Hessilhead wildlife

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Beith, Scotland
Hessilhead wildlife

Non profit charity for rehabilitation of wildlife

03/09/2026

A little hedgehog enjoying some dinner to say hello!

You may have noticed that things have been a little quiet on our page recently. We promise the rescue itself has been anything but quiet!

It has been an incredibly busy year at Hessilhead. In fact, we have already taken in as many animals so far in 2026 as we did during the whole of 2025- and with every new arrival comes feeding, cleaning, treatment, rehabilitation and, hopefully, a return to the wild.

At the moment, we have a lot of hedgehogs in our care, including youngsters like this little one, who was very pleased with the pâté on offer! With so many patients on site, we are getting through supplies at an impressive rate and would be enormously grateful for any donations.

We are particularly looking for old cages suitable for housing hedgehogs. If you have a spare cage gathering dust, we may be able to put it straight back to work! We would also be very grateful for donations of:

- Cat food (wet and dry)
- Newspapers
- Towels
- Wild bird seed
- Washing-up liquid and cleaning supplies

If you have something you think might be useful but aren’t sure, please feel free to ask us.

We are a small team caring for a very large number of wild patients, and donations like these genuinely make a huge difference to our day-to-day work. Thank you, as always, to everyone who donates, fundraises, transports animals, shares our posts or supports us in any way. We simply couldn’t do what we do without you.

And hopefully, now that our busiest part of the year is beginning to settle down, we can start showing you a little more of what we’ve been up to behind the scenes!

27/06/2026

🦆 FOUND DUCKS 🦆

We have had two domestic ducks handed in after they were found wandering on a road near Rouken Glen Park, East Renfrewshire.

If you have any information or think they may belong to you, please send us a private message via our page.

Thank you! 💚

25/06/2026

☀️ With the warm weather continuing, we'd like to remind everyone to please put out shallow dishes of fresh water for wildlife. Placing water in a shaded area can make a huge difference to birds, hedgehogs and other garden visitors during hot weather. Please remember to top it up regularly and keep it clean💎

🦔 We are currently in the middle of our busiest time of year and, despite going into the season having a very large supply of towels, we have remarkably managed to use them all while caring for the hundreds of wildlife casualties arriving at Hessilhead! We are now in need of more towels to help us continue providing the care our patients need❤️

If you have any old or unwanted towels that you no longer need, we would be incredibly grateful for any donations. Towels can be dropped off at the centre during our opening hours.

Thank you all for your continued support 🦊🦇

13/06/2026

🦔 Hedgehog baby season has begun! 🦔

This week we’ve admitted our first hoglet of the year and our first heavily pregnant hedgehog mum-to-be.

At this time of year, we’re often contacted about hedgehogs that people are worried about because they’re active during the day. While daytime activity can sometimes indicate that a hedgehog needs help, it’s important to remember that pregnant and nursing females may also be seen out during daylight hours while gathering food and nesting material for their young.

If you find a very small hoglet on its own, please give us a call for advice before intervening. And if you spot a round, determined-looking hedgehog waddling around in broad daylight carrying nesting material or hoovering up food, she may simply be a busy mum preparing for her family!

Here’s hoping for a successful season for Scotland’s hedgehogs. 💚🦔

11/06/2026

Summer bat releases come with late nights and the usual rather dizzying camerawork! Very pleased to have released this lovely little bat back to his home territory in Gartmore- two weeks, 405 admissions, and a 157% increase in weight later!

Speaking of bats, we’ve surpassed 50% of our goal on our bat fundraiser!! We are absolutely blown away, and so overjoyed to be supported by bat lovers (and midge haters!) everywhere.

Thank you to everyone who donated and shared our post- we’re well on our way to creating something incredible for Scotland’s bats.

Donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/loch-lomond-bat-group-hh-1 and share our pinned post to help support us on our way! 🦇

09/06/2026

🦇 A dream that’s been years in the making… and we need your help to make it happen.

With the help of Loch Lomond Bat Group, Islay & Jura Bat Rescue, and Hushwing Ranger Service, we are promoting a fundraiser to build Scotland’s largest bat conditioning flight cage- and the first in the country designed to meet Bat Conservation Trust standards.

Every summer, tiny bat pups arrive through our doors. Some weigh as little as a single gram. Our team spends weeks hand-rearing these incredible little animals- feeding them every two hours (even through the night!).

But raising a bat is only the beginning.

Before release, bats need space to build muscle, practise hunting, and improve their flight skills they need to survive in the wild. At present, there is no purpose-built facility in Scotland that can provide what these bats truly need.

This project will change that.

Our flight cage will provide rescued bats with the best possible chance of returning to the wild, while also helping other rescues who currently have nowhere suitable to send their bats for conditioning. As bat admissions continue to rise, this facility will become an essential resource for wildlife rehabilitation across Scotland.

Every donation, no matter the size, brings us one step closer to giving Scotland’s bats the future they deserve.

Not a bat fan? Donate for the free midge control! One single soprano pipistrelle can eat up to 3,000 midges in a night. That’s a lot of itchy bites prevented by one very small mammal.

Together, we can build something truly special.

🦇 Donate here: https://www.justgiving.com/page/loch-lomond-bat-group-hh-1?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=CL
and please share this post far and wide!

07/06/2026

Pigeons 🩶💜💚

At Hessilhead, we love pigeons.

These birds once lived alongside us as beloved companions- carrying messages, providing company, and even helping to save lives during wartime. Today’s feral pigeons are the descendants of those domestic birds, left behind to fend for themselves in a world that wasn’t built for them.

Without pigeons, countless lives would have been lost during the war. They served us loyally for generations. Now, perhaps the question is no longer what they can do for us, but what we can do for them.

Life isn’t easy for pigeons in our towns and cities. One of the biggest challenges they face is persecution. Culls and anti-pigeon architecture are commonplace, targeting animals that are simply trying to survive. The wild rock dove, from which domestic and feral pigeons descend, is actually a species of conservation concern in parts of the UK. Yet their descendants are often treated as pests simply for living alongside us.

Another major threat comes from something as ordinary as human hair. Hair and discarded string can become tangled around a pigeon’s feet, cutting off circulation, causing severe injuries, and sometimes binding the toes or feet together entirely. We see many of these stringfoot cases arrive at Hessilhead. Some birds require amputations, others need orthopaedic treatment, but it is always a joy to watch them stand tall again- able to walk freely, without pain or restriction.

These beautiful little rainbows have shared our towns, cities, and lives for thousands of years. The very least we owe them is a little kindness. Together, we can make life a little easier for our feathered friends.

06/06/2026

🦔 HEDGEHOG NESTS: PLEASE DO NOT MOVE THEM 🦔

We have unfortunately seen a tragic reminder of why this advice is so important.

Yesterday, an adult female hedgehog and her babies were brought into care after the nest had been disturbed because it was in an inconvenient location. We advised that the family should be left where they were and not moved. Sadly, the nest was disturbed anyway.

None of the babies survived.

Female hedgehogs are extremely sensitive to disturbance while pregnant and when caring for young. If they feel their nest is no longer safe, they may abandon their babies or kill them. This is a natural stress response and one of the reasons wildlife professionals are so cautious about interfering with nests.

If you discover a nest:

🦔 Leave it alone
🦔 Do not handle the mother
🦔 Do not touch or count the babies
🦔 Keep children and pets away
🦔 Delay gardening, strimming, digging, or moving materials if at all possible
🦔 Contact us for advice before taking any action

The kindest thing you can do for a hedgehog family is usually nothing at all

04/06/2026

🦊🦇🦔 It’s baby season… and that means it is our busiest (and most expensive!) time of year.

Every day throughout spring and summer, we’re caring for orphaned and injured wildlife from dawn until dusk (and in the case of hand-rears, even through the night!). Tiny babies need feeding through the night, fox cubs require specialist diets and housing, fawns need milk feeds around the clock, and hundreds of young birds arrive through our doors each spring and summer- the majority of which need fed every 15 minutes!

All of this comes at a cost. Milk replacers, medications, heat pads, incubators, food, and the day-to-day running of the centre quickly add up. As a small, independent charity, we rely entirely on public support to continue helping Scotland’s wildlife.

There are so many ways to get involved and support us in our mission to rescue, rehabilitate, and release Scottish wildlife. We have on-site volunteers, volunteer couriers who help us immensely by transporting animals to us, and donors who generously gift us money and items we use every day, including:
- newspapers
- small dishes
- wet and dry cat and dog food
- wild bird seed
- gifts from our amazon wishlist (pinned at the top of our page!)

One completely free way to help is by voting for us through MyGivingCircle. Every vote helps improve our chances of receiving vital grant funding that can go directly towards caring for the thousands of wild animals that need our help each year.

🐾 Vote for Hessilhead Here:
https://mygivingcircle.org/hessilhead-wildlife-rescue

It only takes a moment, but it could make a huge difference to the animals in our care.

As always, thank you for supporting Scotland’s wildlife 💚

03/06/2026

Baby birds don’t always look much like their parents, which can make identifying them a bit of a challenge!

This youngster is starting to give the game away, though. Can you spot the clue?

That single orange feather on its chest is the first hint of what it will look like as an adult. As it grows, more of those colourful feathers will appear until it develops its full adult plumage.

Does anyone know what species this little one is going to be?

Address

Beith
KA151HT

Website

http://www.hessilheadwildlife.org.uk/, https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/GSNTICEAUEJN?ref_=list_d_wl_lfu_nav_1&fbc

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