Wild Care 's August E-News is here

AUGUST 2025

The Helping Hands That Make

Wild Care's Lifesaving Work Possible

Wild Care Friends:

The vibrant sound of an baby American Goldfinch fills our Clinic and Nursery. Our latest nesting birds of the season. Their sound is bittersweet. It signifies that summer is coming to an end. With the end of the season, some of our very own snowbirds head south - our volunteers! Our interns are also making their way back to their graduate school programs.

HELPING HANDS:

Wild Care receives over 1,700 animals per year. Last year, our volunteers contributed 5,696 hours of their time. This time is spent doing a myriad of necessities; cleaning dishes and crates, laundry, nursing baby squirrels, feeding baby birds, managing our website, tending to our wildlife garden, sending donor acknowledgements, tabling events, conducting Board Service... and so much more. We simply could not do our life saving work without all these helping hands.

INTERNS MAKE AN IMPACT

Additionally, Wild Care recruited 2 phenomenal interns and 2 awesome externs this season contributing over 2,000 hours of their time to animal care and husbandry, outreach and education. The critical hands-on skills they learned at Wild Care will help facilitate their education and career goals, and no doubt leave a long-lasting impression. They have certainly made an impression on us. These 4 women helped us to save countless lives. We are sad to see them go, but know they have incredible aspirations. They have made an impact at Wild Care.

Stephanie Ellis,

Executive Director

Photo includes staff, interns and volunteers at Wild Care's Volunteer Appreciation Night 2025

Aiyanna Siew

Val Ungaro

Helen Gies

Faith Price

Shining a Spotlight on our EXTRAORDINARY SUMMER INTERNS and EXTERNS

We are so grateful for the interns and externs spending their summer vacation working in the Wild Care clinic and nursery alongside our amazing team of wildlife rehabbers. They are doing a great job, learning a lot, and keeping busy with all of our animal patients,

Thank you to our AMAZING INTERNS: Helen Gies, and Val Ungaro, and EXTERNS: Aiyanna Siew, and Faith Price

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Wild Care’s 2025 Internship Program

has been generously funded by

The Ballard Foundation

Funded the Intern Program 2025

The Red Acre Foundation

Funded the Intern Program Housing

Jay Pulli - Intern Program Housing

Wild Care Volunteers Celebrated at Volunteer Appreciation Night Party

Wild Care volunteers are the best around, and to show our gratitude and celebrate their hard work and dedication we hosted a Volunteer Appreciation Night at the Elks Lodge in Eastham. In 2024 our volunteers put in an astounding 5,696 hours! We could absolutely not do what we do without them! Volunteer Coordinator Amy Sanders recognized the three volunteers who contributed the most hours in 2024 - Kristine Bebe (212 hours), Roz Goldstein (208.5 hours), and Leslie McCarthy (162.5 hours). Animal Care Director Jennifer Taylor and Marketing Director Eva Carbonaro challenged volunteers to a game of “This Really Happened at Wild Care, or Did it?”, and volunteer Joel Bullard was the lucky winner of a bag full of goodies donated by the Bird Watcher's General Store.

Wild Care Executive Director Stephanie Ellis

Volunteer & Door Prize Winner Joel Bullard

Find Out How You Can Name One of Wild Care's Turtle Hatchlings

Would like to name one of the turtle hatchlings? This season we’ve incubated 79 turtle eggs from Snapping Turtles, Eastern Box Turtles, and Diamondback Terrapins. We are excited to say that they are starting to hatch! We are having a naming opportunity to help fund the care and release of these little ones. Donors will receive a e-certificate with the name of their turtle. Wild Care will post photos of the hatchlings along with their names on our social media pages for a donation of $100 for each hatchling. Shell-abrate someone special and support wildlife. Email Stephanie to name your turtle.

BABIES! BABIES! BABIES!

Here are a few of the recent babies in our nursery...

Mallard Duck

Chimney Swifts

Cooper's Hawk

LEARN more about bird molting

Bald is Beautiful for

Molting Birds

Are you seeing bald Blue Jays and Northern Cardinals in your backyard? No need to worry. These birds might look strange, but they are just going through their end-of-summer molt. Although you may not see them as often, the same is happening with owls. Here’s a look at Nickerson, our educational Eastern Screech Owl. Hopefully she doesn’t feel as grumpy as she looks. In just a few weeks she will be back to her beautiful self with brand new feathers.

PHOTO - Jennifer Taylor

Great Horned Owl Rescued from Soccer Net in Harwich

Wild Care received a call about a juvenile Great Horned Owl that was entangled in a soccer net in Harwich. Volunteer Lynn Adams responded and carefully cut the owl out of the net and transported it to Wild Care. Our staff wildlife rehabilitators Jennifer, Karen and Gionet removed all of the remaining net around the bird's body. It was then examined and thankfully determined to be unharmed. The owl was released where it was found, later that day.

This incredible owl's release was sponsored by Heidi Brueckner and her team at Nauset Pawsit.

Photo and video Helen Gies

Great Shearwater Recovers and Released in Provincetown

This beautiful Great Shearwater was found stranded on a porch at a resort in Provincetown after a summer storm with strong winds. The legs on Great Shearwaters are positioned far back on their bodies making them skilled fliers and swimmers, but causing movement on land difficult and awkward for them. After arriving at Wild Care the bird was examined and found to be dehydrated and weak. It was provided fluids and supportive care and made a quick turnaround.

The release of this beautiful bird has been generously sponsored by Susan's Custom

Tours & Travel

Video - Seasonal Wildlife Rehabilitation Assistant, Simone Marshall-Chafee

Wild Care Volunteer and Local Realtor Sarah Keith

Ties her Passion for Wildlife With Home Sales

Sarah Keith, realtor at Cape Cod Bliss - Real Estate, and dedicated Wild Care volunteer is passionate about helping animals. She has found a thoughtful and impactful way to bring the two together by sponsoring a wildlife release in celebration of every property she sells. “I cherish the wildlife around Cape Cod! This is my way of saying thank you to the sellers, and celebrating the community we share.” said Sarah. This past month she sponsored the release of two of our recent patients. Thank you Sarah for this generous gift, and all you do to help wildlife!

The Great Egret suffered injuries from a vehicle strike in Chatham. It received supportive care and was released at Ryder's Cove in Chatham.

Thin and weak this Osprey chick fell from its nest behind the Bird Watcher's General Store. We kept it for 5 days providing nutritional support. Unfortunately our first attempt at returning it to the nest was not as successful as we had hoped since it was bullied by its sibling. We kept the bird for 2 more weeks until it was flying laps around Wild Care's elliptical aviary. It was released near an Osprey nest at the bottom of our driveway which still had a chick being fed by the father Osprey. The next morning, the chicks were gone. (We hope it flew off and is happy with its new family!)

Great Egret is released in Chatham

Osprey chick released in Eastham

Wild Care IN THE COMMUNITY

Eastham PD's Patrol Pals with Garv

and their Animal Rescue Boxes

Wild Care's Kerry Reid with Ruby

at The Eastham Fun Dog Show

PHOTO Lynn Adams

Garv! Wild Care archive photo

Wild Care Took Part in

Some Awesome Community Events This Summer

It’s always a busy summer at Wild Care! Our nursery and emergency clinic has over 200 patients in our care, and our outreach team has been busy meeting neighbors and visitors in our community.

Our Educational Turtle Garv was a special guest at Brewster Conservation Day, Chatham PD’s National Night Out, and The Eastham PD’s Patrol Pals program. He is a wonderful ambassador and helps spread the word about the importance of turtles in our environment.

Wild Care had so much fun meeting all of the adorable dogs at Eastham Dog Owners Association’s first ever Fun Dog Show! We got to speak with lots of pet people about how to co-exist with backyard rabbits, and money raised from registrations went to our rabbit rescue program.

Thank you to all of our amazing volunteers that help make

these events possible!

Wild Care UPCOMING EVENTS

Join Wild Care Saturday, September 6th

Stephanie Ellis to Talk about Wildlife Neighbors at the Eastham Library

Join Wild Care’s Director Stephanie Ellis as she discusses the ways that human impacts play a role in the lives of our native wildlife and offers tips for how we can all coexist. Stephanie will provide alternatives to rodenticides, dispel myths and coyotes, and relay all the benefits of Virgina Opossums and other wild creatures that share our backyard.

The Friends of Eastham Library

Tuesday, September 9th @ 6PM

Walk ins welcome - no registration needed