Tag archives: Wildlife Network

Sizzling in Paradise
By Gretchen Lieff   |   September 17, 2020

The Heat Wave On Labor Day we awoke from a restless night with hopes that temperatures would drop from record triple digits. A blood red sun cast an eerie glow over the Montecito hills. California and the west was on fire. The sweltering heat wave in Santa Barbara County was an ominous backdrop. That Sunday […]

Giving a Hoot
By Gretchen Lieff   |   August 13, 2020

Owls have long lived in my most favorite category. Their stoic demeanor. Their wisdom. The intensity of the screech owl’s screech, the trills and lonely melodic resonance of the great horned owl’s “hoot hoots,” and the barn owl’s hissing rasp. Twice this week the California Highway Patrol rescued owls hit by a car along Highway […]

Sheryl Crow
By Gretchen Lieff   |   July 2, 2020

I was a “Secret Garden” … “Green Mansions” kind of child. Deep forests, bright brooks, wide fields, and ocean waves beckoned my young exuberance. On the seldom occasions that an adult might be missing me, I would be found deep in the forest, grabbing minnows and crayfish from a tiny creek under the redwoods, or […]

A Walk on the Wild Side
By Lynda Millner   |   June 4, 2020

The Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (WCN) is a wild and amazing place located at 1460 North Fairview in Goleta. The Spring babies are here! Wildlife doesn’t know about the pandemic. They just need to be fed and cared for. Because of the virus the Wildlife volunteer force is absent and the small staff has […]

Duck Duck Two
By Gretchen Lieff   |   May 28, 2020

In last week’s Journal you’ll recall “ducknappers” had snatched a nest with a mamma duck, three ducklings, and seven eggs from under an oak tree at Montecito’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church parking lot. Our “Duck Column” describing the story had “gone viral” as pressure mounted to “find the ducks.” It’s been an exhausting […]

The Great Montecito Duck Caper
By Gretchen Lieff   |   May 21, 2020

Monday morning… animal rescue phones at the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network ring endlessly. Breathless callers trying to save a wild life, Samaritans rush in babies of all shapes and sizes; fawns from the Gaviota Fire, Red tail fledglings, bunnies and squirrels and pelicans and racoons and hummingbirds and on and on and on… Cars […]

WCN Hospital Underway
By Richard Mineards   |   February 27, 2020

Santa Barbara’s 32-year-old Wildlife Care Network, which is building a two-story, 5,000 sq. ft. animal hospital on its 1.8 acre Goleta property, has raised more than $3 million of its $6 million budget, including a hefty donation of $3 million from News-Press owner Wendy McCaw and $250,000 in a grant from the Oiled Wildlife Care […]

A Hoot and a Half
By Richard Mineards   |   November 7, 2019

The party animals were out in costumed force when the popular charity Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network threw its 31st annual benefit at the Carriage and Western Art Museum with nearly 300 guests raising around $150,000 for the Goleta-based facility and rescuing more than 3,500 animals annually. The fun fete, co-chaired by Gretchen Lieff and […]

Roof Roses
By Richard Mineards   |   October 17, 2019

It was a night on the tiles when the Santa Barbara’s Wildlife Care Network hosted a Rose on the Roof sunset soiree at the Union Bank on Anacapa Street for 60 guests. As well as quaffing the wine, donated by co-chair Gretchen Lieff, the animal lovers noshed on a variety of treats from Santa Barbara […]

Spring and Summer Tree Care and Wildlife Safety
By Claire Garvais   |   May 16, 2019

by Claire Garvais and Emily Komessar It’s Baby Season! Hundreds of owlets, squirrels, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds are nice and cozy in nests of all shapes and sizes throughout Santa Barbara County. Some of these babies will fall prey to forces of nature; they may fall out of their nests early or be harassed by natural […]

Party Animals
By Richard Mineards   |   April 25, 2019

Santa Barbara’s 31-year-old Wildlife Care Network, which rescued 3,297 animals of 170 different species last year, hosted a supporters party at its seven-year-old Goleta headquarters. Just the same day the organization had rescued two six-week-old skunk babies and a fox cub of the same age. Among the animal lovers turning out for the bijou bash […]