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We stand
on the wings of eagles.High about the columns at Grand Army Plaza, symbolic eagles provide a perch for even mightier real pigeons. These columns, with their pre-fascist fasces, were designed by Sanford White, whose post-Olmsted and Vaux entrance-way brought the rustic Victorian park into the grandiose Victorian end of the century (1892). Brooklyn-born Frederick MacMonnies,…
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Audubon’s Aviary, Part I
The New-York Historical Society has begun it’s three year, three-part exhibit of John James Audubon’s preparatory studies for his masterwork. These were the watercolors that Audubon gave to his printer, Robert Havell, in London, who then made the prints for the multi-volume Birds of America. “Preparatory study” is an understatement, however, for these incredibly detailed…
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Two
1. I saw Comet Pan Starrs tonight from the Brooklyn Promenade. It was just above a bruise-colored haze bank (alas, poor Jersey!) over Ellis Island. The tail was quite diaphanous. It was my second try at spotting it, with an interval of poor weather in between. Not visible to the naked eye, it was easy…
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Marshall
When I see people get excited by the enormous hollow, or hard white-centered, strawberry-like products marketed across the land most of the year, I despair. It’s tragic that so many consumers have been conditioned by a cynical agricultural industry to think that these nasty things are what strawberries are supposed to be. I protest by…
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Winged
How the mighty have fallen. Eros, the Greek god of love, was originally one of the primordial powers, portrayed as a cruel winged youth against whom neither immortal nor mortal was safe. By the Hellanistic period, however, he had been domesticated, and turned into a plump baby-like figure, the son of Aphrodite, of which this…
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Persephone
While failing to see the rare-for-our-parts Varied Thrush that has been in Prospect Park for a few days, I otherwise noted: two raccoons slowly uncurling high in a tree crotch; one darting chipmunk; a dozen turtles crawled up on shore and rocks of the Pools to warm up after so many water-chilled months; a Red-tailed…
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Problem Swans
With their long necks, Mute swans (Cygnus olor) can reach down to food that other geese can’t. Although loved by many, these swans are an invasive species, introduced to the U.S. to picturesque ponds and estates. Since then, they’ve escaped and established breeding populations in Prospect Park, among quite a few other places. Their aggressive…
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Mit Schnee bedeckt
The monument to the great geographer Alexander von Humboldt was clumped in yesterday’s wet snow at Explorer’s Gate, Central Park West and 77th Street. And in my own neighborhood:The snow seems to outline the bones of the trees. With today’s temperatures forecast for the 50s, this should all be but a soggy memory by the…
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Croton Point
This Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) was perched near the entrance of Croton Point Park as we entered and then, several hours later, as we left, albeit on the other side of the road. We recognized him by his chest plumage and streaks of russet on the neck. This is a nice walk. We take Metro…
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Animacula-finder
This is a model of van Leeuwenhoek’s microscope, circa 1670. It is a few inches long and opened up a whole new microworld for humans, including the somewhat staggering activity found in ol’ Antonie’s own sperm (ah, science!). I found this model at the Grolier Club not so long ago.
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Backyard and Beyond 