MEMBERS of the community rallied round to save a wounded pigeon. 

Pigeon "rehabber" Lara Sysum was alerted to a baby wood pigeon which had fallen out of a tree at Malvern Fire Station.

Miss Sysum, who lives in Ledbury, was unable to get there herself to collect the bird, so posted an appeal asking for help.

Eventually, members of the public came forward and helped get the wounded bird to the town, allowing her to help it recover.

She said: "I have been rehabilitating pigeons and doves for roughly eight years now but I am contacted regularly about many different wild animals,

"These could include small garden birds, birds of prey, rabbits, hedgehogs and many more.

"But I concentrate on pigeons and doves due to the bad press they receive and limited help."

The rescued pigeon is now recovering and is currently hand-feeding until it can be safely released.

Through her work, Miss Sysum rehabilitates the birds through a number of methods including hand-rearing young birds, treating injuries like bone breaks and wounds from other birds and gunshots.

She added: "Many young that come in are suffering deficiencies and need help with added supplements.

"I also have a lot of cat-attack victims that come in that need antibiotic treatment.

"I also have many that come in with horrible diseases that, if left, would have died horrendous slow and painful deaths."

When adults have been treated and are able to be released, they are released back to where they were found or as close as possible.

Young birds are different, as they need to socialise with others and go into aviaries for a short time.

She said: "Sadly I don’t have soft release facilities so I usually transfer them to vale wildlife hospital when they are ready as vale has a fantastic soft release program."

This, she added, is known as a "soft release".