Ilkeston Wild Bird Rescue

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Ilkeston Wild Bird Rescue

Rescue, rehabilitate and release.

19/01/2025

We have 6 beautiful pigeons looking for a new aviary. Mainly white with some black markings. A mixture of males and females in a bonded flock. Would like all of them to go together to a 5* home. Pictures of setup required, donation to the rescue as adoption fee would be appreciated. 😊
Please message us if you can help these gorgeous birds find a forever home. 💕

16/01/2025

This afternoon, a lovely couple brought us this angry male blackbird. They believed he had a broken wing, as he was unable to fly, and fairly easy to catch. He was found under an apple tree, chowing down on apples that had fallen.
We couldn't find any injuries to his wings, and he had livened up a lot upon arrival. It turns out this little guy ate one too many fermented apples, and had gotten himself drunk. 🤣🤣

He has since been flying, although staying low to the ground, and isn't wobbling about anymore. 😅
Providing he's back to himself tomorrow morning, he'll be returning home to be released back into his garden.

We hope he's learned his lesson and will steer clear of apples for a while. 🤣💕

14/01/2025

This beautiful Rook came to us on Saturday evening, after being found unable to stand without falling sideways, on an icy trampoline in a families garden.
When he arrived, he had warmed up a lot already and was very lively, which is a great sign. He's a very polite chap and hasn't shown any kind of aggression while being handled and checked over. He was found to have no injuries, is a decent weight, has a clear mouth and throat, and tucked straight into some food when it was offered. He's been treated for any possible internal parasites, and today, he was flying around one of our aviaries.
He'll be picked up at the weekend by the family who found him and will be re-released back home.
Hopefully to be reunited with any possible mate before breeding season starts. 💕

Speaking of breeding season, we've just updated our wishlist to start collecting items needed over breeding season. I'll leave the link here for anyone that would like to donate anything towards the birds and their care. Thank You. 😊

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1SV67RV1A5U3U?ref_=wl_share

11/01/2025

Little Spirit hopes everyone is staying safe and warm this weekend.
We just wanted to share this heatpad with you, as we know a lot of people are worrying about their outside pets being too cold.
We've just warmed some of these heatpads up and shared them around the birdies outside, and its made such a difference for them.
We highly recommend them for any pets that need the extra warmth at times like this.
We can sleep easier knowing that our feathered friends will be warm for the night, and I hope others will find them helpful too. 💕

09/01/2025

Good evening, everyone.
Although we are primarily a wild bird rescue, we've had 3 new permanent residents come to us in the last month that we'd like to introduce you to.

First, a beautiful Linnie called George, who's humans weren't able to take care of him anymore due to ill health, and reached out to us after making the sad decision to find him a new forever home.
He's an amazing little bird with a big personality. He chirps all day (and evening) long, loves his spray baths to the point he will lay on his back for a spray, and has just started watching and talking to the TV. (Parrot videos are his favourite).
(We are hoping to find him a friend as soon as possible, although he's very fond of our Indian Ringneck, we'd like to get him another Linnie as a friend).

We also have Ernie and Alexa the Derbyan parrots. Their human had to make the difficult choice to part with them due to ill health in the family, which caused them to no longer be able to give them the time and attention they need. They reached out to my good friend Emma at Windy Ridge Bird Rescue, and she referred them to us, knowing we also keep, adore, and have a lot of experience with parrots.
Their human drove over an hour to get them to us, and I know it's one of the most difficult choices she's had to make.
They've only been with us a couple of days, so we're still getting to know each other.
Ernie is very loud and is always chatting to our Indian ringneck and Amazon. So far, "No" seems to be his favourite word. 😆
Alexa is very skittish, quiet, and scared. We hope in the coming months, we can work on her confidence, and try to encourage her to leave her cage and spend some time in the house exploring.

So, although not our usual type of post, these are too precious not to share. 🥹

If you are struggling with the care of a domestic bird, please know you can always reach out for help. 💕

If anyone would like to donate towards the evergrowing costs of the rescue (or the now growing Parrot toy fund 😆 ), we appreciate it more than we can say. Thank You. ❤️

https://www.paypal.me/RiversWBRescue

04/01/2025

This beautiful (yet angry) adult male green woodpecker came in today. Not a species we get to experience often, so we wanted to share him with you guys.
He was found injured and brought to us from Beeston, after a referral from the lovely Laura at Woodlands small wildlife rescue.
Little angry bird came in with a puncture to his right wing, which matches up to the size and shape of a cat tooth. (Original finder wasn't sure if her cat had found him).
He's started on a course of antibiotics for the cat saliva and has had metacam for pain relief. Luckily, the wound isn't life threatening, and we're hopeful he'll recover well and be released again soon. 💕

24/12/2024

We would like to wish all of our followers and supporters a Merry Christmas. We hope you all have a fantastic day tomorrow. Our love also goes out to those who are struggling right now with the festive season. ❤️

We will remain open over Christmas and New Year, just in case anyone does come across an animal in need.

Also, just after Christmas is a difficult period for most rescues that take domestic and exotic pets, and alot of pets are dumped because people aren't aware of the help there is, or are too ashamed to reach out.
If you or someone you know are struggling with a pet, please don't leave it somewhere or give it away for free online. Contact us, and we'll do everything we can to help get them a rescue placement in the best place for that species.

There's always help available. 💕

18/12/2024

On Monday evening, 9 beautiful birds had a guardian Angel.
These guys and 2 more pigeons not pictured were saved by a lady called Wendy. She attended an event that was auctioning off animals.
The beautiful Rooster was being auctioned off as 'a nice Christmas lunch'.
She messaged me to ask if I could take 2 pigeons and a rooster that she'd managed to save. When she arrived, she had managed to save 6 pigeons, a Rooster, and 2 Hens.
It was definitely an unexpected but lovely surprise when she turned up with them all.

The hens are terrified but are active and eating and drinking well. Both seem healthy, although one of them is underweight. They're settling in well, and I hope for them to stay here with us long-term.

The 6 pigeons all appear healthy, minus being dirty, infested with feather lice, and being scared of everything that moves. They've been moved into a small aviary while undergoing treatment but will be available for adoption very soon.

The Rooster is an absolute sweetheart. He's so gentle. He hasn't attempted to bite me, and is always happy and co-operative to go outside during the day, and back inside at night. We absolutely adore him.
Unfortunately, we aren't able to keep him long-term as when he does start to find his voice again, my neighbours are not going to appreciate it 😅
Our gorgeous boy will be up for adoption after Christmas. Homechecks do apply as we need to know he is going to a 5* home, and would love him to have some ladies of his own. 💕

14/12/2024

This poor adult woody came in as an emergency this morning, all the way from Sheffield.
Breeding season is over (minus pigeons who breed all year round), but cat attack season is not. These sweet birds have so many wild predators that domestic pets are something they shouldn't have to worry about.
This guy was attacked this morning and horrifically injured. He's lost his entire tail, and has a huge wound on his chest. Thankfully, his crop is still intact, meaning we could administer pain relief and antibiotics within the first minute of him arriving. We have cleaned, treated and wrapped the wound, and he's resting in a blanket in our hospital wing. He's completely in shock, which is worrying as wood pigeons can die easily from stress, so we have to keep contact and stress to an absolute minimum.
He's critical but alive, so we'll monitor him throughout the night (from a distance), and pray he pulls through to see tomorrow.
Please, if you have freeroaming cats, consider getting some sort of catio instead. For the sake of both the wildlife and your cats life. 💕

13/12/2024

Let's talk about Stringfoot. People often ask us what it is we do in the stringfoot group and how they can help or get involved.

Stringfoot is something seen in birds, mainly pigeons. Whenever you drop any sort of string, bits of cotton or thread, when you brush your hair and throw the hair outside for the birds, any little bits of material.. The pigeons get it wrapped around their feet, and they're unable to get it off without help. As time goes on, it gets tighter and tighter, eventually cutting off blood supply to the toes/feet affected. This causes them to slowly lose their toes, one at a time. They quite literally just drop off.

We were getting lots of pigeons from Nottingham fountains, horrific stringfoot cases, and after reaching out to see if there was already a stringfoot group in Nottingham we could join, we found there wasn't, so decided to start one.

It has been an amazing experience so far, and more people are joining and wanting to come along and take part, and we've had success in getting the public to take part in feeding them with us. The pigeons are so friendly. As soon as they see you with food, they fly down, and within 2 minutes, you're looking like the pigeon lady from 'home alone'.

We catch the ones with poorly feet, and if possible, destring them and release them back into their flock. Others we will take back with us and treat with the necessary meds. We see a lot of stringfoot cases with bad infections, and so metacam and antibiotics are needed as part of their recovery.

The Nottingham stringfoot group are angels to these sweet pigeons, and I'm so grateful they agreed to join the team and help make a difference. You're all amazing, and we couldn't do it without you. ❤️

Pictured below is Slinky. He was one we took back to treat, also one of the worst stringfoot cases we've had.
We started with bathing him and then used the equipment pictured to start destringing his poor little foot.
He let us work on him for an hour before becoming unsettled, and then had a rest and something to eat before we continued.
The last picture is what his foot looked like afterwards, with some of the stuff we pulled out of it.
He's on antibiotics and pain relief, and we're keeping his feet as clean as we can.
We look forward to sharing a photo of his feet once he's healed. 💕

We have a stringfoot meet this Sunday, and there's a gentleman from Notts TV joining us to do a story on pigeons and why we help them. This will help spread awareness about not just stringfoot, but pigeons in general.
They served us, and now we're serving them. ❤️

11/12/2024

This little guy right here is a perfect example of teamwork, and why it's the most important part of rescue.
Our lovely Ellie, who's part of our stringfoot team, sent a message into the group earlier about this pidge. Found in Nottingham and had been attacked. She was at work and wasn't able to get him to anyone.
She secured him in a box and kept him safe. Another rehabber we work with Steve tried to get him a temporary safe space, as he was already out on a rescue, and Ellie took the pigeon there. Unfortunately, the pigeon wasn't allowed to remain at the place while being sorted. (Thank you for trying all of you).
So Ellie took him back to work with her. Our wonderful Lyly got on a bus to Nottingham, went to Ellie's place of work to pick the pigeon up, and then got on a bus to us.

Thankfully, the wound isn't fatal, and he's received Metacam for the pain and swelling. We expect him to make a full recovery, all thanks to everyone who worked together and did what they could to help. 💕

We started our rescue journey with a spare room, limited contacts, no volunteers, and those of you who know me personally, know how much I struggle around people, and with anxiety. All I had on my side was 30+ years experience with birds, and a lifelong dream to help those who don't have a voice.
Slowly over the last year and a half, we've built a wonderful relationship with rescues all over the UK. We have 2 hospital wings and 5 aviaries, which allows us to help other rescues with soft-release space. A very supportive group of rehabbers who have been absolutely vital to our progress. The things I've learned from working with others is amazing, and I still continue to learn new things every day. We also now have our Nottingham stringfoot group and a lovely team of volunteers who help us with anything they can. It's an opportunity for people to work with us, be close with the birds, make a difference, learn, and maybe even start rehabbing, while always having access to advice and support if they need it.
We're all on the same side, and working together is the key to helping as many birds as we can.
I'm truly grateful for every single person who helps us make a difference. ❤️

11/12/2024

🎄 Christmas appeal 🎁

Good afternoon, guys. Christmas is almost upon us, and it's getting colder by the day. Although we're not as busy as we've been through summer, the costs of keeping the rescue going through the winter are always a worry. Donations are at their lowest right now, but our costs for food, medication, straw, heating, and so on aren't much lower.
We're needing large amounts of straw which we've been paying £18.50 a bale for. We're going through around 30kg of pigeon food/bird seed a week, we're also down to our last bag of handrearing formula. We've had to move our hospital wing inside to keep the poorly birds warm over winter, too.
We're struggling right now, and would appreciate anything at all if anyone is able to donate in any way towards the rescue. 🙏
Thank You all for anything and everything you do or have done to help support us since the beginning. ❤️

https://www.paypal.me/RiversWBRescue

(Please inbox us for bank details if that's preferred, as it's not letting us message those who have asked).

The two beautiful pigeons posing for today's Christmas photo are Chance and Hope.

Chance came to us earlier this year as a baby, and the 2nd worst canker case we've ever had. We didn't think he had a chance at survival, but we gave our all. Between cropfeeds, critical care, medication, and nebuliser treatments, he pulled through. He is permanently disfigured, but I don't think he knows it. Despite how he looks, he is a very happy and lively little boy who loves to run around flapping his wings while squeaking like a puppy. He's very affectionate and always comes running for a cuddle.

Hope was part of our 'backyard flock'. A neighbours cat came into our garden and attacked her, ripping one of her wings off. Despite having no hope for her survival, we got her through surgery, and she's recovered beautifully. She runs around grunting, waving her little stub at us. She's just coming around to being stroked and held. She loves bathing and then spinning in circles while we dry her with a hairdryer.

Most importantly, these two little souls have bonded and are absolutely inseparable.
They snuggle up together, and Hope preens Chance, as he's not able to preen himself.

They're such strong, beautiful, and resilient birds, and are very much loved by all of us. 💕

28/11/2024

This poor sweetie came in today, in an absolute state. Absolutely horrific injury. (Warning - Graphic picture in comments)
A victim of canker that didn't get help in time. Half of her face had been eaten by the canker and come loose. I honestly don't know how she was still alive or how she'd survived in that state.

Euthanisation is never an option we like to take, but I couldn't live with myself trying to rehab her because she must have been suffering so much. 🥺Thank you to vets4pets Ilkeston for seeing her straight away and ending her suffering. Rip my little sweetie. 🥺
I wish we could save them all. Having to make that decision is heartbreaking, and even though we hadn't known this bird for long, it still really hurts to not be able to save them. They're such precious little souls, and this little girl is definitely one I'll never ever forget. 💕

We are currently approaching our quietest time of year, which is both a lovely rest after breeding season, but also means donations are at an all time low.
If anyone is able to help at all, I'll drop our PayPal here. For anyone wanting to donate that doesn't have paypal, please send us a message for bank details. 😊

Thank you, as always. ❤️

https://www.paypal.me/RiversWBRescue

28/11/2024

Hello everyone. First of all, I want to apologise for my absence and lack of posts/updates. 4 weeks ago, I became very ill with covid, I could barely get out of bed for the first week, so we had to temporarily close to new admits.
I'm left with a chest infection, but we're back open now we're no longer contagious.
We carried on caring for the ones already in our care, and I'm happy to say that after lots of releases over the last few weeks, we have 20 empty carriers, and 5 empty crates, so plenty of space for new birds needing help.
We also have 3 empty aviaries, although 2 have been reserved for soft-release pigeons that we have coming soon from other rehabbers.
We do still have a fair amount of unreleasable (feral) pigeons in our care. Trying to find disabled placements for birds is almost impossible, so if anyone is in a position to offer any of them a home, please let us know. 😊
They're none flyers, so they would need an adapted aviary/enclosure.

In other news, after taking in lots of pigeons from the Nottingham town fountains, we've started a stringfoot group that does meet-ups in Nottingham.
So far, there's a small group of us that go to the fountains, feed the pigeons, catch the ones with stringfoot and destring them, and take any back to rescue that are needing longterm help. There are a number of other wonderful local rehabbers in the group, too, so if we're not able to help with a bird, you're welcome to join and post there to find some help. 😊
The most important part of rescue is working together. We're all on the same side. ❤️
If you'd like to join us in person, please search up and join our group, and then let us know if you can make it when we set an event up on there. It's a wonderful experience.
The group is called, 'Stringfoot Superheroes - Nottingham'.

Pictured is our easiest patient of the year.
All he needed was his beak cleaning up and trimming, as it was overgrown and made it difficult to eat. He's already flying free again. I wish they were all that easy to treat. 🥹💕

23/10/2024

Good evening all.

Just wanted to share this absolute sweetheart. Our first Gull of the Year. 😊 He came in to us on Monday evening. Although we're unsure what happened to him, he was showing symptoms of head trauma. He has no obvious injuries, but we do believe he had flown into something, as he was unresponsive and with a head tremor.
We gave fluids and offered food and left him to rest for the night in the warmth. (You have to be very careful warming a bird up if they've suffered head trauma, so a heatpad wasn't an option, but a warm room was).
By morning, he was jumping around that much, that the carrier was moving across the floor. We spent the day emptying out our small aviary that we had used for disabled feral pigeons and set it up for him instead. We tried alsorts of food that we know gulls love, but he wasn't eating.
Then, I offered a mackerel loin, and he pretty much ate it whole. He turned down tuna, liver pate, cat, and dog meat amongst other food, but we finally won him over. 😅
The second part of the video is him 24 hours after coming in. Look at that difference!
Today, he has spent his time running around his pen, bathing, preening, bathing some more, eating all the mackerel he can find, and then biting me and chasing me off when I'm putting more food in for him. 🤣
He's an amazing little character!
He still isn't flying yet, though, so he has a little more time with us before he's recovered enough to fly free again, and going by his attitude, he can't wait. 🤣 💕

17/10/2024

It's been a fairly emotional day today. Starting with this adult woodpigeon who had been attacked and badly hurt, although the attack wasn't seen, the wounds and injuries do sadly match up to that of a cat.
We gave this sweet girl some painkillers and anti-inflammatories to try and ease the pain and swelling in the wing. She was exhausted and just kept falling asleep. (She was very much alive in this photo). She passed away a few hours later. Too much physical and mental trauma to recover from. 😢

The second and third photos are of a young woodpigeon that was brought in earlier. He's got a bad case of Avian Pox and also has canker. The canker is affecting the roof of his mouth but has not yet spread into the throat, so we're able to easily cropfeed and get medication into him.
The pox are on the inside and outside of his mouth and in his nostrils, which is affecting his ability to breathe without his beak open. He's in a very bad way, but we're keeping him as calm and comfortable as possible. There's no specific treatment for Pox, although many people suggest using iodine and Coldsore products.
We've started him on Metronidazole for the canker, metacam for pain management, and have given him 50ml formula via a cropfeed. We're keeping our fingers crossed that he's able to battle through these illnesses and one day be free again. 💕

(I've been asked a few times about paypal, so I'll pop the link down here. 😊 ).

https://www.paypal.me/RiversWBRescue

10/10/2024

I was delightfully surprised to receive this baby pigeon earlier. Travelled all the way from Sheffield. He's now halfway out of the egg, but we're monitoring him in case he does have any difficulties.
It's moments like this that we're glad to always have an incubator set up and ready to go.
We don't know if he'll make it, but this is way too precious not to share. 🥹💕

10/10/2024

Good evening, everyone.

I wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who was able to help with Hope's surgery. Whether it be sharing or donating, she made it through her surgery and was brought home to us today. The vet did an absolutely amazing job. (Thank you, Franc!).
(And thank you, Jay, for the endless help, advice and support, transporting her to and from surgery, and taking care of her for the two nights she was with you. We'd all be lost without you ❤️ )

You can't even tell Hope has been through what she has. She's back to acting how she was before it happened. Always very quick to huff at you for going too close to her, and makes it very clear she still has one good wing. Although tonight she tolerated head strokes. We must be growing on her. 😅

So thank you, everyone who helped save her life. She'll stay with us as a permanent resident now, and when she's recovered, she'll be joining our disabled pigeon, Chance. 😊💕

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Good evening all. Just wanted to share this absolute sweetheart. Our first Gull of the Year. 😊 He came in to us on Monday evening. Although we're unsure what happened to him, he was showing symptoms of head trauma. He has no obvious injuries, but we do believe he had flown into something, as he was unresponsive and with a head tremor. We gave fluids and offered food and left him to rest for the night in the warmth. (You have to be very careful warming a bird up if they've suffered head trauma, so a heatpad wasn't an option, but a warm room was). By morning, he was jumping around that much, that the carrier was moving across the floor. We spent the day emptying out our small aviary that we had used for disabled feral pigeons and set it up for him instead. We tried alsorts of food that we know gulls love, but he wasn't eating. Then, I offered a mackerel loin, and he pretty much ate it whole. He turned down tuna, liver pate, cat, and dog meat amongst other food, but we finally won him over. 😅 The second part of the video is him 24 hours after coming in. Look at that difference! Today, he has spent his time running around his pen, bathing, preening, bathing some more, eating all the mackerel he can find, and then biting me and chasing me off when I'm putting more food in for him. 🤣 He's an amazing little character! He still isn't flying yet, though, so he has a little more time with us before he's recovered enough to fly free again, and going by his attitude, he can't wait. 🤣 💕

I was delightfully surprised to receive this baby pigeon earlier. Travelled all the way from Sheffield. He's now halfway out of the egg, but we're monitoring him in case he does have any difficulties. It's moments like this that we're glad to always have an incubator set up and ready to go. We don't know if he'll make it, but this is way too precious not to share. 🥹💕

This absolutely precious baby called Knuckles was rescued by a lovely little lad called Oscar. He fell from the roof of a house onto a bin, along with his sibling, who was sadly already deceased. His rescuers got him nice and comfy with a heatpad and put him in the airing cupboard to keep him warm while they found help. He came in last night, ate lots, had a good first night in the incubator, and was ready to start eating as soon as it started getting light. He is the tiniest little bird I think I've ever seen, and we believe him to be a finch of some sort, but aren't 100%. We'll know for sure as he gets older. 🤞 for this little baby, we're so full of hope that he'll make it, and look forward to seeing him grow and change. 💕

UPDATE: A lot of people have been asking about our little pigeon that was deliberately kicked by a 'person'. He came in with his head swollen, his eyes swollen bigger than I've ever seen, a beak injury. He was starving, cold, and wet. Absolutely petrified of us. I didn't think he'd pull through. Not with what he had done to him. But two days of love and nursing. Two days of tubefeeds, pain relief, heatpads, reassurance, and gentleness, two amazing days of loving this little guy, and look at him now. He runs to my hand now instead of cowering away, he's preening himself, and he's attempting to eat again. I didn't think he'd ever recover, but just look at him. I named him 'Journey' in the hope he would recover and still have a journey through life to make, and I'm hopeful that we'll stay a part of each others journey for a long time. 💕

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