Photo: Jim MacKay/WBZ NewsRadio
BARNESTABLE, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — After likely flying into something and suffering a mild head injury, an Eastern Screech Owl was brought into the Birdsey Cape Wildlife Center in Barnstable for rehabilitation.
All was going well until staff members noticed the male-bird was squinting his eye caused by a damaged cornea.
The hospital provided the owl with treatments and medicine that led to a full recovery. He was shortly released back into the wild to return home.
This is just one example of the life-changing care the veterinary staffs at the wildlife center provide to keep native New England species safe.
But that has been a challenge ever since last month’s massive snowstorm.
“Two weeks out and we’re still feeling the effects of the blizzard of ’26,” executive director Zak Mertz told WBZ NewsRadio said.
The blizzard brought more than 3 feet of snow to parts of Massachusetts, and caused hundreds of thousands of power outages that, in some cases, lasted days.
Mertz said the power outage and generator failures were just the tip of the iceberg of what the hospital had to deal with.
“Sprinkler pipe in our ceiling burst to furnace going out and trees going down,” he said.
The Birdsey Cape Wildlife Center is one of the two New England Wildlife Centers locations. They treat more than 2,000 animals a year and more than 200 different species, including turtles, lizards, porcupines and more.
“This building is really critical to what we do because it gives the [animals] the long-term environment they need to get better,” Mertz said, adding that the blizzard only exacerbated the ongoing infrastructure issues the hospital has been dealing with.
The center is holding a donation drive to help speed up the restoration process to get back to normal. A hundred percent of the proceeds will go to help them build better facilities.
For more on how to donate, visit the wildlife center’s website here.
WBZ NewsRadio's Jim MacKay (@JimMacKayOnAir) reports.