A retired R. V. N. helping local wild birds from her Staffordshire home
We are a small wild bird and Pigeon sanctuary based from home in the Staffordshire countryside. Our on line shop sales go directly towards running the sanctuary (we are a not for profit business)
The products we sell are designed in house with love, care and attention to detail, or bought from Vegan or ethically led artists and designers who care about our environment and fellow creatures.
Our L.G.P. printing and packaging is VEGAN and our garment suppliers have PETA recognition.
For around ten years now we have been involved in Bird rescue and rehabilitation.
For around ten years now we have been involved in Bird rescue and rehabilitation. Being in a rural location, we have around 200 garden birds that visit us each day here at Riverside…many of whom came to us as abandoned eggs, nestlings or as injured juveniles or adults. We care for them until they are well enough (or old enough) to look after themselves.
Many of the pigeons we received during the pandemic are from homes where they were previously kept in a large aviary as pets, but unfortunately their owners died or became unemployed and could np longer keep them.
Over the years we have looked after Blackbirds, Blue-tits, Great-tits, Wrens, Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Jackdaws, Crows, Magpies, Swallows, Starlings,Swifts, House martins, Thrushes, House sparrows, Tree sparrows, Robins and Goldcrests.
By far the most common are Feral Pigeons (the ones you see in town centres a lot) Wood pigeons and Collared doves, closely followed by Blackbirds and Great tits. At the back of our property, we have land which we use as an allotment and a large pen and cop for our rehab and disabled Pigeons to live happily in. The pen door is open all day so that the flying birds can come and go, but everyone is always safety tucked inside our heated coop at night.
We are in a rural location, so we do have predators here. We live opposite a nature reserve which is home to Buzzards, Kestrels, Bard and Tawny Owls and Sparrow-hawks. We also have a pair of Ravens living in the large trees at the back of our property as well as Magpies, Jays, Crows, Jackdaws, foxes and weasels! All of which will prey on young birds, steal eggs and eat injured birds given the opportunity, we do loose a few birds each year to this, but this is totally normal and natural and the way birds survive.
We do have experience with hand rear of all inland birds from egg and nestling as well as rehabilitation of injured birds. Many of the birds we have raised have stayed and now our garden in often overflowing with 200+ birds visiting our feeders each day. We feed the garden birds 3 times a day with a huge selection of food to cater for all the different species we have here.
Pigeons form close bonds with mates very quickly and we have an average of 10 eggs laid every month of the year.
Obviously, we cannot let these form in to babies and hatch otherwise we would be overrun! so on day 1 of laying, we gently replace the eggs with warmed plastic eggs and leave the real egg out on the feeing station for the wild birds who eat them (the crows love them!)
Although we are a Vegan house hold and business, we are still on a journey to go plastic free and be as sustainable as we can with our food. Currently, we have Abel and Cole deliver organic veg to us every Wednesday.We are whole food eaters most of the time – occasionally enjoying the odd Veggie burger!
In our bathroom we are now completely Vegan and plastic free, which still makes me happy when I walk in there are see glass jars full of toothpaste and paper tubes with deodorant instead of plastic!
We are getting there with plastic free kitchen and our aim is to be as self sufficient with our food as we can be , so in 2019 we started our allotment here at L.G.P.
We are a not for profit business so every penny we make from our sales goes to help the wild birds and Pigeons in our care. You don’t have to love Pigeons to support us, but it helps!