Return of the Eaglepigeon.

The best part of the photo is the little kissing birds detail under the eagle.

While a far cry from the exotic subway riding pigeons of Far Rockaway (I need to pay them a visit some time) described in Randy Kennedy's "Subwayland", there are some pigeons that live underground in subway stations. I missed my train to take this picture:

The black splotches of gum that cover so many sidewalks and subway platforms in NYC always make me think of a passage from "Roadside Picnic" (English translation is available on the official site for download) by Russian sci-fi writers brothers Strugatsky":

"And, as was to be expected, there was nothing else to be seen on the road, except for the black twisted stalactites that looked like fat candles hanging from the jagged edges of the slope, and a multitude of black splotches in the dust, as though someone had spilled bitumen. That was all that was left of them, it was even impossible to tell how many there had been. Maybe each splotch represented a person, or one of Buzzard's wishes."

The 47-50th Street station has stalactites as well. It's a very special station indeed. :)

You know, I feel that "pigeon" is just a pejorative for "dove". Many of the pigeons that I see are probably descendants of the ones that Tesla fed.

JWZ posted a link about a trained hawk that attacked a Chihuahua in Bryant Park. The hawks were used for scaring away pigeons. The hawks were well fed, but still tried to kill a pigeon or two. And of course they could not pass up Mexican food. Yeah, it's tough to be a lap dog in NYC. If the swans in Central Park won't get you, the hawks in Bryant Park will.

Of course ratbirds are annoying and a health hazard, but in this case we are talking about the exact spot where Tesla fed pigeons. These are the descendants of Tesla's pigeons! I guess he'd be pretty pissed about the hawks.

So now it looks like the hawk program will get canned because of the stupid lap dog. That's too bad - trained hawks are pretty cool. Too bad I didn't know about the hawks before, or I would have taken pictures. In fact I think I saw the hawk dude in the park, but I thought that he was in for a renaissance fair or something.

Hawks are not the only critters that keep New Yorkers safe from bombs. On my way to work I pass up a guy with a bomb sniffing dog standing in the area where trucks are unloading in the building where I work. In fact, there are a few of these dogs around. I wonder if they found a single bomb.