South Essex Wildlife Hospital animals rescued this summer

May to September see patients increasing in numbers to the point the charity can reach more than 50 new casualties arriving each day at the Orsett-based centre.

Take off - one of the juvenile house martins released this summer (Image: Lawrie Brailey)

Return - the final two grey seals released (Image: Lawrie Brailey / South Essex Wildlife Hospital)

However, all the hard work has been worth it for the team dedicated to putting life back into the wild with seals, foxes, house martins, hedgehogs, mice and more all returning to freedom in recent weeks.

Feeding - many fox cubs arrive before their eyes and ears have even opened (Image: Lawrie Brailey / South Essex Wildlife Hospital)

Orphaned hare - the penultimate leveret of the year returns to the wild (Image: South Essex Wildlife Hospital)

Last month marked an end to a "very successful" grey seal season as the final two out of 50 grey seal pups admitted and raised at South Essex Wildlife Hospital this year were released.

First steps - some of the final grey seals released (Image: Lawrie Brailey / South Essex Wildlife Hospital)

A spokesman for the charity said: "Raising young seals is very hard work... not only does it take literal months of work and thousands of pounds per seal, but grey seals can be both highly aggressive and quite dangerous.

Noisiest patient - some of the more than 150 young gulls rescued (Image: Lawrie Brailey / South Essex Wildlife Hospital)

Flying free - this sparrowhawk was nursed back to health after suffering a broken wing (Image: South Essex Wildlife Hospital)

"This release marks the culmination of months of hard work, and we couldn't be prouder of Tom, Anna, Penny and our other seal feeding volunteers for the mammoth efforts they've made."

South Essex Wildlife Hospital has also released a significant number of foxes this summer, many they have raised since they were tiny cubs which could barely fit in the palm of a hand, and has described seeing them get a "second chance at life" as "just magical".

Tiny - the weasel when he was rescued in July (Image: Lawrie Brailey / South Essex Wildlife Hospital) Freedom - the weasel as he returned to the wild (Image: Lawrie Brailey / South Essex Wildlife Hospital)

Jump out - one of the foxes return to the wild (Image: Lawrie Brailey / South Essex Wildlife Hospital) Among other successful rescues this season are more than 150 young gulls, seven young swallows who have taken to the skies for a 6,000-mile journey back to Africa, and a tiny weasel who has been released after needing one-on-one feeding when he first came to the charity in July.

Founded in 1995, South Essex Wildlife Hospital is the only facility of its kind in the whole of Essex, London, and Kent, deals with more than 10,000 patients and answers more than 20,000 calls for help every year. To support the charity, visit southessexwildlife.org/donate.