Red!

I haven’t photoshopped or otherwise altered this - I just put my phone camera close up to …….. guess?

My sick seagull from Friday stayed outside my front door in heavy rain till midnight, when I went to I bed. He wasn’t there the next morning - I had expected to find him dead. I was then out for most of the day but as I drove round the corner towards my house I saw him walking across the road and into my drive! He wanted food - he looked more alert than on Friday and ate a lot. Later he disappeared. But this morning he was tapping on my glass front door with his beak! So I fed him.

Later I found him sleeping on a piece of wet cardboard - the remains of a box I had put out on Friday to shelter in.

Now he has some dry cardboard and some hay I stole from my hedgehogs’ supply, and he’s resting on it. He takes short walks but he makes no attempt to fly. I’ve tried more rescue centres but only one will take him if I ‘pop him in a box’ and drive him to them. He looks too strong for me to do that. I used to live in Somerset and rescue centres there have volunteers who will go out and collect injured wildlife. But here the centres all say they’re busy caring for their animals and can’t leave them to drive out and collect animals or birds.

I was told, though, that the avian flu restrictions have been lifted here, but some vets are still saying they can’t take birds in due to avian flu risks. It seems they are obliged to help wildlife without charging the person who brings it in. So the avian flu risk is quite a convenient excuse for not helping.

I can only hope that if I keep feeding him he will recover and soon be able to fly. He has a friend who sits on a nearby lamp post watching. He/she must be a friend because s/he doesn’t swoop down to steal the food as gulls normally do.

It’s been sunny but humid here. I have a ‘surveyor’ coming tomorrow to look at my house and recommend work to be done under a scheme called a ‘retrofit’. It’s a grant towards making my house more efficient re fuel use. I only have electricity and even my summer usage is costing £150 a month. No tumble dryer, no cooker. (air fryer and slow cooker instead) and very little hot water. The infuriating thing is that I had this survey done back in January but nothing was done afterwards. Then I was told that the company that was supposed to be doing the work was considered to be ‘substandard’ so they are starting again from the beginning!

So I didn’t go out in the sun today - the surveyor has to go into every room so I felt I had to tidy up a bit! I’m just taking a break from doing that now, but have more to do!