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KINGSPORT — Bird watchers helped rescue a bald eagle from the South Fork of the Holston River this week after witnesses say the eagle was attacked by Canada geese defending their nest. The feathered skirmish took place Monday evening along the riverfront section of the Kingsport Greenbelt, starting on land near a goose nest below Riverfront Seafood. Witnesses say the eagle fell into the river after being attacked by a flock of geese, with the geese continuing to attack the eagle in the water. Birding Kingsport — the local bird watching club — had been out along the Greenbelt and...

Dozens of people have gathered in a Gaston County park for a memorial service for 144 Canadian geese that were euthanized by county workers worried they had become a health hazard.

State officials have authorized a special hunt for snow geese this spring in an attempt to control an exploding population that has damaged fields and nesting areas.    Snow geese in the Brigantine area.  Hunters will be allowed to kill an unlimited number of the geese from March 11 to April 18 under a conservation order issued by the state Division of Fish and Wildlife. The number of snow geese in North America has increased to more than 1 million in recent years — twice the ideal population, state officials said. "They have become exceptionally abundant," said Ted Nichols,...

Canada Legalizes Gay Marriage Posted: July 20, 2005 at 3:10 p.m. Updated: July 20, 2005 at 3:15 p.m. TORONTO (AP) -- Canada legalized gay marriage Wednesday, becoming the world's fourth nation to grant full legal rights to same-sex couples. Supreme Court Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin signed the legislation making it law, hours after it was approved by the Senate late Tuesday night despite strong opposition from Conservatives and religious leaders. The bill grants same-sex couples legal rights equal to those in traditional unions between a man and a woman, something already legal in eight of Canada's 10 provinces and in...

<p>Thousands of resident Canada geese that have been fouling Union County's public parks and golf courses with their unhealthy and unsightly droppings will be destroyed this week, officials said.</p> <p>The county is moving into this drastic stage of its geese management efforts only after years of "exhaustive" alternative methods of controlling the burgeoning population of the nonmigratory birds failed, said Charles Sigmund, the county's parks and recreation director.</p>