Follow-up: Good News From Shaker Hawk Re-Nesting

We've had some encouraging reports on that baby hawk our Wildlife Education & Rehabilitation Program staff attempted to returned to its family in Shaker Heights using an artificial nest. You'll recall the baby hawk had fallen from a high nest, was rescued by a passerby and brought to us for evaluation and care. We went up in a city bucket truck to get the baby and an artificial nest as close to its original nest (and sibling) as possible.

This past week, the homeowner's neighbors spotted BOTH youngsters up in the branches... a sighting that's a very positive sign that the re-nesting worked and the baby has joined its sibling as a "branchling." 

You can read the Sun Star Courier follow-up story here.

  
The original story and photos of the bucket truck operation are here.

Gull Report On WOIO-TV Today

Wildlife Rehabilitation Coordinator Amy LeMonds provides the expert wildlife information for a report on recent downtown Cleveland gull behavior. Reporter Tiffany Tucker's story is expected to air today on WOIO-TV Channel 19 at 4 and 6 p.m.

There's a perfectly natural explanation for the large groups of birds observed downtown. Gulls are nature's "clean-up crew." These scavengers do well in populated settings along the lakeshore because of the abundant food sources.

StarLab Visit In the News & Disney Volunteer Days

Some nice pictures and a description of our StarLab in action made the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram today. Schuele Planetarium Director Jay Reynolds took the starry sky dome and astronomy lessons on the road to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Lorain County last night.

The story, linked here, centers around a volunteer who helped with our portable planetarium and earned a Disney day in the process. By the way, Lake Erie Nature & Science Center is also participating in the Disney program. (Photo above is from the Chronicle Telegram's Chuck Humel. His complete slide-show is at this link.)

The Year & Decade In Nature & Science

As we close out 2009 and march into a new year (and decade!), it's always fun to look back to where we've been. Here are some links to retrospectives on the year and decade in nature & science:

• From the Discovery Channel, the Top Ten Discoveries of the Decade  in slide show format and Top Ten Animal News Videos of 2009, including a report on the discovery that apes "giggle" like humans.
• From the National Wildlife Federation, The Top Ten Wildlife Stories of 2010.
• From Scientific American, the Top Science Stories of 2009.
• From Animal Planet, the Best Animal Moments of 2009 (aka most watched creature features.)
• And, our friends at NASA tout the discovery of water on the moon in their NASA Year In Review slide show.

For our part, Lake Erie Nature & Science Center winds up the year truly grateful for all the wonderful supporters, volunteers, members, donors, class participants and visitors who fueled our non-profit mission through a tough economy in 2009. We're excited about what 2010 holds for our 60-year-old organization! Happy New Year!

Survival of the Weirdest In PD Lens

Smiling kids and critters from one of our cool summer camps were featured in today's Cleveland Plain Dealer. Look on page D2 for the Out&About photo feature. Talented photographer Bob Migra took the beautiful full color shots during our recent "Survival of the Weirdest" Kindercamp for 5 and 6 year olds. The collection of pictures can also be viewed on Cleveland.com at this link. (Scroll down to find the Lake Erie Nature & Science Center slide show).

The photo of instructor Maggie Watson and two of her campers featured below was also snapped by Migra, who really captured the joy of a Log Cabin Kindercamp! We have a few openings in some of our remaining camps and you can check out the options on our website.

Erie Midges Are Back!

Lake Erie Nature & Science Center Widlife Director Dave Wolf helped explain the annual spring return of midges in this report that aired Friday on WKYC-TV Channel 3. Over on WEWS-TV, our good friend and and office-mate, Ohio Sea Grant Fisheries Extension Program Coordinator, Tory Gabriel, explained the spring midge phenomenon to reporter Channel 5 Joy Benedict. And in a TV trifecta, Dave also appeared on WJW Fox-8's "Thats Life" Friday to share some expertise (and live snakes) with host Robin Swoboda.

What Works In Northeast Ohio?

Lake Erie Nature & Science Center does! Watch WKYC-TV, Channel 3's "What Works" segment from Sunday, May 17 at this link. Don't forget that our Center "works" because of YOUR support! Thanks!!

Saw-whet In Sun, Villager & Plain Dealer

You'll find more news coverage of last week's Saw-whet owl release in the current issues of the West Shore Sun and Villager News. Plain Dealer Animals In the News Columnist, Donna Miller, wrote about the owl's release and bird banding here and in the Metro section of the Sunday, April 6, Plain Dealer. We're proud of the education and rehabilitation that's carried out by our Wildlife Department!

WestLife Captures Rehab Release

Great photos of last week's Saw-whet owl rehab release in today's WestLife newspaper. Photographer Larry Bennett captured the little owl in flight moments after it left Rehabilitation Specialist Amy LeMonds' gloved hands. More of Larry's work including 13 photos from the release (some, of the Woodcock that was sent back into the wild on the same day) can be found on his fotops website and click on auto-photo. The release slide show is labeled BVLENSCOwl.

West Shore Sun Double Feature

Our spruced up Critter Corner made the front page of today's West Shore Sun News. Reporter Alison Meaney wrote an article on the Bay Village Kiwanis Club donation that funded the purchase of new activities for our indoor play area. The story features a photo of a smiling Robby Hussey enjoying our new puppet theater, with two more photos on the jump page.
Alison also interviewed our Wildlife Director, Dave Wolf, for a second front page feature story about the increased sightings of Bald Eagles in Bay Village. As the article says, if you're not lucky enough to see one of these magnificent, resurgent creatures in the wild, you can stop by and see the former rehab patient that's a resident of Lake Erie Nature & Science Center.
Update at 3:30 p.m. - Dave was interviewed for a WKYC-TV, Channel 3 news story on eagles that should be on tonight.

Comic Strip Features Our Center

In Sunday papers all over the world yesterday, Lake Erie Nature & Science Center got a tip of the hat thanks to award-winning Lakewood cartoonist Chip Sansom. The Sunday, February 22, The Born Loser features two girls catching snowflakes with a Lake Erie Nature & Science Center sign in the background. Another panel points to the "deer barn." A 2003 bio of Sansom says he likes to include details from greater Cleveland in his comic art.

The Born Loser is syndicated by United Media to more than 1300 newspapers in 35 countries around the globe! That means "Lake Erie Nature & Science Center" was translated into 9 languages for this strip. Chip, we thank you for the "shout out!"

Coast Guard Rescued Swan In New Home

Lake Erie Nature and Science Center has found a new home for a black swan rescued by the Coast Guard. According to a Coast Guard Press Release, personel from the U.S. Coast Guard Station Lorain, rescued the swan that was stuck in the ice near the Black River Railroad Bridge Sunday afternoon. The black swan was safely recovered and transferred to the Lake Erie Nature and Science Center. You can see a photo of the rescue at this link to the Coast Guard website.

Wildlife staffers (including Derek Skapes who's pictured holding the swan) were initially told that the Coast Guard was bringing in a rescued wild goose. By permit, our Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Program is limited to rehabbing wildlife. That's why we immediately found a safe and appropriate home at a Northeast Ohio farm equipped to care for domestic waterfowl.

You can also see media coverage on Newschannel5.com, 19ActionNews.com and Cleveland.com.

WKYC Turns the Camera on Us

If you didn't catch it on January 4th, two-part interview with Wildlife Director Dave Wolf - live from Lake Erie Nature & Science Center- is as of this writing, posted here on WYKC's website. Dave showed off a variety of our educational animals as anchor Kim Weeler quizzed him all about our mission. The chinchilla looked a little wriggly on camera, but the boa was so mellow Dave told Kim it was not much harder to handle than "a garden hose."

Nature Center Kickin' It With Kenny

Lake Erie Nature & Science Center got a nod from Fox 8's Kenny Crumpton this morning. In his Kickin' It with Kenny segment, the popular morning show reporter presented some great ideas for fun on a budget. In the hunt for different fun things a family of four can do for under $10 around Cleveland, Lake Erie Nature & Science Center was a highlight of Kenny's report.

'Rookwood' Owl Rides at Woolly Bear Parade

Our wonderful, Great-horned Owl, Rookwood, was one of the hits of the annual Woolly Bear Festival parade in Vermilion yesterday. Cleveland Plain Dealer photographer Lynn Ischay grabbed this great close-up of Rookwood as he perched on the arm of Schuele Planetarium Director Jay Reynolds, a long-time participant in the festival and parade. Rookwood and Jay got to ride in a fancy convertible, but it was Rookwood that was featured on the front of the PD's Metro section. More of Lynn's images from the Woolly Bear Fest can be found at Cleveland.com.

Our Take On Lionfish In the News

Many of you may have seen a picture of one of our animals, the Lionfish, featured in an Associated Press article printed in the Plain Dealer late last week. The article detailed how this common pet trade fish, normally found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, is appearing more and more in the Caribbean. This would be presumably from people releasing the fish from their aquaria into local waters after they get too big or after they start eating other fish in the tank. Any time people start altering the natural ecosystem, unforeseen and sometimes negative results may occur.

While Lionfish are not an overly aggressive fish, they should not be kept in the same tank with anything smaller than themselves as they can fit fish almost as big as they are into their mouths. Lionfish are considered a venomous fish and have the ability to inflict a venom-tinged spine into a bigger animal trying to mess with them, but as we said, they are not an overly aggressive fish. In fact, we (and many other fish keepers) have our hands and arms in the tanks with Lionfish with no concern about the fish attacking us. Almost all human stings from Lionfish are from accidentally cornering the fish until it feels threatened enough to strike out at us.

We particularly enjoyed the sentence in the AP article which stated "The red lionfish, a tropical native of the Indian and Pacific oceans that probably escaped from a Florida fish tank, is showing up everywhere...." We couldn't help but immediately have a mental image of a Nemo-like escape scenario occurring but with venomous Lionfish. We believe rather than "escaped" Lionfish, it's much more likely to be "released" Lionfish.

Dave Wolf
Director of Wildlife Education & Rehabilitation

More Coverage of Governor's Tour

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland, young Joseph West and our Nature Nuts classroom toad made the front page of this week's edition of WestLife news. Check out Assistant Editor Jeff Gallatin's write-up of the Governor's visit here. Jay Reynolds snapped our photo of Joseph's "toad exchange" with the Chief Executive. You should know that the Governor wasn't a bit phased when the nervous amphibian "released water" right in his hand. This week's West Shore Sun has a page A5 photo of the Governor holding our red-tailed hawk and there's a similar photo up in the Ohio Channel online newsroom. Look for great front-page coverage in the August 7 edition of Villager News as well.

Governor Ted Strickland Vists

Ohio Governor Ted Strickland gamely held a Red-tailed Hawk and a classroom toad during a tour of Lake Erie Nature & Science Center today. Executive Director Larry Richardson led the 45-minute tour that also included State Representative Jennifer Brady, Bay Village Mayor Debbie Sutherland, Board President Patrick Mazur and other invited guests, plus several members of the news media. Following his walk-though, Governor Strickland described the Center's interactive classes, exhibits and programs as "hugely impressive." Look for more details on Governor Strickland's "walk on the wild side" at Lake Erie Nature & Science Center in our online newsroom tomorrow. WTAM-radio has a story and photos up on their website tonight. July 31 Update: Check out today's Lorain Morning Journal for a full write-up and more photos. The story is also posted on the paper's website.

Phoenix Remembered On the Radio

WCPN radio calls him their "resident space ambassador." To us, Jay Reynolds, is Director of the Schuele Planetarium. Yesterday, Jay took time out of his busy schedule to look back at the Phoenix Mars landing and to highlight other astronomy and space news on WCPN's Around Noon program. Jay specializes in bringing complex space science topics "down to earth" for all of us to understand and enjoy. If you missed the original broadcast yesterday on Around Noon, head on over the the WCPN 90.3 website and listen to a replay for insight into life on Mars, the space station and more.

Check Us Out On WJW Fox 8

Planetarium Director Jay Reynolds, Wildlife Director Dave Wolf and a variety of our wild animals were featured in a segment on That's Life today. Q104s Jen Toohey was focusing on cool, inexpensive stuff to do with the kids. We qualify on the cool and affordable fronts! You can watch the entire story online on the My Fox Cleveland website. Thanks to the very nice folks at Fox 8 for including us on their "best" list!