When it comes to bird-watching, it’s not just about binoculars and an identification guide anymore.

The newest technology is used in modern-day birding — Global Positioning System units, BlackBerrys, iPods and bird-alert services. And for the not-so-faint-of-heart, there’s extreme birding, a combination of birding and roughing it in the outdoors.

“(Birding) can be great exercise, and you set the pace. It’s a great sport, you can do it all your life,” says Lisa Berger, Web editor for the Greater Ozarks Audubon Society.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 46 million Americans observed, fed or photographed birds in 2001, and they spent $6 billion on birding equipment.

Adds Andrew Kinslow, a high school biology teacher in Rogersville and extreme birder: “There’s nothing more grand than looking at life itself.”

Getting technical

Birders love GPS units, Berger says.

“We use those all the time because you may see something interesting, and if you give the coordinates, it helps others find the areas,” Berger says.

But that’s just the beginning of the technological aspect of birding. When birders find particularly interesting sites and birds, they often alert their bird-loving friends immediately through their PDAs.

Birders also use their PDAs to download bird calls for identification. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers free .wav files of bird sounds to download to computers or hand-held devices. The National Geographic Society has a mobile interactive field guide for PDAs that uses an eBird checklist to store bird-sighting data that you can later download to your desktop computer. The device may be purchased as an all-in-one PDA — a Tungsten E2 Palm Pilot — or as SD card software, compatible with many PDAs.

Using PDAs and bird songs to attract birds, however, is causing an ethical stir, as the sounds may attract birds away from their nests at inopportune times and disrupt birds’ habitats.

After seeing a bird, many birders record information on a bird alert system.

“There are lots of bird alert systems,” Berger says. “Many state ornithological societies maintain a (system) where an individual becomes a subscriber. A subscriber sends an e-mail to the (system), which then sends that message to all the subscribers.”

Online forums

The Greater Ozarks Audubon Society offers an opportunity for birders to discuss birding online, Berger says.

“We chat about which migrant species are showing up in the state in spring and fall, make announcements about upcoming and impromptu field trips, talk about identification, list what we’ve seen on trips and more,” she says.

The eBird site is an online record-keeping database sponsored by Cornell and the Audubon Society.

“An individual or group registers a site, like a favorite hot spot or even a back yard, then adds species to the eBird list after each outing,” Berger says.

Getting started

Lest you think birding is only done by aging nature lovers, Berger says there’s a trend of birders in their late-teens and early 20s. She says sometimes these birders drop out for a while, and then reappear with families.

Kinslow is one Gen X birder who never stopped birding. Kinslow grew up birding and continued his interest in all things avian in college, where he worked on research projects that took him into the field to search for nests, band birds and conduct censuses, among other tasks.

Today, he never travels without a pair of binoculars — even when he commutes to school on his bicycle. In the summer, he integrates bird-watching and banding into a summer school class.

Kinslow says Passive Integrated Transponder tags are another technology being used in the birding world for research. Stores use these tags to keep track of their inventory, but birders like to use these microchips encoded with unique identification numbers when studying birds. Made to resemble lichen, moss or twigs, these tags can be easily disguised in nests and last for generations of birds. Kinslow says the tags are used to track birds that reuse their nests, such as owls and eagles.

Another new technology for tracking birds is weather radar.

“Birds show up as big rain drops, so if the skies are clear, and the radar shows a big storm front, it is actually showing bird migration,” Kinslow says. “This is especially used on the Gulf Coast and in migratory funnels, such as Hawk Ridge in Minnesota and Whitefish Point in Michigan.”

Before leaving on a trip, Kinslow checks space imaging software such as Google Earth or TerraServer to locate bird habitat.

Going extreme

Some birders go to the extreme to view birds. Berger calls this “gonzo birding.”

“For example, two years ago, I drove all night on a Friday after work with two other gonzos to arrive in Duluth, Minn., by morning. We proceeded to log all the species we could before heading home Sunday morning. We spun off the highway in freezing fog, went down a 100-foot, 45-degree embankment backwards, then drove out of it through a downed portion of barbed-wire fence Š none the worse,” Berger says. “When we pulled back onto the access road, we noticed house finches in the trees.”

Another avid bird-watcher in the Springfield area is Bo Brown. An outdoor enthusiastic and wilderness survival instructor, Brown’s eclectic lifestyle combines avocation with vocation, as he travels to conduct research for the Audubon Society and government organizations.

Brown also is classified as a gonzo. His birding trips have taken him to Costa Rica, where he lived out of a backpack, and to Alaska.

“Sometimes I go on manic birding trips, with three to four days of nonstop birding,” he confesses.

An adventurous baboon who left his troop in Tokai to trek across the Cape Flats, caused much consternation before he was darted on Wednesday.

Jenni Trethowan who is with the baboon monitoring group Baboon Matters said it was likely the young male, called David, was searching for a new troop to join.

But David encountered many obstacles, including a very busy main road.

On Wednesday, he caused drama in Claremont’s Main Road.

David’s adventures brought him a gash on his leg, which Trethowan said could be from another baboon or a dog-bite.

With the help of the SPCA, David was darted on Wednesday afternoon and taken to a vet in Sun Valley for treatment.

Trethowan said it was a reasonably deep flesh wound, right through his muscles.

He was scheduled to stay at the vet for the night, pending a decision to take him to a rehabilitation centre in Barrydale.

David was first spotted by Constantia residents on Tuesday and he made his way during the day to the roof of Claremont police station. He spent the night somewhere nearby before he apparently made for Wynberg on Wednesday.

While in Claremont, David was surrounded and tranquillised.

When auto mechanic Don Doucette opened the hood of an SUV on Wednesday, he saw a fur ball staring back at him.

A cat, likely, a stray, was stuck in the engine block. The owner of the vehicle brought the SUV in for servicing when she smelled a strong odor of cat urine.

“I just happened to look down at the air box and the headlight and I saw the cat still stuck,” Doucette said. “I didn’t know what to make of it. It freaked me out a little bit.”

Doucette was surprised the orange tabby was still alive.

The cat was taken to Springfield Animal Hospital and treated.

The cat has an injured paw but is expected to fully recover. Hospital staff believes the paw was most likely burned from being in the engine.

If the cat is not claimed it will be put up for adoption.

In Wednesday’s bright spot, there’s a lot of puppy love to go around at one nursing home in Cumberland County.

An 8-year-old chocolate lab named Ella along with a 10-week-old black lab-golden retriever mix Casey are temporary residents at Green Ridge Village in Newville.

A cat also roams the halls there.

The animals were brought in to help create a more homey environment for the residents.

“It definitely, in our facility since the animals have been here created interaction with resident to resident, animal to resident and brought them out of their rooms on a more regular basis,” said Michael Stuck, Nursing Home Administrator.

The puppies go home at night with staff members until they are old enough to stay there full time.

THIS is Lucky, the four-week-old kitten taken from from his mother and rescued with only 24 hours to spare.

Now the RSPCA is to step up security after two women called at the RSPCA shelter, in Redcross Street, on Saturday afternoon and immediately took an interest in the tiny kitten.

They were told he was too young to be taken from his mother.

But 30 minutes later staff made a shocking discovery that the catpod’s door had been forced open and the black kitten was missing.

Fortunately, a concerned supporter of the charity found the animal quite by chance and returned him to the shelter, where his ordeal has earned him the name ‘Lucky’.

Had he been found a day later it could have been a very different story, according to Jean Spencer, manager of the shelter.

She said: “We were very concerned about the kitten. If he hadn’t been found in 48 hours he would have been dead.

“We were devastated when he disappeared and there were tears in our eyes, but they became tears of joy when he was found by one of our supporters.

“She had disovered it on Sunday at a house she visited. I must stress the two women who visited the shelter do not live there.”

Returning to the shelter slightly dehydrated, Lucky is said to be making a swift recovery aided by his foster mum, Heidi, a cat who has adopted the abandoned little one as if he was her own.

But the shelter is now looking to introduce CCTV in the cattery to prevent further thefts, along with extra bolts on the pens.

“It is absolutely disgusting that someone could take such a vulnerable animal,” added Mrs Spencer.

“We are going to have to launch a fund-raising appeal to have some cameras installed.

“In the meantime, we will be looking to press charges when these women are caught.”

BIRD-LOVER Robert Knox is in a right flap after his beloved red-tailed buzzard made a bolt for freedom.

The hefty bird of prey, named Inca, streaked into the sky after being scared by a motorbike near Welham Green woods last Sunday.

And even though his feathery friend has been spotted a few times over the last 10 days, Robert has so far been unable to entice him out of the treetops.

Now he is calling on eagle-eyed WHT readers to help him find his pet.

The 37-year-old, from Garden Avenue, Hatfield, said: “My legs have been aching like hell because I’ve been walking everywhere, asking people if they’ve seen him.

“I’ve got attached to him. He’s been coming out with me every day since I got him five weeks ago. It’s quite distressing.”

He said he had been out training Inca with a falconry glove when the bird got tangled in his leash.

Robert unclipped the cord to free him but at that moment a young biker came tearing past over the field.

“He must have got scared and just flew straight up into the trees,” said the dad-of-three.

He said Inca should be able to look after himself in the wild but that didn’t stop him worrying.

Robert, who also owns a pair of European eagle owls and two Harris hawks, said: “He should be ok but you can never tell.

“He eats rabbits and pheasants and things. He might actually be doing us a favour taking out some of the rabbits!”

- Red-tailed buzzards are typically 55cm long with a wingspan of around 120cm and weigh in at roughly 1kg.

They make a loud mewing call which sounds like “pee-uuu”, according to the RSPB’s website.

A Brooklyn man accused of dog-napping a litter of pit bull puppies in Stapleton over the weekend could face up to 15 years in the pound.

Cops say Joshua McKinney, 20, kicked in the front door of Jeanette Roman’s Canal Street home Saturday afternoon, wrapped seven 3-day-old pit bulls in a blanket and ran.

Ms. Roman gave chase, and police caught up with McKinney on Tompkins Street, according to cops

McKinney then threw the puppies to the ground and tried to run, but was apprehended by police.

Ms. Roman told the Advance Saturday that she knew McKinney from the neighborhood, and at one time invited him into her home because he didn’t have a place to live. She said she booted him out when items started disappearing from her home.

Ms. Roman said her pit bull, Pee Wee, gave birth to 15 puppies four days prior, and 10 survived. Although the seven pups were returned to their mother, three remained unaccounted for.

Authorities charged McKinney with second-degree burglary, fourth-degree grand larceny, fourth- and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property, fourth-degree criminal mischief and petit larceny.

If convicted at trial of the burglary charge, a class-C violent felony, McKinney could face a determinate sentence of 3 1/2 to 15 years in prison.

He’s currently being held on $10,000 bail on Rikers Island.

A tiny kitten cheated death after he was snatched from his foster mother at an animal shelter.

RSPCA staff in Rochdale have now named him Lucky after he was rescued dehydrated and with less than 24 hours to live.

Security is to be stepped up at the Redcross Street shelter after two women showed an interest in the four-week-old kitten.

They were told he was too young but 30 minutes later staff found a door had been forced and Lucky was missing.

He was found by a concerned supporter of the charity by chance and has made a swift recovery from the ordeal.

Jean Spencer, from the shelter, said: “If he hadn’t been found in 48 hours he would have been dead.

“It is absolutely disgusting that someone could take such a vulnerable animal.

“We are going to have a fundraising appeal to have some cameras installed.”

A half dozen balls of fluff sat in the glass enclosure at ZooQuatic Pet Center in Christiansburg on Wednesday morning. The puppies pawed at the glass, all but saying, “Pick me.” They rolled on their backs, exposing soft, pink tummies primed for rubbing.

They were cute. They were fuzzy. They looked like the perfect thing to curl up with on the couch.

And they were for sale. Just $750 to $1,600, according to the clerk, and I could take one home.

I would love to have a dog, even if it would freak out the cats, but I know I cannot be a good parent to it. I’m away at the office all day. I travel. It wouldn’t be fair.

ZooQuatic only recently added puppies to its inventory, and the outrage from animal lovers has been swift. The howling grew louder after 167 dogs died in a recent fire at a Bland County kennel that, it turns out, did not have a required county permit.

Most breeders genuinely care about their animals, take superb care of them and want them to go to good homes where they will be loved. Unfortunately, there are exceptions.

Those exceptions operate “puppy mills.” They are deplorable places. I’m no vegan and no card-carrying member of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, but the conditions documented at some turn my stomach.

Breeders keep adult dogs alive simply to reproduce. Their offspring grow up in cages until they are big enough to ship off to a store. Conditions are often cramped and dirty. It’s like producing canine veal.

Yet they are regulated and legal. Sure, the U.S. Department of Agriculture could better inspect facilities, and the rules appear pretty lax, but as long as there is money to earn, puppy mills are not going away.

I can’t fault ZooQuatic for selling puppies from whatever legal source they obtain them. The store’s owners have decided it makes good business sense, so more power to them. I wish them well and will probably continue to buy crickets for my lizard there.

That does not mean consumers have to like it, though. Just as the store can legally choose to sell dogs, shoppers who disapprove can take their business elsewhere. There’s a puppy-free pet store down the street. The marketplace works that way. If puppy sales cannot make up for lost sales, ZooQuatic might change its mind.

People should also confront the real culprit in all this: the laws that allow puppy mills to exist. Lobby legislators and congressmen to improve standards for breeders and to provide better funding for USDA inspections.

Not that Virginia lawmakers appear likely to do anything. The House of Delegates this year could not even agree to stiffen penalties on illegal cock fighting. It will be fair to ask candidates in November’s election where they stand on such laws.

The most important thing people can do, however, is encourage dog-seekers to head to local animal shelters instead of retail outlets.

The puppies and full-grown dogs in places like the Humane Society of Montgomery County need good homes. The Humane Society has 25 to 35 dogs at any given time. There should not be a market for puppy mills with so many canines already available.

“If you’re looking for a puppy, you can always find one at a shelter,” the county Humane Society’s manager, Jamie Burton, said.

Nearly all of their dogs are already spayed or neutered. If they are not, new owners must agree to have it done. No one with a heart wants to kill these poor animals, and we don’t need them making more little balls of fluff that will one day be desperate for homes.

There are plenty of dog types from which to choose at shelters, including papered purebreds.

Not that purity should really matter. Unless one is a diehard, a mutt will loyally love a family just as well, perhaps better.

Shelters make good financial sense, too. The $750 to $1,600 at ZooQuatic will get a purebred puppy with all its shots. It even comes with a three-year guarantee against congenital diseases.

The Humane Society charges only $60 for an adoption. That includes similar up-to-date vaccinations. If the dog is not spayed or neutered already, the cost drops to $15, but taking care of the surgery will cost around $100 at local vets.

Alternatively, one can have the fixing done at the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine, which runs a teaching hospital at Virginia Tech for residents of the New River Valley. Their rates are competitive, and taking a pet there provides valuable training for student vets.

Either way, it is a bargain for unconditional love that did not come from a puppy mill.

The most haunting part of the sad, gruesome, middle-of-the-night scene on Interstate 44 was how quiet things were.

A double-decker horse trailer en route to an Illinois slaughterhouse had crashed and was perched on its side. Forty-one horses were trapped in the mangled wreckage. Yet when Earlene Cole arrived, there was little noise beyond the clattering of a few hooves.

“I just said ‘Oh, my God’ three or four times,” Cole said, “and then I got to work.”

The work began around 3:30 a.m. on that grizzly night last September. Using huge straps attached to a tow truck winch, workers lifted and moved horses that were pinned on each other and within the confines of the thin, sharp, flesh-slicing aluminum shell of the trailer.

Six months later, this survival story is being played out at the Longmeadow Rescue Ranch - the rehab facility Cole runs - where 25 of those horses have been given the most unlikely of second chances after their trip to the slaughterhouse took an unexpected and, some say, miraculous detour.

The story of the Miracle Horses - among them, a spunky thoroughbred named Stan, a pregnant mare named Mama and a horse they call Willie because of his will to live after being trapped beneath four dead horses in the trailer - offers a sad and uplifting reflection on the world of horses and horse racing.

It’s a speculative industry that has, over the years, become overrun with animals that risk being left behind if they don’t help the bottom line.

Mostly, it’s a business with no easy answers, as breeders and trainers, traders and rescuers, recreational riders and lawmakers try to come up with solutions to an overpopulation problem that shows few signs of abating.

All those parties had a stake in this trailer wreck in rural Missouri, and half a year later, the aftermath is still being felt in big ways and small.

“It was something where you close your eyes at night and all you could see was horses laying on top of each other,” said Tom Adams, who trims and treats horses hooves for a living and was called to the scene. “It’s something I hope I never have to go through again.”

Too many horses

Standing at the ranch, watching these horses nickering and playing, many of them fully restored to health, the first question is, why were they heading to a slaughterhouse - to be processed and sold for people to eat in Europe - in the first place?

They certainly weren’t all old, which punctures one myth about the slaughterhouse business - that only the old horses get sent there. Among those saved were a yearling thoroughbred, a 4-year-old Appaloosa named D.D. and a young quarter horse mare named Karma who recently took sixth place at a local riding show.

They certainly weren’t all decrepit - one look at Willie playfully harassing his corral-mates on a sunny spring day at the ranch would put an end to that thought.

In almost every case in which a horse is sent to a slaughterhouse, it has outlived its usefulness to the owner. In some instances, that means a horse was bred for racing or show, but never flashed the speed or beauty to become a star. More often, horses are bred or bought for recreational purposes by people who later lose their love for the animal or don’t have the money and patience to deal with it.

Dogs or cats might be given to a friend, taken to a shelter or left on the street in a situation like this. Unwanted horses aren’t as easy to dispose of.

They can be turned loose in the wilderness. They can be euthanized and buried or cremated at the cost of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. Often, they are simply taken to an auction, where sellers try to salvage a few bucks and might even hope a good home will be found for their horse.

Of course, nobody can ever be sure.

“The problem with the slaughter industry is that the people who buy to sell to the slaughterhouses aren’t always honest with the people they buy from,” Cole said. “I’ve heard stories where people sold their horse to someone who said they’d find a good home for it, and it ended up on a slaughter truck.”

There are an estimated9.2 million horses in America, including about 37,000 registered thoroughbred foals and 144,000 newly registered quarter horses in 2006. The majority of these registered horses often become expendable when they fail to find glory on a racetrack or showing ground, but they account for only a fraction of all horses.

“It’s not the bigger breeders doing most of this,” said Don Treadway, an executive with the American Quarter Horse Association. “At the bottom end, it’s hard. You can’t regulate it. You get ol’ Joe down the road who has a stud and someone else who has a mare and they want to raise a baby. You get a lot of unwanted horses that way.”

Almost everyone involved hopes that eventually the market and plain, old common sense will serve to diminish the excess numbers. Among the good signs is that breeding in the thoroughbred and quarter horse industries has flattened out over the last two decades.

Still, there are thousands of horses out there with lots more being born each year, and they can’t all have homes forever.

Legislation isn’t perfect

Sparked by a powerful lobbying group that includes nearly 100 Hollywood stars and 40 horse industry groups, a bill that bans horse slaughter for human consumption passed in the House last year by a 263-146 vote. But a companion bill was never passed in the Senate, which means the legislative process has begun again for the 2007 session.

Former Texas Rep. Charlie Stenholm, who lobbies on behalf of the slaughter industry, said not every law and regulation is 100 percent enforceable.

“But 99.9 percent of horses that go to processing plants have their lives ended humanely, as certified by a federal veterinarian,” he said.

About 90,000 horses were processed at the three U.S. slaughterhouses last year - one in Illinois and two more in Texas that are currently not slaughtering for human consumption and could be shut down permanently depending on the outcome of ongoing legal and legislative maneuvering. Those who favor keeping slaughter as an option wonder where those 90,000 animals would go if slaughter were made illegal.

The American Quarter Horse Association, the biggest horse association in the nation, is among those that lists slaughter as a viable alternative for unwanted horses.

“We don’t recommend or prefer slaughter,” Treadway said. “But is it AQHA’s business to find a home for every member’s horse when they’re done with them? I don’t think it is.”

Looking for solutions

Longmeadow is certainly doing its share. After the accident, the horse population on the 165-acre ranch, about an hour west of St. Louis, rose past 130. Add the pigs, llamas, goats and other animals to the mix, and the eight full-time employees and handful of unpaid volunteers have plenty of work on their hands.

The Humane Society of Missouri needs about $800,000 a year to run the ranch, bought in 1988 with money given by a generous donor. The cost of rehabbing the horses from the accident has reached well into six figures. But the accident, in a strange way, has helped because of the publicity it has generated for the ranch, widely recognized as the largest of its kind in the United States.

Longmeadow already has adopted out five of the rescued horses. Several more are available, and interest is high in the adoption days the ranch hosts every other week.

After some negotiating, Longmeadow gained custody of these Miracle Horses. Many are still looking for homes. A couple still aren’t completely out of the woods in their recovery.

But irony of ironies, they are in a better place than if that truck had not crashed. They have been given the rarest of second chances, and their story has offered an uplifting respite from the harsh realities of the world of horse slaughter.

“A lot of people ask me why I do this,” Cole said. “It’s the animals that reward us. When you get a horse that can barely walk, or a horse like Stan, then you see them out there running like that, that’s all the reward I really need.”