A MAN from Torpoint is looking to help his feathered friends by setting up a rehabilitation unit for the recovery of young or injured birds.

The unit is primarily caring for swallows, swifts and martins which arrive in the UK after a 6,000 mile trip from sub-Saharan Africa and the Cape to breed in the late spring.

Mike said: “Due to the massive decline in bird numbers worldwide, such a specialist unit was vital in saving these remarkable birds. It is important that people connect with the natural world and discover the facts relating to other living creatures that share our planet. We are all Earthlings but so few of us have any knowledge of what lives amongst us.”

When asked about the situation regarding current bird populations, Mike highlighted the stark reality of younger generations who may never get to hear a cuckoo call, a song thrush or watch the dances of migrant birds.

Mike added: “A few years ago hundreds of thousands of our feathered friends, particularly sea birds were simply erased due to the bird flu pandemic. Black-headed gulls, guillemots and kittiwakes were also badly hit, and I remember picking up scores of dead and dying birds along the local beaches at Whitsand Bay. Since 1980 one out of every six birds has died, that’s 600-million breeding birds; the UK alone has lost 73-million birds since 1970.

“It is now time for everybody to acknowledge this continued eradication of wildlife, be it in the air or on the ground, and at the very least.

“Currently around the UK the migrant birds are arriving to breed but during their journey they have suffered from cold temperatures strong winds and hard driving rain. Many are in poor health and the British weather has especially impacted on their needed food source of insects.

“The saddest thing for me is knowing that despite the savage consequences of the bird flu pandemic, many birds continue to wash up on beaches around the UK every week. In Cornwall, sea birds are often contaminated by crude oil or palm oil waste, which comes from ships when they illegally wash out their tanks while at sea.

“I realise that my bird rehab unit is a very small step in trying to save this migrant species, but due to the fact that there are so few rescue centres able to take them, I felt that it was time to act.” 

The cost of look after just one individual bird costs Mike around £12 per week – he is now asking local people to help with funding his unit where any financial support will be used solely for specialist food and vitamin diet.

To donate visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/bird-rehab