Silent flight (owl), incredible eyesight (hawk) and other attributes that help birds of prey find food were part of a fascinating talk about wild birds last weekend in Kingston. On Saturday afternoon, four animal ambassadors from the Mercer County Wildlife Center visited the Mapleton Preserve/D&R Canal State Park. (See post for March 31.)
Happily, the weather was good enough for Nancy Derrico -- who had begun her volunteering at the Center cleaning out cages -- to make her presentation outdoors and the crowd, estimated at about 60, seemed comfortable there.
Attendees included children, which was good, although some of them were allowed by their indulgent parents to be antsier than necessary and chatter away on other subjects than the one at hand. Not good.
Nevertheless, Derrico did a beautiful job of handling information, the birds she had brought -- and the kids. (Once, when she gently asked a persistent talker, "Are you answering my question?" the boy acknowledged he was not, and temporarily subsided.)
Tari Pantaleo, Kingston Greenways president, says the animals were chosen to come based “partly on their temperament that day and whether [the presentation is] held inside or outside.” She described the audience as “a rapt crowd” – certainly apropos.
Pantaleo also provided the great photo here, showing Derrico with a red tailed hawk.
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