After spending nearly two months in Switzerland and
a big amount of that time outdoors I saw ducks with ducklings, a 20
head herd of red deer, marmots, an ibex and even a mountain goat with a baby,
but it took coming home to New York to see – on my first day – during a ride in
Central Park a presumptive relative of Pale Male (our famous New York red-tailed hawk)
descend from the sky and attack a unsuspecting pigeon (we call those flying
rats).
I’ve seen plenty of predatory behavior in New York, but this
must have been the most brazen one apart from the shootout between two cars
careening through the lower east side I witnessed two decades ago.
The crazy thing is: it felt like a home-coming. I love my native country, I love the wonderful
vacations it affords me and I love coming back to New York, to its amazing energy. It’s not a feeling I can describe and I certainly
am a peace-loving person and I HATE noise, but there’s something about New York
that still holds my attention two decades after arriving and the hawk’s attempt
for a mid-morning snack fits that profile.
It’s good to be home.
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| New York's Pale Male |
