Wild bird hospital facing busy summer of rescues

Mousehole Wild Bird Hospital said it was caring for more than 170 chicks

A wild bird hospital in Cornwall is facing another busy summer season of rescues, staff have said.

Mousehole Bird Hospital said more than 170 chicks were being cared for in the aviaries, with strict biosecurity measures in place.

It said mostly gulls were being looked after, with guillemots and gannets also being cared for.

Every arrival had to be quarantined for a week and tested for bird flu, at a cost of £6 per bird, it added.

Mel Duffy said "lovely volunteers" were collecting injured birds

The bird care team and trustees said they were concentrating on sea birds, partly to "help the gull population recover after such a bad outbreak of avian influenza in 2022".

However, manager Mel Duffy also said that this was not the reason it was currently caring for more of that species than others.

"There's no specific reason [for more gulls] that we've seen," she said.

"Some people have mentioned that they seen less nests, but we've not found that's the case with the gull chicks.

"Part of the reason we may have more is that we have lovely volunteers go and collect some for us because, obviously, some people can't get here."

Once the juvenile birds were found to be disease-free and healthy, they would be safely released, staff said.