Countless animals continue to become targets for wildlife killing contests, but now lawmakers in New York have set their sights on contests themselves in an effort to make these cruel events a thing of the past. These contests, which are also known as drives or derbies reward people of all ages with cash prizes and […]
Tag: New York
Victory! New Jersey Just Became the First State to Ban All Wild Animals in Circuses
Animal advocates are celebrating an epic win with the passage of Nosey’s Law in New Jersey, which makes it the first state in the U.S. to ban all wild animals in traveling circuses. The law was appropriately named after Nosey, an elephant who had suffered decades of abuse at the hands of her owner, Hugo […]
Equinox Eve
Tonight is the last night of winter! Doubtless these two raccoons I saw sitting in a tree last week looking down on snow-covered Central Park in New York City, will welcome the warmer season. Here’s my favorite welcome spring poem “When the Hounds of Spring” by Algernon Charles Swinburne: For winter’s rains and ruins are […]
POLL: Should birds be killed around airports to avoid bird strikes?
Nearly 70,000 gulls, starling, geese and other birds have been slaughtered in the New York City area, mostly by shooting and trapping, since the 2009 accident in which a jetliner was forced to land in the Hudson river after birds were sucked into its engine. It is not clear whether those killings have made the […]
New York’s whales to be studied for the first time
The habits of New York’s little-understood whale population are to be fully analysed for the first time, with scientists hoping the new information will help protect the marine behemoths that navigate one of the busiest shipping areas in the world. An acoustic monitoring buoy has been deployed off the coast of Long Island to eavesdrop […]
Defender of Raisins
One day last week there was a mockingbird perched outside my window in the cold, first thing in the morning. I opened up and threw some raisins on the surface of the snow. The mockingbird was eating when all of a sudden a robin appeared. The robin flew in so close that the mockingbird had […]
Ruddy Turnstone
I see ruddy turnstones in the nicest places — ocean beaches, mud flats, jetties, rocky shores, and boat docks. There are usually a few of them around New York and New Jersey in winter. I saw these in Cape May, New Jersey. They can be found wintering on the coasts of five other continents, too: […]
Video: Life and Death in a Bird Emergency Room
Dec. 23, 2014 – In New York City, tall buildings pose great danger to birds. The Wild Bird Fund is the only center in the city to nurse birds and treat their injuries. The goal is to release the birds back into the wild. This video was first published by National Geographic on 23 Dec 2014. […]