Most people call Hessilhead before arriving with a casualty.

I had no idea what was lurking under the blanket in the large box. The man said it was a buzzard.

His daughter had spotted the bird while out walking her dog. The bird was dangling from a tree. One wing seemed to be caught in something which had then got tangled in a branch.

The daughter couldn’t reach the bird. She phoned home for her father to bring a ladder.

Between them they released the bird. The problem was a length of fishing line that had been wrapped around some flight feathers. Then the end of line snagged a branch and tightened as the buzzard tried to fly away.

The bird was very subdued when it arrived at Hessilhead. That probably made the rescue easier than it could have been.

It wasn’t difficult to remove the line. There was some damage to the feathers but they weren’t broken, and believe it or not, the wing wasn’t injured either. We gave the bird some fluids and left him in a cage for the night. Next morning he ate breakfast.

We pampered the buzzard for a few days, keeping him in a hospital cage so he couldn’t use his wing much. He became a bit restless so we moved him to an aviary.

He is flying perfectly now. Although he came from north Glasgow we will release him at Hessilhead today.

It looks like he will be back at Dougalston quite soon.