Pix Of The Day: It's A Jungle Out There, Mildred
CREDIT: © New York Public Library/NYPL.org
WHERE: New York, NY, USA. WHAT: wildlife in the Big Apple.
MAP: USA. Thumbnail click pops-up larger image on source page.

The New York Public Library at NYPL.org is a vast treasure house of resources. Anything so big can be daunting just by its size, so we have homed in on a single resource, but we will explore further in upcoming features. A news release for the 'Urban Neighbors: Images of New York City Wildlife' exhibition, which ran 11 October 2002 through 01 Feb 2003, was headed, "Unexpected Variety of New York City Wildlife Revealed in New York Public Library Exhibition". The exhibition lives on as a web presentation in nine sections, and the news release gives a readable account of the diverse subjects and items on offer in the online presentation.

The nine sections are: [1] Introduction; [2] Historical Neighbors; [3] Street & Backyard Neighbors; [4] Park & Green Places Neighbors; [5] Shore & Wetlands Neighbors; [6] Salt & Freshwater Neighbors; [7] Tiny Neighbors; [8] Unwelcome Neighbors; and [9] Occasional & Unexpected Neighbors. A rich resource, even at just this first level, but the treasures go on into second and third levels of delight.

All sections are available from page sidebars, and linked from each illustration in the sections, a sub-section expands with a satisfyingly large illustration magnification. For further study, there is a wildlife sighting log, plus a selection of resource links.

Reading in Section [5], Shore & Wetlands Neighbors, that New York's "578 diverse miles of shoreline include beaches, rocky banks, salt marshes, and landfill waterfront", we went to the section about Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) nesting on specially built platforms in the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge within sight of JFK Airport. The visit made to the Big Apple by a Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), is not to be missed in the [9] Occasional & Unexpected Neighbors section.

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