Thursday in the Park With Pale Male's Kids

Thursday, June 16, was a great day to spend with Pale Male's two young babies. They were on the ground quite a lot, and posed for a lot of photos and video. I found this youngster on the lamppost over the 72nd Street drive in Central Park in the early afternoon.

One of the babies has been nicknamed Skinny Dipper, because the young bird took a dive in the Conservatory Pond the previous Sunday and was fished out with a net by the police and taken to the Wild Bird Fund, where Skinny was blown dry with a hair dryer. The little swimmer was released by Ranger Rob on Monday, very robust and ready to get back to the hard work of learning to hunt. Apparently a day at the beauty parlor is good for both hawks and people!

The other baby I nicknamed Topper, because the kid likes to sit on top of the cedar of Lebanon near Fifth Avenue. But others called the bird Speedo, because while Skinny Dipper's belly band is higher and more diffuse, Speedo's is lower and looks more like a Speedo suit. So we'll go with Speedo. This bird I saw on the 16th going after squirrels.

I did a very long video of the two kids, set to music by Rossini and Mozart. Skip around if you get bored, but I especially like the two "chest-bumping" around minute 11.

Here are some of the still shots from a wonderful day of chasing hawks in Central Park. 

A Western Mystery Bird

When I was in Camp Verde, Arizona (April 28-May 4), I saw this wonderful bird, which looked so much like an eastern phoebe (we see them during migration in Central Park). I checked a number of books, and I believe these birds, so very fun to watch, are Say's phoebes. They certainly look like flycatchers, at any rate. I'm posting as Say's phoebes, and will edit the post and the page if I find out otherwise.

Please feel free to comment or send me an email at Susan@pmsaga.com or Susan.Kirby@gmail.com.

Visit the Say's Phoebes page to see more photos of this wonderful bird.

Lions, and Tigers, and a Bear!

A Short Photo Tour of the Out of Africa Wildlife Park

On April 30, I visited the Out of Africa Wildlife Park in Camp Verde, Arizona. This animal preserve was founded in 1988 by Dean and Prayeri Harrison, and they seem to be very dedicated to the well-being of all the animals in their care. There are Bengal, Indochinese and Siberian tigers, African and Barbary lions, sloths, sable antelopes, a giraffe, a white rhinoceros, prairie dogs, zebras, hyenas and so many more beautiful animals, many of them threatened or endangered. A lot of the guests are rescued animals. There is a lot of space for them to roam, and no bars (although there are fences).

White tiger, Out of Africa Wildlife Park, April 30, 2016, Camp Verde, Arizona

White tiger, Out of Africa Wildlife Park, April 30, 2016, Camp Verde, Arizona

We spent an afternoon walking around after a very short "safari" ride in an open bus into an area for the zebras, giraffe, camel and other plains-type critters. (We didn't ride the zipline, but there is one that goes over the lions.)

My trip to Sabi Sabi game preserve twenty years ago remains with me today as one of the highlights of my life. I have always loved the big cats and all the other exotic animals I was first exposed to at the St. Louis Zoo. I understand the desire of many people to rid the world of zoos, and their disgust at the human concept that animals are something to be displayed behind bars and denied the life they could have in the wild.

But I am also aware that many animals would be extinct if not for zoos and wildlife preserves, and that in the world we live in, animals are going to take second place to the desires of humans (however inhumane those desires might be). Many people would never get a chance to see tigers and lions and giraffes if not for places like Out of Africa and the Bronx Zoo. Perhaps that is their best function: to make us want to protect these beautiful creatures.

All that said, I truly enjoyed my day at the wildlife park, and I think I got some stunning photos. The video I put together is more a video photo album, which I set to music by Scott Joplin and Chopin, to give a sense of the fun. It was a very hot day, but I hope I cut the burning sun out of this little show.

Here are six more photos from my mini Arizona safari. Almost all of the photos in the video can be seen on my Out of Africa Wildlife Park: A Short Photo Tour page.