When we first started caring for injured wildlife more than 50 years ago, we took in almost as many song thrushes as blackbirds.

Now it is different. The song thrush population has declined and it is unusual for us to get more than five or six thrushes a year.

Most of the blackbirds/thrushes come into care as nestlings, taken from nests by cats. If these chicks are not badly injured they are straightforward to rear.

Most nestlings beg whenever they see movement near their nest. It is easy to pop a helping of food into the eager beak, and after every meal the chick will shuffle to the side of the nest and deposit a dropping over the edge.

It is important to remove these droppings. Contamination on feathers would be a problem.

Fledglings come into care too, often cat victims and others that have been clipped by cars or crashed into windows. These older chicks may not beg so we must encourage them to eat by offering insect food and mealworms.

Most ground feeding birds like a turf of grass. They peck at this, eating some grit to help digestion and probably finding some small grubs and insects too.

The song thrush we have in care is older and would have been confidently eating a variety of food. Song thrushes like snails and we often find their anvil, where they have been breaking open snail shells to get out the juicy slug inside.

Not my idea of a tasty meal!