Monday's Musings (8/13/2018)

My sister snd her son (James Miranda) were in NYC for a few days last week and he wanted to see The Plaza Hotel, so at my suggestion, we walked through a portion of Central Park and headed towards the Gapstow Bridge to give him a scenic route of getting there.

An image of this famous bridge (which was taken from a web-page) can be seen atop this entry. The text accompanying states the following:

"Curving gracefully over the neck of the Pond at 59th Street, Gapstow is one of the iconic bridges of Central Park. It is the second bridge on the site. The first, a much more elaborate wood and iron bridge, designed by Jacob Wrey Mould, deteriorated and was replaced in 1896. The bridge offers postcard views of the surrounding cityscape. Facing south, you can see the famed Plaza Hotel and distinctive New York skyscrapers rising from above the Park's trees. Look southward in the winter and you'll see Wollman Rink's twirling skaters; in the warmer months you'll see the colorful amusements of Victorian Gardens."

Monday Musings: ON BEING AN ODD DUCK ETC

Yesterday morning I got the notification via a tweet from from Manhattan Bird Alert  which stated
"The MANDARIN DUCK and his reflection, continuing this Sunday at the Central Park Pond (60th and Fifth)" and upon reading it I made my way over to that area of CP.

However, when I arrived the Mandarin duck was no where to be seen, but The Pond, was being used by a number of other ducks, including male Wood ducks, such as the one seen in my photograph atop this entry.

"A Walk in the Park"

Cambridge Press defines the idiom, "a walk in the park," as "something that is very easy to do, and usually pleasant." And indeed, my walk in Central Park yesterday was pleasant. I went there to check out the squirrels since this is Squirrel Awareness Month (as I initially mentioned in my October third entry here on Blogger) and I did not come across the "cinnamon variant" which was the type I encountered last week, but I did meet up with a Black Squirrel who can be seen in the photo atop this entry. In by gone years I've only seen this type in the winter so it was a nice surprise to see this creature frolicking amongst the pigeons...

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

PIGEONS ARE FEATURED IN MY BOOKS

.... and having some quality time alone.

According to Wiki, "The black squirrel occurs as a melanistic subgroup of both the eastern gray squirrel and the fox squirrel. Their habitat extends throughout the Midwestern United States, in some areas of the Northeastern United States, eastern Canada, and also in the United Kingdom. The overall population of black squirrels is small when compared to that of the gray squirrel. The black fur color can occur naturally as a mutation in populations of gray squirrels, but it is rare. The rarity of the black squirrel has caused many people to admire them, and the black squirrels enjoy great affection in some places as mascots."