July & August

Diseased birds
REMEMBER: if you are finding Sick or Dying birds to check here for information. Reports of these are starting to increase as they do every summer. The peak time for disease reports is September. The disease is most likely to be Trichomonaisis.

Baby birds
We can all start to relax a bit as the worst of the baby bird season seems to be over. Still a few gull chicks around and pigeons are still breeding but the number of welfare calls is dropping. However, there are still some people taking in fledglings. Familiar garden birds fledge once they are fully feathered, but before they're able to fly, they spend a day or two on the ground while their feathers finish developing. Fledglings should be left where they are, in the care of their parents.

Break for freedom
We often get reports of parrots and Harris' hawks escaping their owners but this week a marabou stork landed at a car boot sale. Fortunately, it found its own way back to Eagle Heights in Kent. A turkey vulture is still at large in Hampshire however.

Hummingbird hawkmoths
The usual confusion between bird and moth. We are yet to receive any evidence of hummingbirds on the loose in the UK so any report of a hummingbird will almost certainly be a hawkmoth.

Snake in the grass
We have had a couple of snake IDs this week. One was a grass snake. The other was a snake 3ft long with a straight red line down its back. No idea what that was!