Education of Tourists

Weather extremes (often with devastating impacts) are seemingly part of everyday news.

The winter of 2015 was the third coldest in New York City history due to a Polar Vortex which lingered many weeks.

All over the North East thousands of water birds starved to death on iced-over lakes and ponds that stayed frozen through most of February and March.

The Jackie Onassis Reservoir in Central Park is wintering location for several hundred migratory ducks and geese each year.
But in 2015, more than 90% of it too, was iced over, resulting in many birds starving to death.

I and several other people took to feeding ducks and geese twice a day in order to save what we could.

 Sometimes pointing to dead birds on the ice, we also asked others, usually tourists, strolling by to bring food when they came to the park.

But what was striking in all of the conversations with park goers, was that virtually all of them thought the park fed the birds (including many New Yorkers)!

"Aren't you employees of the park?" They asked. "Doesn't the park feed the birds?"

 I was astounded by such questions. What park feeds birds, I wondered?

I have since learned that some parks do feed their wildlife.
(I live near one now in Cortland, NY.) And some parks put out vending machines that, for a small price, dispense waterfowl pellets for feeding ducks.

In 2015, the town of Southampton in Long Island purchased 50 lb bags of cracked corn in order to save starving ducks on their lakes and ponds.

So yes, some places do care about hungry wildlife in their parks.

New York City is sadly not among them.

But what's worse, is that NYC parks and Mayor deBlasio now seek to criminalize any kind hearted people who feed struggling wildlife in parks. -- Parks where many natural food sources such as nut, fruit and seed-bearing plants and trees have been deliberately  removed.

I wonder what those tourists would think now if and when learning of the new "Wildlife Feeding Ban" that the Mayor and city seek to impose?

Small wonder New York City gets such a bad rap around the rest of the country.

Tourists, watch out if daring to feed a peanut to a NYC park squirrel or piece of bread to a Mandarin duck!


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