Prospect Park

The Daily Plant : Wednesday, September 26, 2001

FLIGHT OF THE BUTTERFLIES FROM NEW YORK TO MEXICO MARKS A NEW SEASON

Photo by Spencer (Flasher) Tucker

Saturday, September 22 was the first day of autumn, a landmark that many New Yorkers celebrated by tagging and releasing monarch butterflies in Central Park. The image of tiny black and orange wings across the sky was a reminder to New Yorkers that the cycles of natural life continue in the face of human-wrought tragedy.

For kids, autumn signals a new school year, warm flannel coats, the sight of crisp, cool sunsets, and the leaves on New York’s street trees turning orange and red. For monarch butterflies, autumn is the signal for the chrysalis to emerge as a butterfly and fly 3,000 miles south to Mexico. On Saturday, the Urban Park Rangers and their partners led the public in tagging butterflies with identification stickers. They were helping scientists from the United States and Mexico who are searching for answers to several pressing questions: how many monarchs migrate to Mexico City each year? How do they navigate? How sensitive are they to changes in weather along the flyway? How can New Yorkers help mitigate a habitat crisis in Mexico?

In his address to the families assembled at the Belvedere Castle, Commissioner Henry J. (StarQuest) Stern observed, "For butterflies, mountains and rivers are more meaningful boundaries than customs houses and border crossings. In order to study them we must transcend our own dividing lines. Therefore, I am pleased to collaborate with the Mexican government in holding this monarch butterfly watch."

Commissioner Stern also thanked the E.J. (Haiku) McAdams, Biodiversity Coordinator for the Urban Park Rangers, the Central Park Conservancy, the Mexican Consulate in New York, Richard (Lupine) Stadin, President of MasterVision, the New York City Butterfly Club, and Dr. Kurt Johnson of the Florida State Collection of Arthropods for their assistance in staging Monarch Watch 2001. A band of Mariachi dancers helped turn the afternoon into a Mexican cultural festival as well as a seasonal celebration and a science experiment.

(Wednesday, September 28, 1988)

Discover new musical possibilities with "New Prospects," an innovative arts series in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park featuring an eclectic array of music from New York City and around the world. "New Prospects," which debuts this weekend, runs on Sundays at 3 P.M. through December 11 at the Prospect Park Picnic House.

The musical acrobatics of 14-Karat Soul, a nationally acclaimed a cappella vocal group, and comedienne Beverly Mickins open the series. Other concerts by homegrown performers include MOBI (Musicians of Brooklyn Initiative), jazz brass and percussion musicians (October 9); The Flirtations, a New York-based a capella group (Sunday, October 23) and Michigan singer/songwriter/storyteller Claudia Schmidt who will perform on the mountain dulcimer and other uncommon instruments (October 30).

"I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,
or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man."

Chuang-tzu (369-286 B.C.)