local wildlife (fur,feathers and beasties)

[Paul in the woods]

9 hours ago, Paul Cleaver said:

Any ideas on this moff

Probably not a moth but a caddisfly, possibly a Halesus of some sort. Halesus digitatus?

[ABtrees]

On the Iggly thread the question came up on intervening (a bit) to help wildlife out.  I generally believe not to do so unless the animal is truly at risk. 

There's an old abandoned DB selectamatic in a field near me.  On Saturday I was walking past and saw this tail flapping about on the front axle stub.  This little fella was completely stuck - so should you intervene or not ?   Needless to say ……….. he did look a bit dazed once freed though - he just sat there for a bit.  Came back that way 20 mins later and he was gone.

[Doug Tait]

I think credit to you ABtrees.

 

If something is in trouble and I can do something I will, be it helping the situation or ending it humanely, I dislike seeing anything in distress.

 

Saved a hedgehog from being throttled by a baseball cap a while ago, it visits the back door every night at the moment for peanuts so I'm glad I did.

 

Probably 20yrs ago I started thinking about an isolated walk I hadn't done for a while. After a week thinking about it I did the walk and found a very young deer had got its head stuck between a gate and post, I suppose mum had jumped gate and the little one tried to go through the gap. Obviously it had suffered a horrible few days dying of hunger. That really bothered me, still think of that regularly and really regret not doing the walk sooner 

[nepia]

1 hour ago, ABtrees said:

On the Iggly thread the question came up on intervening (a bit) to help wildlife out.  I generally believe not to do so unless the animal is truly at risk. 

There's an old abandoned DB selectamatic in a field near me.  On Saturday I was walking past and saw this tail flapping about on the front axle stub.  This little fella was completely stuck - so should you intervene or not ?   Needless to say ……….. he did look a bit dazed once freed though - he just sat there for a bit.  Came back that way 20 mins later and he was gone.

 

No question at all in my mind - help it.  Sorry if I'm being thick but how was the mouse stuck?

 

You did the right thing!

[nepia]

37 minutes ago, Doug Tait said:

Probably 20yrs ago I started thinking about an isolated walk I hadn't done for a while. After a week thinking about it I did the walk and found a very young deer had got its head stuck between a gate and post, I suppose mum had jumped gate and the little one tried to go through the gap. Obviously it had suffered a horrible few days dying of hunger. That really bothered me, still think of that regularly and really regret not doing the walk sooner 

About ten years ago I was called to a roe buck stuck in a thicket, its antlers utterly wrapped up in about 3lbs of bale cord attached to a 6' fence post.  Took me probably 20 minutes with a pocket knife to free it, my heart in my mouth somewhat when it was able to start thrashing its head!

He'd have suffered a similar fate to your fawn if someone hadn't seen him.

[Mick Dempsey]

21 minutes ago, nepia said:

About ten years ago I was called to a roe buck stuck in a thicket, its antlers utterly wrapped up in about 3lbs of bale cord attached to a 6' fence post.  Took me probably 20 minutes with a pocket knife to free it, my heart in my mouth somewhat when it was able to start thrashing its head!

He'd have suffered a similar fate to your fawn if someone hadn't seen him.

Well done.

I rescued an exhausted hedgehog who was caught up in garden netting.

Put him in the van, managed to extricate him while he was still in a ball, put him in a sheltered spot and cracked a raw egg in front of him.

Went back half an hour later and him and the egg had gone.

 

Not quite as heart stopping I’ll admit.

 

[ABtrees]

Thanks for all the positive feed back.  The 'mouse' in question was actually one of those Garden Dormice (as fully protected under EU law - I think to the tune of 5000 Euro fine for disturbance !!!).  However valued it may be - they're not blessed with much intelligence and are extremely curious.  There are several positioning holes in the front axle to adjust the width of the track.  I reckon it had put it's head into the hole, lost it's balance and panicked.  I put on both my gloves (they have needle sharp teeth) lifted it so it was upside down and eased its head back out of the hole.  As soon as it was free I just let it fall to the floor and the rest is history.  Good on the 3 of you (and I'm sure plenty of others on here) for your respective rescues.  Not sure I would tackle a fully tooled up Roe buck though !  And yes Doug I too have had to do the (pleased to say) occasional humane despatch - last one (sorry to say) was a Great Tit attacked by one of our chickens - broken wing and leg - not good. 

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, ABtrees said:

he 'mouse' in question was actually one of those Garden Dormice (as fully protected under EU law - I think to the tune of 5000 Euro fine for disturbance !!!). 

I'm glad you clarified that, the furry tale suggested dormouse but the colour was all wrong. Not in UK then?

[rapalaman]

I was fishing our local river when a feral pigeon misjudged the water and ended up right in the middle. Luckily it’s only about 4ft deep and with a long landing net I got out there fully clothed and saved it from a watery grave. An hour drying off in the sun under the net and it was good to go.

many years ago fishing again in Holland and the local pigeons would scavenge bait from me. One had fishing line wrapped around one foot which had become quite deformed and it had a nasty limp. Took a few days of careful coaxing to get it close enough to net it - 10 minutes of very careful snipping and nylon extraction from its wounds and another creature saved from a painful situation.

[roboted]

3 hours ago, nepia said:

About ten years ago I was called to a roe buck stuck in a thicket, its antlers utterly wrapped up in about 3lbs of bale cord attached to a 6' fence post.  Took me probably 20 minutes with a pocket knife to free it, my heart in my mouth somewhat when it was able to start thrashing its head!

He'd have suffered a similar fate to your fawn if someone hadn't seen him.

Similar tale. Many years ago. 

Full fallow buck with sheep electric fencing net attached to both antlers and caught up in a small wood. I spent nearly two hours trying to cut him out, trying to let him settle and calm down. I collected chest and facial injuries during this time and eventually had to admit defeat and resort to the .243

A great shame as he was a magnificent beast and would have been a great asset to the local population.

I felt sad this life had to end that way but l felt that there was no option.

Still think about that now.