JANE O'CONNELL talks to Derek Chittenden, who rescues wounded birds -- and finds this caring man is far from cagey about his work

From the front, Derek Chittenden's modest Pitsea bungalow looks just like any other. At the back, it's all a-twitter with bird life.

Four owls watch you beadily, unblinkingly. They're sat on various hutches and perches dotted around the courtyard which has taken the place of the garden.

Ducks quack in a pen Derek fondly calls the cave.. Canaries, finches, budgies and doves sing in cages, while a parrot and a cockateil squawk raucously.

These creatures are the casualties of man's cruelty, birds he and fellow volunteer Mark Fleming, 17, have saved since starting a bird rescue service six months ago.

One owl was found trussed up against an oven, dripping with cooking oil, while they found another in a cardboard box, with one of its legs tied by string to a table leg.

Other birds are just unlucky. Derek has nursed back to health birds who have fallen out of their nest and broken their wings.

"They need feeding every 20 minutes so basically you're up all night," Derek explains. "It's worth it, though. They fly round, tweet, and say thank you. It's intensive work. We're a bit like a hospital, really."

The amount of love and attention Derek gives to his feathered friends is all the more remarkable when you consider the rough hand fate has dealt him and wife Mary over the years -- a hand which could all too easily have made them very bitter people.

The couple, who have five children, saw their daughter Maria, now 17, have a fit when she was just two.

It left her with epilepsy and severe brain damage and consequently she needs constant care.

Then just a year or so later their eldest daughter Sarah, now 30, had twin boys two months prematurely. The little boys died at just four days old. "They would have been 14," Derek say wistfully.

Sarah has gone on to have three more healthy children and by a strange coincidence, her youngest child, Jade, now four, shares the same birthday as the brothers she never knew.

The jinx that seems to have dogged the family finally hit Derek himself three years ago.

Plagued by a bad back through his previous career as a nurse, he had an operation to repair worn discs. But the surgery left one leg paralysed.

Recovering from the operation, he stumbled as a result of his disability, and claims the subsequent blow to his head has left him with epilepsy. He is now registered partially disabled.

Born on a farm in Dorset, Derek moved to Essex about 30 years ago to begin farming here.

But he found methods in the country were faster and more high-tech, even three decades ago. "I came from a rural community where everything was steadier, slower. Everything was so built up. It's got worse, of course."

Disillusioned with farming, he trained to become a nurse, and for 20 years worked in hospitals in east London and at Warley in Brentwood.

The family moved from their rural home in Herongate, near Brentwood, to Vange, but left just two years later.

It was there that Maria had the fit which was to devastate their lives, followed just a year later by the twins' death. "We couldn't stay," says Derek quietly.

The family moved to their bungalow in Broomfields, and Derek retired from nursing to help his wife bring up Maria, who gurgles, laughs and grasps your hand like an innocent toddler.

Derek says he finds the birds a comfort and always has done, right back to the days when he was a farm boy.

"Breeding birds was a way of life," he says. "It's a love of the country and I love them all; I've got no fabourites."

Mary has no interest in her husband's passion at all. "I don't get involved," she says, indicating in the direction of the soft cheeping outside.

"I don't mind Jake (the parrot) as long as he's in his cage but the owls -- they just stare at you for hours. They're horrible!"

Derek got the idea of starting the sanctuary last December.

"We had a call from someone we knew who told us that a bloke in Bow, east London, who kept owls was going to smash them over the heads."

"We told them that if they didn't hand them over we would tell the police and the RSPCA and they would face a fine of up to £7,000," Derek explains. "They handed them over."

Since then around 600 birds have passed through the centre's hands. They are either sent back into the wild or given to good homes, which are all vetted.

The work can sometimes be hazardous as well as exhausting.

News of the owls who had been mistreated had reached Derek and Mark via a contact on both occasions. Both times Derek and Mark went to the owners' homes and demanded the birds.

An outhouse on the side of the bungalow is used as a sick-bay for birds, but Derek and Mark, a friend of the family, would love one day to expand out of the backyard and in to a dedicated sanctuary.

They rely on donations and are currently looking for a van in which to transport sick creatures.

Meanwhile Derek passes on his love of feathered friends to schools in the Basildon area.

"Some people can be very cruel," he says slowly. "But if you educate them young, there's a chance."

To give a donation or offer your services as a volunteer, you can ring Derek on 01268 557666.

In a flap --Derek Chittendon got the idea for his bird sanctuary after someone phoned to let him know some owls were going to be killed.

Picture: ANDY PALMER

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