Out & About
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Birds of a feather flock together. The supporters of New York City Audubon form an especially tight flock.
These naturalists proved their mettle when they saved Pale Male and Lola’s nest last spring.
“It’s sort of an ideal example of how an organization like this ought to function,” the chairman of group, Peter Rhoades Mott, said.
At the Central Park boathouse Wednesday, the group’s executive director, E.J. McMahon, presented awards to two champions in the fight to save Pale Male and Lola: the city’s commissioner of parks and recreation, Adrian Benepe, and actress Mary Tyler Moore.
“This is one of the greatest chapters in the history of the bond between humans and birds,” Mr. Benepe said.
Ms. Moore expressed her “absolute joy knowing that in a city of predators, the one at the top is a red tail hawk.”
Unveiled at the event were Pale Male and Lola notecards illustrated by Allen Blagden. The group plans to distribute the notecards to high-level donors.
Guests included the president of the Battery Conservancy, Warrie Price, who was soliciting menu ideas for the downtown park’s new kiosk, set to open in April; a lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency, Carl Howard, who played ultimate Frisbee with Mr. Benepe at Middlebury; the president of the Linnean Society, Alan Messer, an accomplished bird illustrator; citizen scientist Rick Shek, who studies butterflies, and the chief executive of the National Audubon Society, John Flicker.
New York City Audobon’s next crusade is the Lights Out campaign, which asks owners of glassy skyscrapers to turn off the lights at night so birds won’t fly straight into them.
These naturalists don’t feel limited by their urban habitat.
“We’re clunk in the middle of the migrating patterns,” nature photographer Steve Nanz said. “It’s interesting how many different habitats you can find. Maybe you’ve got to look harder, but it’s there.”
One won’t have to look hard Saturday between noon and 4 p.m. at Central Park’s East Meadow. That’s when the Urban Park Rangers are hosting a demonstration featuring a bald eagle, a Eurasian kestrel, a Verreaux eagle, and an African spotted eagle owl.
