A “Warm” Thank you to Terratek

A “Warm” Thank you to Terratek

It’s official! The new MARS wildlife hospital is operating with the help of solar power. A BIG warm “thank you”  to the Comox Valley Community Foundation for providing funds to make it possible and to Sal McQuarrie and Ben Frank of Terratek Energy...
Eagle, Swan, Hawk, Uncertain Days Ahead

Eagle, Swan, Hawk, Uncertain Days Ahead

A typical day at the MARS Wildlife hospital contains the poignant reminder that it does not always end well for our patients. Many arrive dead on arrival, others die in transit to and from the facility. Sadness and tears associated with poor outcomes are as common as...
How Much Does It Cost To Help MARS Wildlife

How Much Does It Cost To Help MARS Wildlife

Operating the MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre is not easy or cheap. A Barn owl will eat as many as eight mice/day, an $8 food bill. A Tundra swan is tube fed a mixture of salad greens, cream corn and sweet potatoes as often as 10 times a day, a $50 bill. The Bald eagle’s...
Herring Test Fishery Nets Haul for MARS

Herring Test Fishery Nets Haul for MARS

The commercial herring roe fishery is a significant, fast paced event that has occurred off the coast of central Vancouver Island each spring for more than 40 years. “The Pacific coast herring are considered high quality and the roe is highly desired, especially in...
BP2 Donation

BP2 Donation

Hospital Contractor Boyhood Neighbour to Founder  BY RAY When BP2 Construction was awarded the contract to build the new MARS wildlife hospital it closed a circle for Barry Page that began many years earlier.  As a young boy, Page would ‘hang out’ with his friends who...
New Wildlife Rescue Centre

New Wildlife Rescue Centre

The New MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre   Building underway, crucial completion funds needed In May, MARS took an historic first step towards recognizing the dream of founder Mary Jane “Maj” Birch to provide a multi-purpose wildlife rescue centre for the Comox...
Houle Donation

Houle Donation

Advertisement turns the lights on at MARS BY RAY One very ordinary day, Don Gulliver was having lunch with his wife in when he noticed a sign in a window – MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre was looking for volunteers. Gulliver is a foreman electrician with Courtenay-based...
Swans Annual Visitors

Swans Annual Visitors

  Tundra Swan Rescued From Marsh Swans annual island visitors BY JAMIE MARS Supervisor of wildlife care, Reg Westcott, got more than his feet wet rescuing a weak and injured trumpeter swan from a pond on the edge of Comox Lake on Vancouver Island, BC. A concerned...
Barn Owl Evasive

Barn Owl Evasive

Barn Owl Hides From Rescuers Nocturnal hunter turns up in broad daylight BY BRIAN Nocturnal British Columbia Barn owls are seldom seen and are never on the ground in the daytime unless something is terribly wrong. A local resident walking her dog in the Comox Valley...
Lewis Donation

Lewis Donation

Donor gives wildlife hospital $50,000 BY RAY Comox Valley home-owner, Sharron Lewis, has donated $50,000 to help build the new MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre. The 11-acre facility in Merville, British Columbia will accommodate the dramatic increase in injured, ill and...
Maj Donation

Maj Donation

Founder leaves legacy to realize dream BY BRIAN Mary Jane “Maj” Birch had a dream — a new wildlife rescue and education centre. She did not live to see her dream realized. Cancer took her life on November 18, 2015. “Maj,” as she was known...
What’s For Dinner?

What’s For Dinner?

What’s For Dinner At MARS? Raven favours scrambled eggs!  BY RAY What’s on the menu for patients at the MARS Wildlife Rescue Centre really depends on what’s available in the wild. Last year for instance, Fisheries and Oceans Canada dropped off a load of herring to our...