RSPCA Friends of West Hatch Newsletter Summer 2018 | issue 14 | Page 4

5 FACTS
Early Birds
about Mallards
by Harry Petheram
We usually start to see ducklings between April
and June, but staff at West Hatch were surprised
when eight orphaned ducklings were admitted to
the centre at the start of November. As it was a
fairly mild start to the winter these had hatched
early. After a few months at West Hatch these
lucky ducklings were released back into the wild.
• Mallard ducks ca
n reach 20
to 26 inches in len
gth and up
to 3 pounds in we
ight.
• They can live fro
m 5 to 10
years in the wild
. The oldest
known individual
died at
the age of 27.
• They can fly at sp
eeds of 55
miles per hour an
d up to
800 miles.
• Females lay an av
erage of
8 to 12 eggs.
• Newly hatched
ducklings are
covered in down
and are
alert; they are re
ady to leave
the nest within
13-16 hours.
The generosity of our supporters never
ceases to amaze us and this was recently
demonstrated through our Wildlife Centre
JustGiving page and Amazon Wish List. and raised an incredible £2,127. We again
reached out to our supporters in November
2017 to help with the cost of rehabilitating
108 seals admitted in this year’s seal season.
In September 2017 over the space of several
days we admitted 300 Manx Shearwaters
coming in storm blown from the Welsh
coast. Each of these birds needed tube
feeding four times a day and a wash prior
to being released. Such incidents put an
enormous strain on our resources. This led
to our JustGiving appeal to help purchase
supplies for their rehabilitation, with a target
of £250. We were amazed by the response We were yet again blown away with the
support and raised an amazing £1,000
towards their veterinary treatment and
fish supplies. We would also like to thank our
supporters who donated much needed items
from our Amazon Wish List. Having items
donated from the wish list saved us over
£1,600 in 2017 alone. Items donated included
hedgehog food, mealworms, vitamins for
the seals and enrichment items.
4