I was in New York City last week, hustling with the multitudes down Park Avenue in Midtown along the concrete walks that pass by J.P. Morgan-Chase, Deutsche Bank, and other giants of the financial world. Waiting for the crossing light at 48th street, I noticed a young woman on the opposite corner who was staring intently at a sign post. Not the sign, but the sign post.
Now, I always seem to see strange things in New York, but a sign post?
When the light indicated that we could cross without obvious danger to life and limb, I reached her side of the street. I needed to examine the sign post myself to see what was so interesting. And, there amidst the concrete jungle was a newly-emerged dragonfly flexing its wings in the morning sun.
Knowing that pupae of dragonflies spend the winter in shallow swampy waters waiting for spring, I wondered just how far this specimen had travelled to get to 48th and Park. Was it the product of a concrete-lined lily pond in front of a nearby office building, or a long-distance traveler from some of the wetlands in New Jersey? Only this dragonfly will know for sure.
But, what intrigued me most was this brief appearance of nature in the midst of the urban environment. We don’t think of big cities as harboring a large slice of nature; the birds are usually only rock pigeons, house sparrows and starlings—all exotics from Europe. But, here on Park Avenue was a denizen of a distant wetland, clean enough to support dragonflies and close enough to rouse the curiosity and wonder of an observant pedestrian on her lunch break.
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Photo, posted April 21 2011, courtesy of Mith Huang via Flickr.
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Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Support for Earth Wise comes from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.