Red Cross rehabilitates injured owl, now safely back in the wild
When a call came in that a snowy owl was caught in a fence next to the Red Cross building in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Liz McMahon was ready to take action.
"This is really special for me to bring a Red Cross and hope for wildlife together."
Liz McMahon splits her time between helping people with the Red Cross and rescuing animals at Hope For Wildlife in Dartmouth, N.S., so when the call came about an injured owl — she was first to respond.
Able to capture and bring the owl into the rehabilitation centre, it healed from some bruising and swelling in a week's time. Thankfully, nothing was broken so it made a quick recovery and Liz was thrilled to be able to release it.
Image Courtesy: Sheila Coutts
"I was really tickled pink. I miss a lot of meetings at Red Cross because I'm rescuing for Hope For Wildlife so this was one of my last rescues as well as releases of 2020 and next week I'm leaving for Honduras with the emergency response Unit, " she tells The Weather Network.
48,000 families were displaced into 250 shelters when hurricane Eta hit and it wasn't long before Honduras was hit again by Hurricane Iota causing landslides and internal flooding with over a million people displaced.
Image: Reporter Nathan Coleman captures the owl's first flight after it's release. Courtesy: Sheila Coutts
Liz is a pharmacist by trade and her job will be dealing with medical logistics with supplies between the warehouse and hospital.
She says she'll be holding on to the memory of this owl release as she completes her work in Honduras.
You can see my interview and the owl's first flight since its rehabilitation in the video that leads this article.