Spike

At this rate I'm going to have to have a separate Wildlife Blog....this little guy was found in Stamford, looking a little lost in the street in the afternoon, when he should have been asleep, waiting for the cover of darkness.  He guzzled down some dog food and lapped up a saucer of water as you can see above, and I felt quite good for his prospects.  He curled up in the border and when I went out in the garden to look for him the following morning, he was only a yard from where he had curled up, but he was staggering, wobbling from side to side, his eyes shut, looking not the bright-eyed little Spike he did the night before.  I took him to the local Vet, and he thought he would be okay.  He thought it was a bacterial infection making him wobbly on his pins, so treated him first for fleas and ticks, of which he had quite a few, then went back a couple of hours later, but he had died.  So, sadly, the little chap didn't make it.

However, on a happier note, Ollie Beak, the Little Owl, is still doing very well, getting stronger day by day and the Falcon centre are very happy with him, but he still has a problem with one of his talons and isn't able to grip properly, so, depending on whether he regains full use of it, he may have to live the rest of his life in captivity. 

Curiously enough, on driving back home two days ago at dusk, I saw a bird I didn't immediately recognise in flight above me.  I slowed down, watched it alight in an Oak tree and saw it was.....a Little Owl!  Perhaps one of Ollie Beaks siblings, or one of his parents, who knows.

Also, on driving away from our local refuse tip yesterday, there was a large, juvenile Buzzard sitting on the side of the road, narrowly missing my car as it flew off over me.  I stopped and saw that it had been feeding from the carcase of a Rabbit, a road victim, so I picked it up and threw it over the gate opposite, so that the young Buzzard could return and feed in peace before it, too, became a road casualty.