I don't know about you, but I'm devastated now that 'Springwatch' on BBC2 has finished! I loved watching our indigenous wildlife being caught on camera, going about it's wild business. But it did highlight how cruel nature is when viewed from our cosy viewpoint; infanticidal plovers and lapwings, and murderous kestrels and goshawks, to name but a few. The cameramen obviously had to wrestle with their 'do not interfere' rule, as they watched the baby dipper struggle again and again to climb onto a rock. Eventually they couldn't stand by any more, but sadly by then the baby had worn himself out and died soon after. Everyone watched with bated breath as the next baby flew the nest and landed in the water as well....but he struggled and survived. It really does emphasise how 'survival of the fittest' works, and how wild animals are different to our domesticated and selectively bred pets.

Barely a day goes by when a fledgling does not arrive on our doorstep. Unfortunately, healthy fledglings have a much lower chance of survival if they are picked up than if they are simply left where they are, being lifted out of harm's way if necessary, because the majority of these are still being looked after by their parents.

If the baby is obviously injured, the chances of survival are much lower. They often have cat damage and will die of shock within hours, but if they survive the first 12 hours after the injury their chances are higher for longterm recovery, depending on how bad the damage is of course. For a wild animal, the stress of being picked up by a predator (us) is hard for us to contemplate but must be enormous. Wildlife experts recommend that the bird is kept quiet and in low light for a few hours to see if it will survive the initial shock. If it does, then the injuries can be assessed, and if there is a realistic chance of recovery then we will find someone to rear it - one of our nurses, Lis, is a real expert at this and has years of experience. If the injuries are too severe, then the kindest option is to put it to sleep rather than stress it any more.

Quite often, very kind and well-meaning people will bring a badly injured rabbit or other wildlife in to us to be put to sleep. We are of course happy to do this, but I do wonder if actually, the stress involved in this is greater than simply being left quietly under a hedge to die a natural death....since, as demonstrated in Springwatch, nature is so different to our domesticated life. What do you think?