We have yellow-tailed scorpion babies! The next generation of educational animal ambassadors for this non-native introduced species. Congratulations to new mummy Snappy who’s been diligently caring for her litter of scorplings over the last few weeks (most of which are not in the photo as hiding under the cave!) and has now taken a well deserved large meal.

Scorpions are fantastic mothers, giving birth to live young after a long gestation period lasting several months. The young live on their mothers back where she keeps them protected until their first moult, providing them with water through her cuticle (part of the exoskeleton).

You can see in the first photo the scorplings have left their mother's back which indicates they are ready to start living independently of her. In the second photo you can see how she looked when gravid, with a very enlarged abdomen!

What a fantastic morning we have had at Foxhills Country Club & Resort! We were invited to do an owl talk and handling session for their Summer Camp.

The children had been discussing habitats, doing species ID and had been on a woodland walk prior to our arrival with Freddie the tawny owl. This gave a great setup for our talk all about owls and their adaptations, tawny owls as a species and how we can help owls by preventing secondary poisoning caused by rodenticides and slug pellets. We also talked about how we can make our gardens wildlife friendly to attract more prey species in order to support a healthy food chain for our native predators.

This was finished off with a bit of owl handling since the children were so well behaved and respectful. Freddie the owl was very comfortable and perfectly behaved as always!

We've been called out to help with quite a few wildlife rescues this year. Having a background in wildlife rehabilitation we are able to advise on wildlife casualties and orphaned wildlife but with our limited facilities we divert most onto Wildlife Aid in Leatherhead. However, we appreciate that not everyone is in a position to safely contain an animal or transfer to Wildlife Aid promptly so we have stepped in on a few occasions.

Some of our rescues this year have included:
- Robin caught from inside Superdrug in Cranleigh, quickly assessed and released
- Blackbirds safely caught, contained, assessed and released from garden netting
- Jackdaw fledgling caught in a street after being attacked by other jackdaws, treated for parasites, rehydrated and transferred to Wildlife Aid
- Crow nestling caught up from garden after being abandoned for at least 24hrs, rehydrated and transferred to Wildlife Aid
- Blackbird fledgling safely contained after cat attack and transferred to Wildlife Aid
- Orphaned hoglets abandoned after dog attacked nest, injured ones humanely euthanised leaving a single baby to be hand reared round the clock. Due for release soon
- Several young hoglets contained over a period of a few weeks, all severely dehydrated and emaciated. Treated for fly strike, rehydrated, fed and eventually transferred to Wildlife Aid
- Dunnock fledgling stunned after being hit by car, given time to recover from stun and then released