what about the plastic animals?

Hedda Update

Hedda and friend.

Hedda takes grooming seriously.

Hedda in a hurry.

Hedda Gobbler, Morningside Park's favorite wild turkey, was busy foraging near 116th Street yesterday.  Renovation just began on a playground in the park.  I suspect she was flushed out of one of her roosting places.  Hedda didn't mind having a photographer follow her around for a few minutes.  The photographer wished she did not move so fast in low light.  More photos of Hedda and her unnamed predecessor can be found on the park website.

Turkey at the Grant Memorial

This one goes out to Janet, who, upon seeing the wild turkey at the Grant Memorial, turned to me and said "You're going to go take a picture, aren't you?"  A few other people on the bus saw it as well.  This must be the Riverside Park turkey.  It was far less jittery than the AWOL Morningside Park turkey.  I was able to get within ten feet of it before it paid me any attention.  The turkeys tend to stay in the shadows, which makes photography difficult.  I took 50 bad photos to get five or six good ones.

I watched the bird and took pictures for fifteen minutes or so.  The turkey was on the lawn a bit, then jumped up to the wall surrounding the monument, went back to the lawn before calmly walking across Riverside Drive, pausing in the middle to look for traffic, and into the park.  No word on what President and Mrs. Grant think of their visitor.

Turkey Movie

Before the snow came I once again came upon my buddy the Morningside Park turkey.  She was feeding just inside the park, not ten feet away from me.  Close enough for a video clip!

I recently installed the latest version of iLife on my iMac.  It has enough iStuff on it to push my poor old G4's vaccuum tubes to their limit.  One thing it lets you do is add a soundtrack to a movie.  Last night I gave it a try and, after a few false starts (sorry, I deleted the attempt where I was unknowingly recording me talking to myself and belching loudly as I watched the clip) wound up with a 1.8 MB Quicktime movie.  Sorry for the shaky camera action! 

With any luck the movie will work.  If not, here is something completely different:

Taped to the window of an old minivan on 105th Street.  As I  turned around after taking this picture a woman walking by gave me the dirtiest of dirty looks.  I don't know why, as she didn't say anything and didn't appear to be associated with the van in any way, but when I saw the look on her face I was sure I was about to be yelled at.

Trivia answer:  Yesterday I asked what album cover was photographed near the foot of the Carl Schurz statue in Morningside Park.  It was the Who's The Kids are Alright.

Morningside Park Nature News

A couple of days ago I noticed that the snowdrops and crocuses had emerged in Morningside Park.  They've got a few days before they bloom but they are out of the ground three weeks earlier than last year.  If the weather forecast is accurate the flowers may get a rude awakening next week.

I've usually seen the turkey in the upper portions of the park.  I guess she needed a change of scenery yesterday.

The Turkey Lives!

About a month ago I spotted the animal cruelty sign in Morningside Park.  I've been on the lookout for the park's turkey since then.  Not seeing the turkey for a few weeks I began to fear that she had been injured or killed.  My fears were put to rest this morning when I saw the turkey milling about by the 116th Street stairs. 

Cormorant in Morningside Park

I had some time to kill yesterday between my doctor's appointment (unsolicited medical advice:  in the unlikely event that you are getting a purse string suture removed from your scalp, take something that will make you a little loopy beforehand.  The removal isn't painful but the sensation is similar to fingernails on a blackboard, only it's on your skull.) and the next bus to work.  I spent it checking up on Morningside Park's wild turkey.  She is still there, but I didn't see any young turks.

Last year I wrote about the tiny waterfall in Morningside Park.  This is the big waterfall.  It is not a natural waterfall.  Far from it.  The pond is not natural either.  It is a remnant of Columbia's infamous attempt to build a gym in the park.  That action led to the student takeover of the campus in 1968.  The hole in the ground was converted to the pond and waterfall about 15 years ago.

A double-crested cormorant was sitting on a rock in the pond.  It didn't mind having me get really close for a photo.  When I walked through the park on my way home the cormorant was diving for fish.  When I lived in Nyack I once witnessed a life and death struggle between a cormorant and an eel in the Hudson.  It was intense!

Turkey in Morningside Park

This was so cool.  To get home in the evening I normally walk along 116th St. from the Columbia campus to my building.  It was so nice today I decided to take the scenic route through Morningside Park.  This wild turkey was in the little meadow above the pond and waterfall.  She didn't seem to mind the people in the park.  I was able to sneak up to within ten feet for these photos.  A crowd had gathered and someone shouted out to me "What is that thing?"

How long she has lived in the park?  I couldn't find mention of her anywhere.

Last fall, I saw Zelda, the turkey living in Battery Park.