The hills are alive

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In formation

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Today's awwwwwww

Photo: Eloy Alonso / Reuters

One nice thing about winter

Photo credit: Gary Woodward / NBCchicago.com

Taking the kids for a walk

AP Photo/Gail Burton

Let's eat!

Chicago's City Council has repealed the foie gras ban. It legal once again for city restaurants to serve up the delicacy made from duck and goose liver. Mayor Richard Daley, who had once dismissed the ban as "the silliest law the City Council has ever passed," squelched debate on the measure and commanded the council to vote. The 37-6 vote repealed the 2-year-long ban. Photo: Chuck T

A honking pile of poop

In California, downtown Oakland's bucolic nature reserve has such a serious overpopulation of Canada geese -- which drop about a ton of poop a week on the 122-acre park -- that the city is considering introducing dogs to herd the geese into fenced enclosures, buying a goose poop Zamboni and spraying the goose eggs with mineral oil to prevent them from hatching. "No one's talking about shooting the geese -- we don't need more gunshots in Oakland," said Jennie Gerard, chief of staff to Oakland City Councilwoman Pat Kernighan. "But people cannot lie down on the lawn because there's so much poop. It's an aesthetic issue. It's gross." They're so well adapted to city living that their population throughout the U.S. is expected to double by 2010, from 220,000 to nearly half a million, according to Oakland's Canada Goose Management Study.

'Goose Whisperer' Bonds With Park Birds

Martin Hof has become a minor celebrity here, in part for his ability to communicate with fowl, which some say borders on the magical. And while there's something special, and a little comical, about watching him talking, humming, and yes, whispering to the birds, there's more to this than meets the eye. At age 23, Hof has developed an unusual approach to managing urban geese populations that is gaining adherents in the animal-friendly Netherlands - the first country in the world with an animal rights party in parliament. "It's all about respect for the geese," he says. The main problem at the Hof van Delft and most parks is that the birds have been allowed to overbreed and are clashing with the humans whose territory they share. But rather than destroying them, Hof finds new homes for the geese, dividing them along family lines to reduce the trauma of the move.