Published: September 8, 2011
Burnham-On-Sea charity helps RSPCA with influx of 500 sea birds

Volunteers from Burnham-based rescue charity BARB have been helping the RSPCA in dealing with the arrival of hundreds of seabirds this week.

The RSPCA's West Hatch animal rescue centre near Taunton has been struggling to cope with an influx of almost 500 Manx Shearwaters after they were blown onto cliffs in South Wales by high winds as they began their annual migration to South America.

Many of the seabirds were rescued by the RSPCA - although 100 had to be put down due to their injuries.

The survivors have been brought to the RSPCA centre with the aim of releasing them back into the wild over the next week.

Overwhelmed staff at the centre called on BARB's help and a team of six volunteers from the Burnham charity have been assisting the RSPCA carers with the job of feeding the hundreds of birds by tubes.

The RSPCA's Ellie West told Burnham-On-Sea.com: "We have been incredibly busy dealing with such a large influx of birds, so it has been wonderful to have the help of BARB."

"The volunteers have been getting involved with feeding the birds, helping to take some of the pressure off our team."

She added: "We hope to release some of the birds from a site in Devon on Friday and more over the next few days."

RELATED LINKS:

Official BARB Web site