Are you brave enough?

Secret World will be hosting their annual sponsored “Dip in the Sea” at Lyme Regis Bay on Monday 27th December 2010.

Lyme Regis Bay on a crisp Winters Morning! Photograph courtesy of Steve Birkenshaw

Blow away those cobwebs after that heavy Christmas dinner and pud and join us in this “exhilarating” sponsored event where all proceeds go directly towards the rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned wildlife!

The fun begins at midday where participants congregate at the Rock Point Inn.

Fancy dress optional – wetsuits unfortunately not allowed!  So are you brave enough?

Pictured below are Secret World supporters who lived to tell the tale!

2009 Dippers!

2008 Dippers!

Many layers come in handy!

For more information please contact Lynette or Debbie on Tel: 01278 783250.

To register for this event please complete and return this form: SWWR Event Registration Form
Sponsorship Forms can be downloaded here: SWWR Sponsor Form 2010
To request a copy of our complete fundraising pack then please email lynette@secretworld.org


Filed under: Fundraising,News
Posted by:

lynette

at 3:34 pm

Open Doors with a difference!

Secret World has been invited to attend ‘Bristol Open Doors Day’ being held on Saturday 11th September 2010 at The Concrete House (address details below). This unique day is when many of Bristol’s significant contemporary and historic buildings open their doors to the general public.

Doors open from 10am – 4pm and visitors to The Concrete House will not only have the opportunity of looking around the property but will also see some of the animals cared for by Secret World. Animals such as birds of prey and harvest mice will be on display and children will be entertained with a nature trail and ferret racing.

This is the first time Secret World has attended this event and as many injured and orphaned animals are rescued from the Bristol area, this is a fantastic opportunity for visitors to find out more about what we do.

Come and watch the ferret racing!

There is no admission charge on the day and guided tours will be given around the property by an experienced architect. Any proceeds raised on the day through the sale of refreshments will be donated to Secret World Wildlife Rescue.

Secret World's wildlife will be on display.


For more information please download the following leaflet: Bristol Open Doors 2010

The Concrete House
The Ridgeway
Westbury-on-Trym
Bristol
BS10 7DG


Filed under: Fundraising,Main Blog,News
Posted by:

lynette

at 10:54 am

Friday 27th August 2010

Once again apologies that our webcams are down. We are having problems with our electric supply as well as the cameras !! So please bear with us.

Last Friday we had one of the worst callouts we have ever had. A supporter rang to say that they were by the Cripps River Bridge on the moors and there was a cage of ferrets by the river and just loads of dead ducks all over the place.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to but when I arrived a small white ferret was walking along the road and a tiny kitten was crying in the field. The lady who had called us out and her son were very distraught and understandably so.  5 ferrets were in a cage standing on top of the bodies of 6 – 8 chickens and a dead cat which they were eating. The river was littered with dead bodies of ducks and chickens and plastic bags that were floating by the bodies.

The Environment Agency attended and managed to get the bodies out with a grapple hook and the plastic bag contained more bodies, I would estimate over 100 animals were dead. I took the ferrets and the kitten back home. I sincerely hope that the person responsible for such a loathsome act will eventually be prosecuted. The RSPCA are investigating the incident.

Friday evening I travelled up to Stroud to take part in a talk with Chris Cheeseman and there was a really good turnout.  So many people are prepared to act on behalf of the badger and I can only hope that the government will eventually see sense, it was just a shame that there was not more representatives from the farming fraternity and veterinary profession. The meeting was called by David Drew, who is against the cull.

Saturday was another busy day and the Burnham Area Rescue Boat ( BARB) helped us catch a swan in Weston-super-Mare that had been trampled on by cattle. It was a male that had come out to protect his partner and their cygnets. Unfortunately the cattle had stamped on his wing and he had pulled out quite a few of his wing feathers trying to get away. He had retreated back into the water. We had been unable to persuade him to come out of the water again so it was necessary to have a boat. BARB are great at helping us. The swan was captured and when our Vet nurse assessed him, she found that the tip of his wing was fractured as well as his leg.  She splinted both in the hope that they would heal so that he could go back to protect his family.

Injured swan with Sara and Emily

We have a Wallaby pen with lots of oddments that are given to us over the years. There is a large pond in there which many, many years ago was dug out to make the bricks for the house in 1675. Some of our many (!) mallard ducklings get put in the pen and they can fly away when they want to. Goward, the goose has joined the odd lot flock.  He was dumped at a lake but being a domestic goose, was not coping with life in the wild.

Goward the Goose!

We also have recently been given a trio of Apricot Call Ducks which are very pretty.

Apricot Call Ducks

The peahen has managed to keep all her four chicks and they are getting quite large now.

Peahen and chicks

The staff will be pleased as they have to watch them in the spring as the males tend to jump at shiny cars in the spring as they can see their reflection and become territorial. They can really scratch the cars quite badly. We had a number of insurance claims when we used to be open. We don’t know yet if the young peachicks are male or female. Either way, it means more calling early in the morning again at springtime – oh joy!

Stuart, our longest serving volunteers, is getting on well with the polecat that has fallen in love with a female ferret that we have. It’s great to see him with company  the polecat, I mean !) Even so the polecat can play hard and we got a great picture of Stuart getting his ear nipped !! Stuart is also taking care of the 5 ferrets that were dumped by the river so he is having busy days at the moment.

Stuart with polecat.

The swan has had to go into the vets as the leg is not healing and we think he will need to have the leg operated on and have the leg pinned. We hope it will be possible.

We’re busy getting ready for our open weekend. I hope not too many people will be disappointed as our local paper said that visitors will be able to see otter cubs being bottle fed and I’m afraid that is not possible as it would make him too tame and there is only one! Still there will be plenty of animals for the visitors to see. Why don’t you come and see us…it’s the last time we are open until December !!

The baby season was meant to be slowing down but young hedgehogs, baby squirrels and mice mean that the orphan carers are busy again.

Feeding baby squirrel.

Lots of Hedgehogs!

Baby mice in an egg cup.

The heavy rain made it obvious that one of our roofs has been leaking. We have not noticed anything with all the dry weather we have been having.  So Tony, our maintenance man has been busy with the volunteers trying to get it sorted as soon as possible.

Molly has spent most of her day trying to encourage Albert, my little mongrel shadow, to play. Albert does consider himself too mature at 10 years old for such things but Molly does seem to be able to change his mind sometimes!

Molly & Albert.

Last night an adult badger was taken home. Marie, one of our animal carers took him for release with Rhys, one of our students that is staying with us at the moment. The badger recognised he was home and shot off as soon as the cage was opened. One of the great things we get to do as part of our work!

Badger ready to be let out.

Badger going home!


Filed under: Main Blog
Posted by:

Pauline

at 1:57 pm

Wednesday 18th August

Debbie has been busy rearing bats.  She has been doing it for years and she was thrilled this year to get two baby Long Eared bat babies.  They are very attractive as adults, but with their huge ears, as babies they are really cute.  Her first one was named ‘Cruella’ and the second when it arrived a few days later was called ‘Gismo’.  ‘Cruella’ was so tiny when she arrived that it was hardly surprising that she did not survive after a few days but Debbie was gutted as you get so attached to these tiny orphans.  ‘Gismo’ is still looking well so we hope that he will eventually make it back to the wild.

'Gismo' still going strong!

We were busy filming last Thursday with Dick and Dom.  It is to do with a children’s programme and no doubt we will eventually find out when it is going to be viewed.  With two film crews moving around each with two children for a whole day was quite stretching but the children enjoyed themselves which is great and also that’s what it was all about.

With more badger and fox cubs in than we have ever had before has caused a severe shortage of food and a desperate need of kitchen towels. The cute picture of the duckling sitting on a roll of kitchen roll will hopefully bring some into us!

Several of us went off to the Badger Trust Conference in Sussex this last weekend.  It is always good to catch up with like minded people who care for badgers.  You always learn new things and perhaps the most important subject of the weekend was Project Meles which is all about keeping a high profile of wildlife crime – badger persecution in particular.  It is the Scottish Badgers that are driving this forward and need as much help as they can with regards to the reporting of incidents both in Scotland, England and Wales. Over heard conversations, descriptions of people thought to be involved and car registration numbers all may just be the last bit of the jigsaw that they have been waiting for.  So if you have any information – let us know.

A tabby kitten was found run over down the village of East Huntspill. We have not managed to find its owner but took it to the vets this morning and sadly it had suffered a broken back in the accident which meant there was nothing we could do to help it. We have put a poster up in the village so hopefully the owner will at least know what happened to it.

The baby hedgehogs have started to come in and I believe we are up to 50 already – adults and babies together.  Amy, one of the younger carers, has taken on a group of three baby hedgehogs so she will soon be aware of the responsibilities of being a ‘mother’ but hopefully will enjoy caring for them.

Amy with her new family.

Our cameras are still down so yet again apologies to those who I know do enjoy watching what is going on here at Secret World.  Hopefully we will get it going soon – there has been lost of complaints! Garaint continues to grow and is very good at swimming in the bath.  We do hope that another one will come along for company as he really does need something to play with.

'Garaint' is full of life and needing someone to play with!

Molly, the puppy Labrador, has now taken up digging up carpets or lawns depending on the weather. Perhaps her most dangerous escapade was chewing a electric cable down to the wires ! I wouldn’t want to be without her but sometimes……………!!!


Filed under: Main Blog
Posted by:

Pauline

at 8:28 am

Sunday August 8th

Last weekend, Emily George, a vet nurse that I have known for several years, came down with her baby ‘mink’.  Ems takes wildlife in at the veterinary practise where she works and this little baby turned up very tiny, eyes and ears closed and hardly any fur a few weeks ago.

Looking at the photos that she had sent, I could see that despite its small size it was neither a stoat nor a weasel.  We surmised that it was a mink. As it is against the law to release mink, it was decided to rear it tame and maybe it could go into a wildlife centre as mink are rarely seen.  Anyway having weaned it, she arrived with the baby and I knew straight away that we had been wrong and indeed it was a polecat.

Maurice the mink ???

It's a polecat!

It's a polecat!

Emily lives in Worcestershire and Wales is the stronghold of polecats and you would never be likely to see one around here, so it never occurred to me that it could be a polecat. Well he’s as tame as can be so he will have to stay and at the moment he is enjoying life tearing around his cage as most 12 week animal teenagers do. He’s certainly very pretty! Named Maurice the mink, I think we may have to change the name to Peter or Poldark !

We have had some rare birds in this week with a trio of Barn Owl chicks which we don’t see very often even though there are a lot of them here on the levels. The people had been watching the nest box and found the dead adult male one day and were concerned so decided to monitor to see if the female was going in to feed the chicks. After a couple of days of not seeing anything, they decided to have a look and found the three chicks close to death. Luckily after their arrival here and with emergency treatment, they were soon looking a lot stronger and will soon be going out into an aviary.

3 lovely fluffy Barn Owlets

Another unusual one is a Peregrine Falcon. There is a break to its wing which we have strapped so will have to wait and see. It’s a very stunning bird. The quiet area in the Jasmine ( Bird ) Room is just right for keeping him without stress. He is already eating so that’s one good sign.

A Peregrine Falcon visitor

Tuesday was our volunteer BBQ which we have every year as a thank you to all our SWRD drivers and volunteers. With over 100 people here it was a busy evening with Simon, Sara and Liz doing most of the cooking. It was a bit windy but at least it was dry. We had a cabaret too which was belly dancing which was absolutely amazing with their beautiful costumes and various dances. It was a great evening and a lovely chance to meet up together.

Belly Dancing - very entertaining!

We’ve been doing some filming with True North for a children’s programme which is being shown later this year. The presenter is Dom from Dick and Dom and he was very patient with all the staff who wanted to have their pictures taken with them.  Stuart, who has been with us for nearly 30 years, was one of the staff who joined the queue!

Stuart and Dom

This week was rounded off with me going to the West Huntspill Car Rally on Saturday which was really busy with nearly 100 classic or vintage cars. It was all in aid of the Church funds at West Huntspill so hopefully it was a successful day. Maurice had his first outing to an event and spent most of his time playing with some new toys. The tank of Harvest mice was a great attraction and with fresh grasses in the tank, the tiny mice were busy for most of the time at the show eating seeds and climbing the fresh stalks!


Filed under: Main Blog
Posted by:

Pauline

at 8:49 am

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