A Hawk, a Stick and a Couple of Leaves

So, what's better than a Yankees game? Right now, almost everything. But on July 24, it was chasing the hawks in Tompkins Square Park.

July 24 was actually a quite fun time in the Bronx, where the Yankees beat the San Francisco Giants that afternoon, 5-2, and I was able to stay the whole game since Chad Green closed it out. But after the game, I rushed on the 4 train down to Tompkins Square and immediately found one of the three red-tailed hawk babies cooling off in the sprayers behind the bathrooms and a second one in a nearby tree.

There were lots as paparazzi as the youngster entertained us for quite a while, playing with a stick and later with a leaf. 

A young hawk and a stick — the best toy ever!

I'm not sure if we saw all three young hawks that day, or two, but the video — very long, but skip around, the fountain activity is at the beginning — captures the bather, a trip to a nearby building to peek in a window, another baby in a tree, and lots of chasing of leaves and squirrels.

The video, Part IX of the July With the Tompkins Square Hawks series I've put on YouTube, is below. I included Part V on the dry ice blog posting, and I'm still working on Parts VI and VII. Since July is now officially over, I will be finishing up the series soon.

The photos below are from one of the best hawk-chasing days this summer.

Goodbye, Andrew Miller! Goodbye, Yankees!

This morning the Yankees announced that they've traded closer Andrew Miller to Cleveland.

With that trade, they also lost a full-season ticket holder for next year (and I've put up for resale most of my tickets for the rest of this year). Andrew Miller was the last Yankees player I could cheer for unabashedly. I like a few of the players who are left, but none enough to buy a T-shirt with their number or chant their names. I do like Carlos Beltran, but he won't be a Yankee much longer, nor will some of the other players I've rooted for in the past.

As I wrote in Andrew Miller Is Still the Closer on May 26, Aroldis Chapman was a disgrace to the Yankees uniform. I was thrilled when he was traded to the Cubs last week. I thought that meant that I could now stay for full games and not leave after the eighth inning.

But now I have no reason to even go to the games. The Yankees have no outstanding players left, and they are playing mediocre baseball — they're not even bad enough to be a joke.

If my tickets sell, I will happily be in Central Park or some other outdoor location to photograph nature. If my tickets don't sell, I will drag myself reluctantly to Yankee Stadium and cheer the players on the opposing teams who used to be my favorite Yankees. It's one thing to get my money back, it's another to just throw it away altogether.

On June 26, I went to the Canon Photo Day at Yankee Stadium (one of the perks of being a full-season ticket holder) and had my photo taken with Andrew Miller. It was one of the highlights of my year.

Andrew Miller on June 26, at the Canon Photo Day at Yankee Stadium. The highlight of my year.

I wasn't going to watch today's game, but turned it one while I wrote this. I just heard one of the announcers saying that it's hard to imagine the Yankees making it to the playoffs this year. Yes, indeed. Or next year, or any other year, as long as Yankees management signs players who are abusers and trades players who are worth cheering for.

Goodbye, Yankees. As I've learned from dropping other season tickets and subscriptions, after a while, I won't miss them. As long as Brian Cashman is general manager, and the Yankees are more concerned about making money than in playing good baseball, I'll spend my money elsewhere.

Oh, Rats! Let's Hope the Dry Ice Works

Following up on my posting of July 5, The Rat Patrol in Tompkins Square Park, there has been some recent publicity about the use of dry ice in the city parks to control the rats.

A Tompkins Square Park "baby" hanging out on a fence, July 27, 2016.

A story on July 25 by The New York Daily News, New York City Hopes to Solve Rat Problem With Dry Ice, quotes the wonderful Laura Goggin, who does such brilliant work chronicling the Tompkins Square Park red-tailed hawks on her blog. The article notes that the city is experimenting with dry ice in the parks.

City Health Dept. Hopes Dry Ice Can Eliminate Its Rodent Problem, on the NY1.com Web site on July 27, notes that the dry ice has reduced the rats in Columbus Park in Chinatown. I was interviewed for the video, but was cut out (no problem!), but you can see a little snippet of me in my pink top and Yankees cap. The interview with Sharron Crocker made it into the report, and she cogently adds the hawk-chaser perspective. 

As I noted in my blog posting, rat poison is a less-than-effective way of controlling rodents, but is so terribly lethal to our red-tailed hawks, pets and other wildlife. I commend the New York City Department of Health for trying a different solution, and the New York City Parks Department for trying to keep poison out of the parks. According to the NY1 report, the dry ice seems to be working.

When I was in Tompkins Square Park on July 26, Christo (the male red-tailed hawk parent) caught and ate a rat. I'll be posting video soon, but here's a still photo. This is what scares us so much — that the hawks will eat a poisoned rat and we will lose these magnificent birds.

Christo eating a rat in Tompkins Square Park, July 26, 2016.

Tompkins Square Park, July 27, 2016.

Tompkins Square Park, July 27, 2016.

I'll be posting more Tompkins Square Park videos soon. In the meantime, here's Part V of the July With the Tompkins Square Hawks series. It covers the afternoon I spent there on July 14. It's long (of course), but just skip around and enjoy these awesome animals.