It’s not every day that we have a bird airlifted to us but that’s exactly what happened at the end of September 2000.

A crewman working on the North Sea support vessel “Putford Trader”, working alongside the Shell Expro production platform “Leman Alpha” discovered a young kestrel sheltering under a deck winch. The bird was obviously exhausted but was still able to fight back when he went to pick it up.

The kestrel was transferred to the platform and later that day was airlifted to Norwich Airport by Bristows Helicopters where it was collected by the Trust.

After several days, the bird was persuaded to eat and its recovery began. Soon it was fit enough for release and was returned to the wild at Caistor St. Edmund, just outside Norwich.

The trust is extremely grateful to all of the people and companies that came to the aid of this little bird. Without their kind assistance this bird would certainly have died in the middle of the North Sea.