, most delicious food we can find for them.

Donations to help with their costs are always very much appreciated. One of the best ways to help is to sponsor one of our residents for £20 a year. Find out more at https://starlighttrust.org.uk/residents/

13/07/2024

Not our usual post but we wanted to highlight Violet's story.

We're not fans of breeding animals generally - there are already more than there are good homes - but breeding deformed animals with health issues because it creates a 'cute' or 'fashionable' appearance, to us, is abhorrent.

Violet is a victim of this cruel practice. She's considered a 'pedigree' and has papers. She probably cost about £800 to buy. But breeding her to look a certain way has left her with a deformed mouth causing a tooth to grow sideways and become infected, preventing her from keeping her tongue in her mouth, and causing awful breathing problems.

Starlight volunteer, Louise, took Violet in a couple of weeks ago when she was being given away free online. She wasted no time in getting her to the vet and it's going to cost over £900 for surgery to get Violet more comfortable. Starlight Trust have contributed £250 towards her surgery. If you would like to help, I know Louise and Violet would be extremely grateful - https://www.gofundme.com/f/violets-vital-dental-procedure

Thank you x

Hi everyone, Violet is an Exotic Persian cat that we unexpectedly… Louise G needs your support for Help Violet To Have Vital & Life Changing Dental Treatment