Ohio’s bald eagle population is flying high with a record 164 nests in 45 counties this year, according to tallies by the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

Of the record raft of nests, 115 were successful in fledging young, with current reports indicating 186 eaglets. That production is down from the record production of 205 eaglets in 2006, when 110 of 150 nests were successful.

This year 17 new nests were identified in 14 counties. It was the 20th consecutive year for expansion of the breeding eagle population. The somewhat lower nest success could be attributed to, among other things, an untimely early spring ice storm, which ruined some nests.

“We couldn’t be more pleased with the continued recovery of the bald eagle in Ohio,” said Dave Graham, state wildlife chief. “This is an accomplishment not only for our staff but all Ohioans.”

Indeed, state biologists would be unable to keep track of and monitor nesting status without the hundreds of hours of field observations logged by a corps of eagle-watch volunteers, who track and report nest activities weekly.

Newly removed from the federal endangered species list, eagles have made a dramatic comeback from near oblivion in the lower 48 states in the last 30 years. In 1979, only four nests were known in Ohio. The wildlife division and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, in cooperation with scores of volunteers, helped reestablish the eagle in Ohio through habitat development and protection, fostering of young eagles in the early years when numbers were perilously low, and extensive nest observation.

Most nests are located in the Lake Erie shore zone but more and more are being developed inland along major river corridors and along major water impoundments, some as far inland as Delaware, Hancock, Mercer, and Wyandot counties.

New nests this year were found in the following counties: Crawford, 2; Marion, 2; Sandusky, 2; Erie, Geauga, Knox, Ottawa, Pickaway, Portage, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas, Washington, and Wyandot. Most nests have been found on private land. The average nest is three to five feet wide and three to six feet deep, usually built of sticks in a tall tree.

Both males and females share in incubation and feeding of young eaglets, which grow to adult size in about 12 weeks. Thus the members of the 2007 year-class are as big as their parents, although they will retain mostly brown plumage until age five or six, when they grow the distinctive white head and tail plumage of adults.

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The Michigan Natural Resources Commission has approved three changes in deer hunting rules for 2007 including the following:

A total of 604,200 antlerless licenses will be available statewide, up from 592,600 in 2006. The increase in tags available reflects an increase in deer numbers primarily in the Upper Peninsula and northeast Lower Peninsula, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources said.

The MNRC also added 12 new counties, where deer numbers are well above target levels, for the late firearms antlerless season, which runs Dec. 17 through Jan. 1. A list of counties can be viewed on-line at www.michigan.gov/dnr. Most are in the southern Lower Peninsula, where deer numbers remain well above targets.

Finally, youths ages 10 to 16 hunting in a youth season will be allowed to take either an antlered or antlerless deer with a firearm or combination license in the youth firearm season set for Sept. 22-23.

In related news, the MDNR intends to purchase 1,840 acres of central Upper Peninsula land for its winter deer habitat initiative. The parcel is adjacent to existing state lands and was bought from Plum Creek Land Co., of Seattle, Wash. It is to be open to the public after purchase details are completed. The planned purchase is in northern Menominee and northwest Delta counties near Hendricks, Mich. The initiative was launched in 2003 to conserve significant blocks of critical winter range before they are lost to development, fragmentation, or habitat conversion.

So far more than 11,000 acres of range have been purchased in the Upper Peninsula and 1,000 acres in the Lower Peninsula. Restricted fund sources for the program include $1.50 from each deer license and from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund.

This is an important summer for kori bustards at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo. Four chicks of this threatened African bird have hatched in June and July. Along with the bumper crop of baby birds is a bumper crop of new information for scientists working to preserve the species, thanks to an electronic egg that transmits real-time incubation data from the nest.

The telemetric egg, placed in the nest after the mother has laid her eggs, contains sensors that record temperatures on four quadrants of the egg’s surface as well as in the egg’s interior. Motion detectors record how frequently the mother turns the egg during incubation. The data are recorded 24 hours a day and downloaded to a computer every 48 hours. National Zoo staff use the information to mimic natural incubation in a controlled setting in the lab.

“It’s really a breakthrough. This is data we couldn’t get any other way,” said National Zoo biologist Sara Hallager. “The information we gather helps us both understand more about the biology of these birds and how to better incubate them artificially.”

Understanding the normal activities of breeding is essential for improving husbandry practices for a species. But much of this basic biological information remains unknown for many threatened and endangered species. Temperatures and turning frequencies for artificially incubating eggs can sometimes rely as much on guesswork as on hard data. Improving the success rate of breeding not only increases the numbers of birds in captive populations, but also helps maintain their genetic diversity, which is essential for a healthy population.

Since it began its kori bustard breeding program in 1997, the National Zoo has bred and raised to adulthood nearly 40 individual birds, which have been shared with other zoos. The four eggs hatched this summer have some desired genetic diversity. The two eggs hatched in June are from a well-established genetic line; one of the eggs hatched in July is from a female not previously bred.

“For captive populations like these, the more genetic diversity the better,” Hallager said. “It’s really exciting.”

Hallager heads the Kori Bustard Species Survival Plan administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Species Survival Plans, or SSPs, are population management and conservation programs for selected species in North American zoos and aquariums. The SSPs are designed to maintain healthy and self-sustaining populations that are genetically diverse and demographically stable.

Telemetric eggs like the ones used for the National Zoo’s kori bustards have been used for whooping cranes at the Calgary Zoo in Alberta, Canada, and for waterfowl at the Saint Louis Zoo, but the technique is not yet widely applied. In addition to the kori bustards, the National Zoo also has two telemetric eggs in flamingo nests. Telemetric eggs are not yet available in sizes smaller than duck-sized eggs; but, according to Hallager, eggs for smaller species should be technologically feasible in the future.

Kori bustards, native to eastern and southern Africa, are the heaviest birds capable of flight, with males reaching up to 40 pounds; still, they are primarily ground-dwelling birds, inhabiting grasslands and feeding on an omnivorous diet. Wild populations are threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and feathers.

Only the National Zoo and eight other institutions in the world have successfully bred kori bustards in captivity. There are four adult kori bustards on display at the National Zoo, which may be seen by visitors at the outdoor Bird House exhibit.

Some rare guests, feathered friends in need, are making their home at least for a few weeks at the International Bird Rescue Research Center in Fairfield. “I’ve worked here seven years and I’ve never seen an white faced ibis,” said assistant rehabilitation manager Megan Prelinger.

But now, the research center has 78 white faced ibis babies and 70 ibis eggs, brought in by a bird rescue organization which plucked them from a rice field near Marysville just before it was to have been harvested.

“Our volunteers, a lot of them have been working double duty just during this week to help with this ibis crisis,” said Prelinger.

Although not endangered, the white faced ibises are often tough to find. They live in colonies usually away from developed areas, and bird watchers in the Central Valley say only on rare occasions have they seen adult ibis, let alone babies. When they are hatched, the tiny birds have striped beaks, and as care workers reach into pens to feed them, the birds jump and peck aggressively.

As they grow older, the stripes disappear, and their feathers become a rich mixture of purple, bronze and green.

Thanks to volunteers like Karen Sheldon who started working at the center after retiring, the birds are receiving constant care and feeding.

“It gives me an opportunity to see the birds up close, to learn about their behavior, to see chicks, to see birds I’d never see otherwise and also see them much closer that I do with binoculars,” said Sheldon, herself a bird watcher.

Since the chicks and the eggs were brought in on July 22, eight eggs have hatched. Several dozen of the growing birds are now able to eat a solid meal of chopped fish.

“We are incredibly relieved that some of them are now able to self feed,” said Prelinger. “It feels like a real milestone has been reached just on day eight of having them.”

Within several weeks, Prelinger said she hopes to be able to release some of the baby ibises back into their natural environment, hopefully near other ibis colonies in Northern California.

IT’S BEEN a bumpy journey for little terns.

But a record number of terns now adorn the Hartlepool and east Durham coastline - despite the nests coming under attack from hedgehogs.

More than 100 little tern chicks, one of Britain’s rarest sea birds, have hatched on a breeding area at Crimdon near Hartlepool. And after several years of poor breeding figures wardens couldn’t be happier.

But it could have been a different story when hedgehogs attacked 18 nests in just two days.

Volunteer warden Trevor Stephenson, 53, said: “Luckily the hedgehogs got to the nests at an early stage so it meant the birds could re-lay and it won’t have affected the total.”

He added: “It has been a brilliant year for results and we couldn’t be happier. Last year there was only 27 chicks hatched and there was none in 2005. The little tern is a very rare protected bird so for us to get 105 chicks is excellent.”

A lack of food, namely sand eels, meant there was a mass starvation of chicks and very poor breeding results in 2004 and 2005.
But in 2006 the government banned sand eel fishing in the North Sea and the breeding figures rose.

Fellow warden, Derek Brown, 68, from Horden said: “This has to be the best year we have ever seen. I fell in love with these birds straight away and it’s fantastic to see them all here.”

A Brit driver alarmed over the unusual sound his car’s engine was making was stunned when he found that the reason for the noise was a kitten.

According to the BBC, the kitten had climbed inside the engine but had been unable to come out.

61-year old Victor Gallacher, drove his range rover around for several miles across the city before realising that his engine was making a strange noise.

When Gallacher pulled his car over and popped the hood to see what was making the noise, he found that the culprit was a terrified kitten.

“There was suddenly a terribly loud noise so I stopped and looked under the car and could not see anything. Then I looked in the engine and there was a kitten under the battery. When I looked again it had moved to the fan belt. It was terrified,” Ananova quoted him, as telling the BBC.

“So I grabbed it by the scruff of the neck and put it in an empty box I had and sat it in the front seat with me. It did not seem to be hurt.

“The kitten was taken for a check-up and seemed to be okay. It’s impossible to say where it got into the car. It could have been the end of it, but thankfully it survived,” he added.

Scottish SPCA ambulance driver Marion Lamont added that the kitten was extremely lucky to escape harm.

“He was a very very lucky kitten. He was very shaken but unhurt - he was a bit oily on his face, ears and chin,” Lamont said.

The kitten is being now cared for at Mrs Murray’s Home for Stray Dogs and Cats and Re-homing Centre in Aberdeen’s Seaton area.

A CANINE hero stabbed protecting a man from a mugger is back home after surgery.

Kaiser the Staffordshire bull terrier was seriously injured on Saturday, while saving Craig Cunningham from an assailant.

Mr Cunningham, 31, from Moorclose, Workington, looks after his friend’s pet dog on a regular basis and was walking the dog between 10.30pm and 11.30pm behind the Moorclose Pub when a male approached him.

Mr Cunningham said: “I saw this lad come from a back alley and he looked a bit suspect.

“He approached me and asked if I had any money, and I said I didn’t have a penny. I think he thought I was being cheeky, and he pulled out what looked like a knife.

“Anyone who knows Kaiser knows he’s a good little jumper, and when he saw the lad come for me, he jumped in between us. I’ll be honest — I ran off. I was really shaken.

“Afterwards I took Kaiser home, and because it was so dark I didn’t realise the extent of his injuries.

“It was not until the next morning that I saw how much blood he had lost. “I rushed him straight to the vet, who said that the first 24 hours would be crucial.”

Happily, Kaiser’s owner, Ryan Charters, 23, also from Moorclose, was told by the operating vet that Kaiser had come through the anaesthetic and is now resting at home.

Mr Cunningham said: “He’s been a little hero. If it wasn’t for Kaiser, I’d have been the one to get stabbed.”

A team from the Guinness Book of World Records was in Niota over the weekend to measure Tina the horse.

Tina stands about 20 hands tall, which is about 7 feet. The current record holder is only 6 feet 9 and half inches tall.

Tina’s measurements will be authenticated in London at Guinness’s headquarters.

In case you’re wondering, Tina eats a bale of hay a day. She can also go through a 50-pound bag of horse food in no time.

Tina is only three years old, and her owner said she is still growing!

Everywhere Valarie Moser goes, Franklin is by her side.

The 14-week-old Black Labrador Retriever accompanies Moser to work, the grocery store, the mall, doctor’s appointments and even to restaurants.

But in about a year, Moser and Franklin will have to say goodbye.

He’ll have a new home — with a blind person.

”I will certainly be sad,”’ said Moser, a Fort Lauderdale resident who is raising the puppy to be a guide dog. “But I look forward to him doing bigger and better things for someone who really needs him.”

Moser is among 300 volunteers in seven states who raise puppies for Southeastern Guide Dogs, a guide-dog school in Palmetto, a city between Sarasota and St. Petersburg on Florida’s West Coast. Moser and Franklin were at a ”Meet the Animals Day” eventSaturday at Fort Lauderdale’s Museum of Discovery & Science.

She learned about the school through her job as director of programs at the Lighthouse of Broward, a group that provides free services to blind and visually impaired people.

Franklin moved into Moser’s home about a month ago. He quickly became her loyal companion.

Not only is Moser teaching Franklin basic obedience — sit, stay, come — but also learning socialization skills critical to seeing-eye dogs.

Puppy raisers are required to take the animals with them everywhere they go, buy their food, treat them with flea and tick prevention and attend bimonthly meetings with a school representative.

They also must enforce several rules: No laying on furniture or beds, no people food and no jumping.

”It’s a major commitment,” said Kim Marlow, volunteer area coordinator for Southeastern Guide Dogs. “We want people to love and care for the dogs, but they also have to be prepared to give the dogs back.”

Puppy raisers keep the dogs until they are about 15 months old. After that, they join other dogs in training at the school’s 23-acre facility.

The dogs receive an additional four to six months of professional training, before being paired with a blind or visually impaired person.

For the volunteers who raise the puppies, saying goodbye is often emotional, Marlow said.

”You can’t help but get attached,” she said. “But you have to look at it kind of like raising a kid and sending him off to college.”

Since 1982, the school has graduated 2,250 guide dogs.

Among the happy dog owners: Allen Preston.

Preston, 58, was born blind and says that having a guide dog has dramatically changed his life.

Jolly, Preston’s 3-year-old yellow Labrador Retriever, is always just steps away from his master. The 83-pound dog with a gentle demeanor guides Preston on Tri-Rail trips, helps him find the restroom at public places and leads him on safe walks.

Preston, of West Palm Beach, had another guide dog before getting Jolly last year. He says he can’t imagine life without his pal.

”There aren’t many advantages of being a blind person,” he said. “But being able to have a dog like this is definitely one of them.”

Marti Healy believes God gave man dominion over the creatures of the earth with strings attached: Rule with kindness, love unconditionally and listen for lessons of the heart.

A lifelong animal lover, Healy has discovered a deep spirituality in her relationships with dogs and cats, lessons she explores in her book, “The God-Dog Connection“.

The Aiken, S.C., writer, who self-published the volume in 2003, is preparing a companion workbook that will help Christian churches develop small-group pet ministry programs.

“It’s been a ministry I’ve felt called to,” says Healy, who shares her home with two dogs and two cats.

The 25 lessons in “The God-Dog Connection” are gentle stories about the animals she has cared for, their particular behaviors and what those behaviors say about the human relationship to God.

Healy admires the ability of her cat Sparkey and her now deceased dog Pookey to sit quietly in contemplation, a reminder that we humans need time to contemplate the “still, small voice” of God.

Pookey’s willingness to take a young pup in hand, housebreak him and show him how to dig a hole and bury a bone reminds Healy that Christians must witness to others and teach them the faith.

When Sparkey was missing one evening, Healy thought of the story of the prodigal son, who, despite his failures and wanderings, is greeted with great love upon his return home.

She expects the faith lessons will appeal to all ages, those with animals and those who simply believe that humans must care for four-legged creatures.

“I think we are the only species that has the ability to be responsible,” says Healy.

University of South Carolina religion professor Hal French said humans are drawn to the natural world to express spirituality, recalling that Albert Schweitzer first coined the term “reverence for life” after seeing a herd of hippopotamuses in Africa. That philosophy became Schweitzer’s signature.

“Anything that inspires reverence toward animals, pets, other species is a great thing to see and a great counter-agent to all the news about dogfighting,” says French, also a dog lover.

Before moving to Aiken in 2004, Healy, 62, developed a pet ministry program at her United Methodist church in Zionsville, Ind.

As strangers begin to approach, a stirring inside the double-fenced pen registers to Maria Ferguson.

From the outside, it takes a moment to discern the slowly moving shapes within the dense shade of the enclosure. Two layers of steel-wire fencing distract your focus like a window screen, while the glare of the afternoon sun dares the eye to tune into the darkness.

For the wolves, though, it’s taken no time at all to take in your sights and smells.

The pack’s alpha male, Wa-Ta-Chee - whose Choctaw name means “meeting at the waters of talking spirits” - begins pacing a figure-eight around the enclosure, keeping watch over his pack.

“They’re very protective of their territory,” Ferguson said, asking that you respect it, too.

For child visitors, that means following careful instructions not to run or holler. Grown-ups are told to walk slowly, speak lowly and not to make quick movements.

No fairy-tale villains these, each of the seven pack members at the Wolf Howl Animal Preserve is at one a muse, a cause and a pet for Ferguson. She left her home in Wisconsin four years ago to found this preserve in the Pinedale community, in western Union County not far from the Lafayette County line.

Down here, the land was cheap and roots already in place for her husband, Don, whose family hails from Hamilton in Monroe County.

After a year and a half spent clearing a site on their 43-acre property and making preparations, the couple opened the preserve in September 2005. They’ve since established an extensive Web site at www.everythingwolf.com and begun welcoming a few visitors at the preserve itself.

Her husband said Ferguson “lives, breaths, eats and sleeps wolves.”

It all started with her purchase of a Siberian Husky pup, whose breed she began researching. Digging deeper into Huskies’ wolf ancestry, Ferguson learned that the animals were a threatened species. They’re listed as endangered or threatened in some parts of the world, including the continental United States.

Choosing to champion their cause, Ferguson made a visit to the Wolf Park preserve in Battleground, Ind., and later became a volunteer tour guide and caretaker at a wolf preserve near her home in Wisconsin. The notion of providing a safe haven and educational facility on their own land became a dream for the couple.

Maria, who previously sold insurance, and Don, a self-employed computer programmer, searched for nearly two years for a large tract of land that was affordable.

With their first wolf enclosure now in place for nearly two years, they are in the process of raising some $100,000 to fence in a much larger enclosure of 5 to 7 acres total, including a pond.