Young Molly saves accident-prone goldcrest

Most are queries about unusual wildlife encounters, but occasionally you come up with a nice wee story with a happy ending.

Last week I received just such a message from reader L.S. from near Duns. She told me “A goldcrest collided with our eight-year-old daughter Molly’s double glazed window last weekend.

“After securing our Border Terrier in the house, she dashed out to pick it up from the garden where it was looking rather dazed and poorly. She helped to bring the bird back to strength by bringing it into the warmth of the house and giving plenty cuddles!

“It flew away perfectly after 20 minutes and a quick photo.”

Most of us experience bird strikes on our windows at some point and it is often difficult to know what to do. On examination, the bird may show no external injuries, but it appears to be dead and is limp.

If you pick it up gently and feel a heartbeat, then it has a chance. If its neck is broken it will not regain consciousness, otherwise, the chances are, that like a boxer receiving a knockout punch, it will come round.

The best plan is to put it in a box somewhere warm, quiet and dark until it recovers. If it shows no obvious injuries then it can be safely released.

Well done Molly you probably saved the life of the smallest bird in Britain!

In last week’s column I mentioned the harrowing experience of a Denholm man who had his regular visiting hedgehog attacked and killed by a badger in his garden.

It seems that all badgers are not so averse to our prickly friends, as reader R.B. from the Kelso area proved with another e-mail and picture.

He told me “We live near Kelso and feed both badgers and hedgehogs in the garden from the same dish! In the 18 months or so that they have been visiting we have never witnessed aggression between them, indeed they sometimes feed side by side, although the badger will occasionally nudge the hedgehog out of the way to get at the food, which is mainly peanuts”.

Keep those e-mails and pictures coming. Send to [email protected]