Wildlife First Response

26/03/2026

Hello, I’m a hedgehog, and if you keep shutting me out of your garden, I’m going to go extinct. I’m already on the IUCN Red List (GB) as vulnerable. It might sound dramatic, but for those of us navigating the modern world, the fences you build are walls we simply cannot climb. We aren't looking to take over; we’re just small travellers on a nightly quest for food and a safe place to rest our weary heads. When every garden is sealed shut, our world shrinks, our food disappears, and our families are torn apart by barriers we don't understand.
​I promise I’m a neighbour worth having. I’ll spend my nights quietly patrolling your flowerbeds, acting as your natural pest control. I don’t ask for much—just a tiny gap at the bottom of a fence, a "hedgehog highway," so I can pass through safely without having to risk the dangerous, busy roads that claim so many of my friends.
​Please, take a moment to look at your garden through my eyes. A little corner of wildflowers, a shallow dish of water, or even just a small hole in the fence can be the difference between a future for my kind and a world where we only exist in picture books. I want to keep snuffling through the leaves and waking up to the smell of your garden, but I can't do it alone. I need you to let me in.

24/03/2026

Okay, hear me out…

Does anyone else have pet house spiders?

This wee lassie lives in my bathroom. I feed her daily with cat food & provide water. We’ve been happy cohabitants for a few months now.

Even the smallest of lives count in this treacherous world!

21/03/2026

Frog spawn season!! Yay to Spring!

‘Mon the frogs!

More information about spawn in the Froglife March update, including why you shouldn’t move frog spawn.

https://www.froglife.org/tag/spawn/

20/03/2026

In February, we have received 856 reports of badgers killed or injured on our roads—more than ever before! So many of these incidents were preventable.

💔 Speeding on country roads is a death sentence for wildlife.
💔 Reporting dead badgers helps us track populations & protect them.

🐾 Slow down. Stay alert. Report sightings.

Let's stop breaking records—and start saving lives.

📍 https://buff.ly/4CRPGGH to report badger sightings.

📷

18/03/2026

I’ve had a bit of a setback with the recovery of my fractured arm, so it’s been a tough day.

But there was a bright moment - I managed to help a honey bee (I think) that needed a hand.

It’s a small reminder that, no matter how we’re feeling, we can always do a little something to support wildlife, nature, and the environment.

17/03/2026

15/03/2026

🥰

🌹Happy Mothers Day Clan, to all Mothers, human and animal 🦡❤️

She is the hush between heartbeats,
the lantern lit in a world gone dim.
A thousand tiny worries she carries,
yet still, she sings lullabies.

To mother is to kneel before the stars,
and hold them in your arms. To gather up broken pieces day by day and make of them something soft, something safe.

It is to know the weight of silence and to give joy with a single smile. To mother is not just to give life but to grow beside it, always trying, always learning, ever becoming love itself.
Stand with Badgers 🦡

Photo Credit: Rodger Bamber

12/03/2026

Do you need a colour hug this bleak Thursday morning?

Well, the bees are back!!

Enjoying the heather just yesterday.

11/03/2026

I helped this little one cross the road this morning as they tried to pass from one habitat to another. Safely moved to the area they were trying to reach.

There’s a lot of toad and frog movement at this time of year and it’s important to be vigilant on roads for our amphibian pals as they aren’t the quickest of creatures.

You can learn more about what happens in March for amphibians via Froglife : -

https://www.froglife.org/2026/03/01/what-our-animals-are-doing-this-month-56/

06/03/2026

I’m sorry to say that I came across this little one on a Highland road today.

I’m no expert on foxes, but she appeared very small, so likely a juvenile, with injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle. The injuries may not necessarily have been immediately fatal.

Encounters like this always leave me wondering whether the animal suffered, whether it endured a long and painful struggle before death finally came. It’s something that genuinely haunts me.

This was on a busy road.

Perhaps she could have been saved if someone had reacted sooner. We’ll never know. But if there is one lesson that WFR can teach road users, it’s that a life may be saved when people act quickly and appropriately, when it is safe to do so.

If you encounter wildlife on the road, and it’s not immediately obvious whether the animal has died, consider stopping safely to check for signs of life. Contact your local wildlife rescue organisation for advice and support, and if possible contain the animal and transport it for treatment as quickly as you can, depending on the advice you’re given by the rescue.

We are incredibly lucky in the North of Scotland to have Highland Wildlife Rescue and New Arc Wildlife Rescue

Why not tag your local rescue in the comments and state what area(s) they cover so, together, we can try to help even more road users and wildlife.

05/03/2026

Not all patient stories end with a joyful release, but for injured patients we do at least get the privilege of preventing further suffering if they need our help at that critical time.

Wildlife centres have a responsibility, a duty, to ensure that each patient is fully assessed and that the decision to rehabilitate or rear will give the animal every chance of not just survivinig....but thriving, back in the wild - to live a full, free life.

This adult, male, Red Kite ring number GV28930 was ringed as a 4 week old chick, one of a brood of three, at a nest near Muir of Ord on 13 June 2018 by seasoned ringer and well respected conservationist Brian Etheridge.

He (the Kite) was nearly 8 years old and had likely been struck by a car when he was found grounded near the same town where he hatched. His satellite tracker had gone offline 2 years ago so we've been able to complete his story and return the tracker. His picture shows the loss of almost all of the primary, or "flight" feathers on his right wing.

If he matured and bred at age 2 he is likely to have produced chicks for the last 6 seasons so while his story has ended with euthanasia carried out with care and compassion, hopefully his youngsters still fly freely.

Our thanks to Rachel, Kevin, Jackie and Andrea for their help, and to Paul for his wise words of support.

Fly high RHU, number blue X2 red 2X - you were cared for most, when it really mattered 💚

05/03/2026