Groundhog Day
I was up at 0400 this morning to make the trek to the Staten Island Zoo to see their groundhog (woodchuck), Staten Island Chuck, make his prediction for the remainder of the winter season.I had no idea where I was going so getting there in the dark wasn't fun. The PA on the bus was the usual inaudible. It sounded like the driver wasn't taking the telephone handset out of the cradle but he was fulfilling the ADA mandate by keying it and talking at it. Eventually I heard something that sounded like it might be my stop and saw the golden arches that reminded me there was a nearby McDonalds so I gave it a try.
It was a media zoo when I got there but the gates were not open for the public yet. There was only one family there ahead of me and they opened the gates early just after I arrived so I got in before most of the public arrived and got a space against the barricade where I would have a view of the rodent's appearance.
Chuck had a large wooden house up on stage with a John Deere miniature wind wheel and full electronic weather station behind it. There is a little trap door in the front of the house and when they opened it there was a straw filled bucket that they had Chuck crammed into waiting for his freedom. It is no wonder he took a chunk out of the mayor's hand three years ago.
They had the stage lit up like daytime for the TV cameras so there was no way SI Chuck wasn't going to cast a shadow even though it was overcast and the sun wasn't high enough when they let him out even if the clouds hadn't been there. But the mayor announced that we would be having an early spring, and just in case Chuck was wrong (he and his predecessor SI Chucks have an 80% success rate) the City has plenty of salt stockpiled.
After all the speeches the door is opened and Chuck tumbles out to be immediately scooped up by a handler who hands him off to the mayor who this year is wearing heavy leather work gloves. Chuck doesn't look any too happy about all of this.
The temperature topped out at 62° yesterday and it wasn't cold enough this morning that I needed gloves but it is only supposed to be in the 30s and 40s for the rest of the week so it looks like that early spring is a little ways off. Still it seems like it has been a mild winter and we have only had two snowfalls so far.
After the event I walked down to the North Shore and along it back to the ferry. The last time I was out there for a sea chantey sing I thought I had seen some new-to-me birds and have been wanting to get back there to try and identify them. I came up with four new ducks and one west coast seagull.
