With Special thanks from the Centre


27th July 2009

Our very special thanks to Helen Spencer from Ablintown near Wexford Town who kindly donated a sum of money in memory of her late father Desmond, who would have celebrated his 80th Birthday this year. Desmond was a great nature lover and had a special interest in all birds.

 

June 2009

Once again the Heritage Council have been gracious in awarding the Centre a grant to further develop 3 new rehabilitation aviary's essential to prepare the birds for release. One of the aviary's is specifically designed to exercise birds prior to release by doing 'press ups'. This exercise builds up muscle where a birds has been immobile (deliberately restricted movement to allow recover and avoid any further damage) and we put them on 10ft high perch and make them fly down onto a mat for their food. Another of the aviary's can be turned to pitch black' (speeds up recovery) and the final aviary can be adapted into 4 separate sections for pre release accommodation.

 

May 2009

.We are pleased to say that the Peregrine 'peggy' was released back to the wild in April and is now enjoying life back with her mate. This has been a significantly longer re-hab than usual, due to the repair to the wing that had been damaged by shotgun pellet.

 

In October 2008 we were contacted by Lisa O' Rourke who works with the Vetcare team in Port Laoise saying that someone had bought them in a Peregrine Falcon that could not fly. After meeting up and collecting the bird we found by X-ray hat she had been shot (4 lodged pellets) but she had a fighting chance to survive. 'Peggy' also had an old wound where her Left foot had been severed from her leg (trap we think).

 

With slow progress and managing to pick out 3 of the shotgun pellets she gradually improved over the months, meanwhile Lisa set about collecting donations (she is formidable and 'cannot' be refused!) and managed to raise over 800 towards the costs of the South East Birds of Prey centre. We are eternally grateful to Lisa and the many that gave generous donations.

 

In May 2009, we arranged with Lisa and her local enthusiasts! to return Peggy to the area where she was found. After several days of acclimatisation and reducing her food (process known as 'hacking back') Lisa let her go and has successfully returned to her mate. Great story with some determination by Lisa and her team.



Last Updated 27.07.09