Seagulll Rescue

This morning I was back at the gym, and after a couple of weeks of not being able to go, it was quite hard, but it felt good to be back.  I did my usual run/walk on the treadmill for 25 minutes, and covered 2 miles and when I went to work this afternoon I got off the bus near the pier and I walked 2 miles along the seafront to work.  I'd taken a salad for my lunch and as I had a bit of time to kill before I had to be at work, at sat on the seafront and had a picnic.

I'd not been in work long when a patient came in and asked if I'd seen the bird outside.  I hadn't noticed anything when I arrived, but there was this little seagull check on our pathway.  It didn't move when I went near it, and didn't look very well, and there was no sign of it's parents, so I went and got a box and some disposable gloves, and lifted it into the box.

I had to leave it outside, but phoned around a couple of wildlife rescue centres but couldn't get hold of anyone and had to leave messages.  Anyway, about 5pm I got a call back from Rogers Wildlife Rescue that isn't far from where we live, and they said they'd take it in, so I said we'd drop it off on my way home from work at 8pm.

I was concerned that it might be dehydrated having been outside in the heat for a few hours, so tried giving it some water with a syringe, and then put a strawberry in the box.  It actually ate the strawberry, so I got another one and it fed from my hand, swallowing the strawberry whole!

Alan and Xena came to pick me up and Alan had found on Google that baby gulls will eat wet dog food, so he brought a bit of the boys' food with him and we put it in the box and I think it ate some.  When we got to Rogers, we couldn't believe just how many baby gulls they had, there were 112 in total with our little baby, and about 30 in the one pen that we saw that were all about the same size.  It looked like our little baby had either broken or dislocated it's wing, so they taped it up and added him to the pen, and said he/she should be fine.  Once the gulls are bigger and have recovered, they'll all be released back into the wild.  These people rely on donations to cover the cost of looking after the gulls (£65 per bird!), so we gave them £15 towards.  I feel a sense of satisfaction, having secured him/her a future, although I'm sure he/she will be annoying people all too soon!

By the time we got home it was about 8.30pm, and luckily dinner was ready as I'd made the butternut squash lasagne last night, and Alan put it in the oven on low so that it was ready to eat when we got in.

Anyway, it's late and I'm falling asleep, so I'll say goodnight!