Bird Life in Hell's Kitchen
Is it just me, is it just that this spring is amazing, is it that there are bigger trees down my block this year – or are there really more birds in Hell’s Kitchen these days? I hear them chirping and singing all the time.
All winter I put pumpkin seeds out in our flower box on the fire escape and fed a pair of chickadees and a pair of cardinals. They were great and the pumpkin seeds don’t attract the pigeons – so though the sparrows joined, I didn’t get pigeons as well. They all seemed friendly except for the female cardinal, who was unsharing in the extreme. In the early days of spring they sang. A first for me, hearing their calls.
They still come back, every once in a while, but we’re not eating pumpkin any more and I figure they have plenty of food elsewhere.
I remember meeting a woman who looks after a little garden called the Bird Garden on 39th Street between 9th and 10th about this time last year – Kate Javens. She said the variety of birds that come to this little corner of Hell’s Kitchen is amazing.
Feed the birds and who needs a country house?