Partners in grime

Headlines about the nature emergency might paint a bleak picture, but a network of sanctuaries powered by dedicated volunteers across the UK is giving wildlife a second chance. James Fair visits an animal rescue centre in Herefordshire and discovers new hope

- James Fair

Zoologist, writer, TV presenter - Dr Sasha Norris has had a glittering career in academia and the media since she graduated from the University of Bristol more than 30 years ago. Yet today she's kneeling in a scrubby field on the edge of Hereford, lifting a buzzard gently out of a swaddling towel - and letting it go.

The buzzard flies powerfully towards the nearest tall tree and settles on a mid-level branch. Sasha lifts her hands above her head in exultation, then gazes in pride at the liberated bird as if admiring a painting she's just finished. “Yes, yes, yes - oh my God, that was amazing,” she exclaims. “I tried him once before when I thought he was ready, but he wouldn't fly - he obviously needed a bit more time to build up his strength.”

Having long since departed the dreaming spires of Oxford, where she worked in the world-renowned Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Sasha runs Herefordshire Wildlife Rescue, a small rescue and rehabilitation centre she founded in an idyllic location overlooking Bodenham Lake north of Hereford. It's also Sasha's home, where she lives with her teenage son and a diverse, ever-changing group of volunteers from the UK and Europe. The centre takes in everything from the cutest fox cubs on the planet to shifty-looking herring gulls that patrol their enclosure like teenagers leaving the pub in a small market town at closing time on Friday night, intent on a quick fight before heading home.

Some of these animals will never be released - the mute swan, for example, that had to have its wing amputated after it lost out in a collision with a vehicle, and the jackdaw that was hand-reared in a bathroom in Llandrindod Wells and is now too tame to survive life in the wild.

“He won't tolerate any other birds in there,” says Sasha. “He loves Jacqui but not me, because I catch him and check his weight. He thinks he's a person - he gives her things.”