# found 3 baby lapwings



## benji2009 (Dec 16, 2009)

hi guys, my sisters boyfriend turned up last night with 3 baby lapwings, he said he had heard squeeking down a drain outside his house the day before so looked yesterday and found 3 babies with the mother nowhere to be seen, so he bought them to me, I know is not ideal to do so but they are here now so I need som advice until I take them back to where he lives, ive put them under a heat lamp and fed them some wax worms an they are walking around and chirping but is there anything else I need to do?
thanks
ben


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## ian14 (Jan 2, 2008)

It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act to take a wild bird. Very often young animals appear to be abandoned but in fact are perfectly fine and if left alone the mother would have returned to them. However now that they have been taken into captivity you will need to ensure that you give the best possible care, or better still hand them to an organisation that will be better able to care for them.


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## benji2009 (Dec 16, 2009)

Hi yeah I was aware of that but my sisters boyfriend wasn't unfortunetly, they have now been taken to my local animal shelter, thanks for your reply and advice


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## corvid2e1 (Jan 21, 2007)

ian14 said:


> It is an offence under the Wildlife and Countryside Act to take a wild bird. Very often young animals appear to be abandoned but in fact are perfectly fine and if left alone the mother would have returned to them. However now that they have been taken into captivity you will need to ensure that you give the best possible care, or better still hand them to an organisation that will be better able to care for them.


It is not an offence to take a sick, injured or orphaned bird with the intention of rehabilitating it and releasing it if and when it is capable of surviving by itself. Also, While it may sometimes be the case that young animals are picked up when not in need of it, in practice, if they are easy enough to catch, there is almost always something wrong. Almost all of the blackbird fledglings brought in to us by people who don't think there is anything wrong but are just concerned that the bird is vulnerable, turn out to have injuries from a cat bite or similar and are in desperate need of treatment. The young lapwings in question had been trapped in a drain for at least 24 hours, their mother would have been nowhere near and simply leaving them expecting her to find them again would have meant certain death.


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## spottymint (Oct 3, 2010)

Baby lapwings are not raised in drains, sadly they sounded like a rescue job to me too.

After 24 hrs the mum, would probably have given up hope & abandoned them.


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