Ilkeston Wild Bird Rescue (2025)

08/10/2025

This poor sweet woodpigeon came to us from Nottingham. He was named Winston.
There's currently an outbreak of canker and ornithosis in the Nottingham pigeons, so I was expecting a feral pigeon from the fountains with ornithosis.
When he arrived, I was shocked to see he was a woodpigeon, and ornithosis was the least of our worries. He had severe canker and avian pox.
There is no proven cure for avian pox, just supportive care while they battle it.
For serious canker cases, they can be treated with Ronidazole, and metronidazole, which is vet prescribed only. Usually in cases this bad, the canker blocks up the throat so you're unable to give meds and fluids/feeds orally.
Somehow this little guy had a clear space all the way down to his crop. We were easily able to insert a feeding tube and give him medication and a feed of warm formula. We had hope. We got him snuggled down on a blanket with a snugglesafe heatpad for the night, and hoped he'd fight his way through.
Unfortunately, he passed away in the night. It was just too late for him. 😔
We can't save them all, no matter how hard we try, but if theres a tiny bit of hope, we have to try.
It always hurts to lose them, but knowing he was safe and warm, fed and had a chance, sometimes thats all we can hold onto. 💕

We couldn't keep doing this without your guys' help, and we do worry as we go into the time of year when donations are at an all-time low.
The medication is expensive, and so far, we've spent £137 on medication since Monday.
We've also spent £55 on transporting sick animals over the last 3 days.
If anyone is in a position to help with donations towards the costs we face every day, it is truly appreciated. Thank you so much.

https://www.paypal.me/RiversWBRescue
(Please send via family and friends so we don't get charged for it 🫶).

(A couple of people have asked for bank details, but it isn't allowing us to send the first message. So please message us if needed ❤️).

08/10/2025

Breeding season is over. Could anyone please have a word with the pigeons and let them know, I think they missed the memo. 😅

Pigeons breed all year around, and don't we know it. These are just two of the numerous baby pigeons we've had this week.
A beautiful, healthy woodpigeon fledgling (which is a blessing after the endless stream of woodpigeons with canker that we've had recently), and a young feral who was found on a conveyor belt in someone's work place.
He has an injury to one eye, which may have caused permanent loss of sight on one side.
If this is the case, he'll eventually join our unreleasable pigeon aviary, where he can be supported to live as independently as possible, but with permanent safety.
Both are currently being cropfed as they're too young to feed themselves, but weaning will start soon. ☺️💕

08/10/2025

This beautiful little squab is called Precious.
He was taken in by my friend and rehab buddy, Colleen, while I was volunteering with another rescue for the day.
Upon being admitted, Colleen discovered that he was full of fly eggs.
(Flies lay their eggs in a baby birds nostrils, ears, mouth, and even eyes).
If they go undetected and hatch, they sadly eat the baby alive. 🥺
Colleen spent hours removing every fly egg she could find, (second picture shows the amount being removed), kept him warm and safe, and then got a taxi over to us from Nottingham at 11:30pm.
I checked him over for any more fly eggs but couldn't find any. His crop was full and solid, so we weren't able to feed him straight away, but it slowly emptied through frequent gentle massaging.
We were finally able to feed him, and the little darling could only take 1ml of formula at a time. 🥹
We weren't sure he would make it through the first night, but here we are 2 days on. He's doing so well. Very active and wriggly. Taking a small feed every 2 hours. It should only be another day or so before he opens his eyes. 🥹
My heart is in my mouth every time I check on him, but I'm slowly getting more and more hopeful that he's going to make it as time goes by.
They're so tiny and fragile at this age, but so very precious, too. 💕

04/10/2025

Just to let everyone know that we are open again for new admits. There's currently a huge canker outbreak in pigeons (we've seen it more in wood pigeons than ferals, but please keep an eye out for any that may be sick).
They'll usually be grounded, underweight, and have what looks like a swollen throat or obvious yellow lesions in the mouth. Although sometimes it's in the crop and can't be seen, it can usually be smelt. There are various medications for canker, and we are always willing to try and do our best for every bird that needs help.

Please also keep an eye out for birds in this awful weather. I spent the night worrying about all those poor babies that have been blown out of their nests and not found yet. 🥺 💕

05/09/2025

📌 Temporarily closed due to illness 📌

Sorry guys, but I'm currently unable to take any new admits. I'm on day 5 of being seriously ill with covid, and struggling to be up long enough just for feeds and meds for the 100+ birds currently in our care.
Please don't just turn up with a bird or leave it in a box in my garden. It's a daily thing now. 😫
Also, please don't post my address online as this is encouraging people to just turn up and leave birds. 😔

We'll be back open as soon as I'm well enough to function properly.

Thank You 💕

22/08/2025

Fundraising (and kindness) appeal:

Thanks to your kind donations, we've been able to buy and build a new aviary, giving our magpies an upgrade to help them prepare for release towards the end of September.
We extended our small bird aviary and re-purposed it for a jackdaw release aviary, as we couldn't find a placement elsewhere for soft-release for them.
We scrubbed and repurposed our old magpie aviary into a baby pigeon soft-release aviary.
We have an aviary of crows ( some releasable this year, some needing long-term placements who will eventually go to a wonderful crow rehabber in Sheffield who's building an aviary for them).
We then have 2 avaries with none release pigeons and 1 with the attic flock. (Who are all doing well and will all eventually be able to be released).

We now have 7 avaries, and all are full, with more birds coming in by the day.
(We easily get over 50 messages/calls a day at the moment, and I'm really struggling to keep up with them and all the care, feeds, medication, and cleanouts. So please be kind, and contact multiple rescues at a time 🥺).
Also, please take into consideration that we do not drive or have access to a car. (And aren't financially in a position to take lessons or maintain a car).
We do collect within walking distance, and will get an uber under special circumstances. (eg - An elderly person who isn't physically able to contain and transport a bird).
But please don't become abusive towards us if we ask you to transport to us. We honestly can't afford constant taxis, nor do we have the time between everything else, yet we get some awful messages and comments from people when we can't go out and collect a bird.
Sometimes, it's really enough to make us not want to do this anymore.
We're really doing our best and apologise to anyone we're unable to help or for any messages missed. 😔

Everyone who knows me, knows I absolutely hate asking for help, and will do all I can to get by, but running a rescue has taught me that I have to ask for help when I need it.
Contrary to popular belief, we get no form of funding, nor do we get any free vet treatment or free medication. We have to pay for everything for each bird, which includes consultation fees. We get nothing for free, although some vets will do xrays and pain relief/antibiotic injections before they bring a bird to us. (It isn't often as they're not always able to).
We're needing to fundraise now to get another aviary (we have birds coming from another rescue that are sadly shutting down, and currently have no aviary space for them).

We urgently also need to be able to fund a couple of tip runs for all of the aviary waste and broken down avaries/pens/old branches.

We're going through an insane amount of animal food a day now too. We're using 14 tins of cat meat, 2kg mealworms, half a bag of handrearing formula, and 10kg of seed a day. That's just the basics without the meat, fruit, and vegetables we add in. 😅
We're also due to pay for 3 more months of medication.
We've been inundated with baby pigeons with canker over the last month.
These pictured are just 2 from today. Both look healthy on the outside, but have severe canker that I've struggled to get a tube past to give food and medication.
We have to buy the medication needed for each bird (in this case, it's Metronidazole, which is prescription only by a vet).

Everything is just adding up, and we really need your help, please. 🥺
Anything is appreciated, even £1 a person would add up and help us cover our current costs.
Thank You. 💕

https://www.paypal.me/RiversWBRescue

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/WMAXZO4TR6G6?ref_=wl_share

14/08/2025

We had quite the adventure earlier.
After being alerted to a post regarding pigeons being stuck in an attic space after the roof had been sealed, and they weren't aware they had resident pigeons until they heard them flapping about.
Our wonderful Colleen arranged for us to go this evening and free any trapped pigeons.
Ourselves and Colleen went out to U K R Transmissions Ltd in Ilkeston at 17:30 today. The plan was to assess the situation first and see how many there were trapped, and then work out a plan on catching them.
After making it into the attic, we discovered it wasn't anywhere as bad as we thought, and after an hour of crawling around the attic space with nets, we were able to catch and contain 14 live adults and 5 babies.
We did a quick health check on them there and discovered a few of the adults and babies had canker, and so decided to bring them all back for treatment.
The adults will remain with us for treatment and then stay for a few months before release. The babies will be handreared, weaned, and then go into one of our soft release aviaries to learn how to fly and become wild again before also being released. ☺️💕

Thank you to the company for choosing us to help (instead of calling pest control) and staying behind late to allow us access to catch them. That's 19 little lives they helped save. 🥹

Please consider supporting us in our work by donating or even just sharing our posts. It makes such a difference and helps us keep going and helping more birds. ❤️

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/WMAXZO4TR6G6?ref_=wl_share

https://www.paypal.me/RiversWBRescue

14/08/2025

This beautiful feral pigeon came into us a couple of weeks ago with his crop completely torn open and everything he ate spilling out.
We started him on pain relief and antibiotics (which luckily didn't leak back out), we were then able to seal his crop, and take care of the wound to make sure it healed correctly over the following 2 weeks.
Birds heal extremely quickly, as shown in the progress pictures.
This little guy is now completely healed and healthy. You can't even tell he ever had an injury.
He's now in one of our aviaries preparing for release. 🥹💕

13/08/2025

Two weeks into August, and I thought baby bird season was over. (Minus pigeons who breed all year around).
Not at any point did we expect a hatchling finch to come in this late in the season.
He was the only survivor from his nest.
He is so tiny and perfect, and as tiring as it is with the never-ending feeds, it's still a blessing to get to raise him. (As much as we wish he could still be with his parents and siblings).
Despite how convincing he must look that he's 'starving' and needs food immediately, his crop tells a different story. 😆💕

13/08/2025

Evening guys.

Despite our silence, we've still been taking in new birds on a daily basis. The last month has been an endless stream of baby pigeons.
We have them from a couple of days old, all the way up to juveniles. They all have their own stories. Most came from nests being blown out of trees when we had that really bad weather. Some were cat attacks, and others were turfed out of their homes by people gardening.
These beautiful babies will forever be our favourites. They deserve so much more than this world offers them.

Did you know:
Pigeons are intelligent and can recognise and order numbers. Their ability to do this was once only recognised in primates.
They can recognise all 26 letters of the English alphabet, can recognise words, and then recognise incorrect spelling.
They can also perform small tasks and work out simple puzzles. Scientists discovered they have special neurons in their brains that respond to the Earth's magnetic field, which aids them in knowing where home is, what direction they need to go, and how far they need to go to get where they're going.
They're such incredible birds.

I'm grateful we get to make a difference to the lives of so many beautiful souls.
Thank you so much to everyone who aids us in doing this.
We hope one day, the world sees pigeons the way we do. Worth just as much as any other species of animal. 💕

17/07/2025

Hey guys. We're needing someone with a van/trailer that can collect 20 large slabs from Chesterfield Bird Rescue and bring them to us, please.
We've bought a new aviary, and we need to assemble it asap as we're beyond capacity and the birds keep on coming in.
The space and ground are ready, but we desperately need the slabs before we can put it up to make sure it's predator safe.
Please message us if you can help. 🙏

06/07/2025

Hey everyone. I'm so sorry for our silence. We've been absolutely inundated with birds (and other animals, which we're always happy to triage and get into other rescues if needed).
I'm doing my absolute best in keeping up with messages, but in the last week, we're averaging 30 calls/messages a day.
We help as many as we possibly can, and if you're still needing help, please send us another message. We knew that breeding season would be rough this year, but it's wiping out rescues everywhere. It has never been this busy.
The last 4 nights in a row, we've still been waiting for birds at gone midnight. We're stretched to our limits but still trying as best we can.
We've had over 30 birds come in over the last week, mainly young birds that need feeding every couple of hours.
We currently have over 70 pigeons (plus alot of babies that we're handrearing), 11 crows/Rooks, 15 magpies, 3 jackdaws, 2 geese, a duckling, a grouse, and some young songbirds.
I feel like we're missing a partridge (we have the pear tree). 😆
We've had pigeons with stringfoot that we've been out and caught in Nottingham.
(You can find our group and volunteer/ask for help under 'Stringfoot Superheroes - Nottingham' on Facebook).
We've had 3 young jackdaws come to us for release space (we're currently desperately looking for more aviaries/aviary panels/slabs).
We had a young crow come in after a RTA, we didn't think he'd make the night but he's absolutely thriving now, although his badly broken leg can't be saved, so we'll be needing to fundraise for a leg amputation in the near future, and then he'll go to an adapted aviary where he'll spend his life happy and safe.
We've had a large amount of adult woodpigeons come in, a mixture of RTA's and cat attacks. Some had horrific injuries and sadly didn't make it, others are receiving medication and wound treatment, and are expected to make a full recovery.
We currently have 2 doves in right now, one was victim to a sparrowhawk, and one was brutally attacked by a cat. Both are miraculously doing well and healing. 🤞
We've had a few feral pigeons in, mainly due to cat attacks. Some have been left disabled, and some are slowly recovering and will eventually be released for a second chance at life.
We had a surprise the other day with someone asking for help with a pipistrelle bat. After spending the day trying to find someone to take her, and then trying to reunite her with her Mum, she was brought to us. We had advice and support from bat specialists and the Bat Conservation trust to help us in caring for her in the best way possible. (It is so so important to work with other rehabbers and seek advice when needed for species you aren't experienced with. Thank you so much to all who helped guide us with the little beauty).
We now have a keen interest in learning bat care and rehabilitation. ☺️
We've had lots of baby pigeons in, from tiny babies who still have their eggtooth, to older babies who have fallen from their nest too early. We also had a young woodie that was saved from being abused by a group of kids. Other than a broken blood feather, which we removed, he's surprisingly not got any injuries.
We also ended up with a super friendly female grouse, who is quite the character and is back to being healthy and ready to leave. She's our first grouse, and an absolute pleasure to care for. 💕

We've updated our wishlist for things we need the most right now. (Anything is highly appreciated, thank you).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/WMAXZO4TR6G6?ref_=wl_share

If anyone is able to donate via PayPal, to help us continue to pay for medication, food, transport, and vet bills, it is always greatly appreciated.
(We're currently spending over £100 a week on everything needed to keep running).

https://www.paypal.me/RiversWBRescue

Ilkeston Wild Bird Rescue

08/10/2025

08/10/2025

08/10/2025

04/10/2025

05/09/2025

22/08/2025

14/08/2025

14/08/2025

13/08/2025

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17/07/2025

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