East Sussex WRAS has reached the finals of the 2017 Celebration of Sussex Life Awards to be held at the Hilton Brighton Metropole on 28 September.
WRAS is one of three finalists in the Service to the Community Award.
So far calls in 2017 are up 19% on this time 2016.
East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS) Rescue Coordinator and British Divers Marine Life Rescue Medic Chris Riddington took a call at 8.30am this morning to reports of an injured seal on the beach at the Wish Tower Eastbourne.
Chris arrived on site and spotted the young seal on waters edge. "As I approached I could see it was underweight and acting abnormally, as I got closer it returned to the water" Chris explained "I continued to monitor the seal and keep the public away, on a busy sunny day on the seafront it was easier said then done".
Wildlife Rescuers had their work cut out this afternoon after a mother duck and five ducklings decided to walk just over a mile through Seaford streets.
East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service were called to the junction of Princess Drive and Beacon Drive in Seaford at 1:30pm. On arrival the mum and ducklings were wandering south along Beacon Drive. Rescuers were unsure where she may be trying to get to but suspected they may be heading for either a pond off Surrey Road near the railway line or Blatchington Pond off Sutton Drove Seaford.
A rescue operation was undertake in Uckfield on Sunday evening after some children noticed a lone duckling behind a drainage grate.
East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS) were called to the scene in Old Common Way, but the duckling was nowhere to be seen.
East Sussex WRAS is experiencing its busiest year ever, especially for evening and night time rescues.
WRAS’s Duty Rescue Co-ordinators Trevor Weeks and Chris Riddington have been working round the clock this summer to help wildlife in need.
Trevor and Chris take turns doing two weeks on and two weeks off covering the out of hours emergencies from 10pm till 9am. “This summer has been amazingly busy for us, throughout most of May and June there was hardly a night without us being on the road till gone 1.30am. At least once a week Trevor or I were on the road till gone 4am” said Chris.
Rescuers today had to rush to Grassington Road, not far from Eastbourne Town Hall after a male Roe Deer became trapped in a garden.
“The roe deer has been roaming this part of Eastbourne for the past few days and this area west of Eastbourne Town Hall is an area they visit from time to time” said Duty Rescue Co-ordinator Trevor Weeks of East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS).
A animal welfare charity is starting to question whether Sussex is becoming less compassionate towards wildlife after a series of cruelty incidents across the county.
Since November 2016 there have been three incidents of cruelty involving catapults in Hailsham. In the past two months there have been at least 12 shooting incidents as well as three incidents of young people throwing food into roads to encourage birds to get run over resulting in the injury of three birds. The birds involved have included Peregrine Falcons, Gulls, Pigeons and Geese.
Rescuers from East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS) had to undertake a difficult rescue of a starling trapped inside the Brewers Fayre pub called “The Drove” in Newhaven last night (1st June 2017).
The bird had somehow managed to get inside “The Drove” and customers spent the evening watching the bird flying up high above the tables, flying from beam to beam and across to the windows looking for a way out. The bird was quickly named “Jim” Beam after the Bourbon drink being in a pub and flying around the beams.
Rescuers had a difficult duckling rescue yesterday early evening at Princes Park Eastbourne. Initial reports were of 7 ducklings abandoned on the lake swimming around without mum. Fearing that mum had left them rescuers Kai Ahmed and Chris Riddington attended on site and began to search the area. Mum had been seen the previous day with 10 ducklings but she was no long present anmnd
A resident of Snatts Lane Uckfield contacted East Sussex Wildlife Rescue & Ambulance Service (WRAS) after finding faeces in a storage room on the first floor of their house. After looking online they thought the faeces belonged to a fox, but they were baffled by how any animal could have got in or what the animal was. Senior Rescuers Trevor Weeks and Chris Riddington attended on site thinking they were going to end up looking round, surveying and giving advice. After seeing the photo of the faeces and noticing poisoned bait placed for rodents the situation suddenly turned a lot more serious.
