Just an update for anyone considering visiting New York. The efforts to make the entire urban area more ecologically healthy have met with some successes of note lately:

A coyote was reently captured in Central Park - the second in the last few years. Apparently he was an adolescent male looking for his own territory. Exactly how he got here - since Manhattan is an island and he had to cross a major bridge to get here - is a little bit of a mystery.

Also, seals have started to reappear in number in New York Harbor (they've been seen on Long Island beaches for years - but apparently the Harbor is now clean enough for them to live in.)

Amazing and heartwarming , isn't it

And Mr & Mrs Pal Male are nesting too !

dammit, I never proofread in time...Pale Male

Unfortunately the coyote captured in Central Park died before he could be released. How sad. But Pale Male and Lola nesting again is great news.

I was out running early one Sunday morning in Battery Park and I ran right up on a WILD TURKEY!

I kid you not.

It flipped me out because it was the last thing I expected to see in Manhattan.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/998768.asp?0dm=C18NN&cp1=1

Yesterday I saw what I'm sure was a peahen, or whatever one calls a female peacock, just inside Central Park at W. 79th Street. BIG bird.

And, of course, when the weather warms it's easy to spot numerous turtles in the turtle pond. For a bird's eye view, look down at the pond from Belvedere Castle.

For a web cam of nesting NYC Peregrine Falcons:

www.55water.com/falcons

This is interesting news, but I'm a bit disappointed that this post wasn't about hot new nightclubs in New York.