2010 Vigil for Immigration Justice at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship

Here's a post that I almost forgot about!  It describes an event two years ago, but the information is still relevant.

On May 1, 2010, Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship joined many churches across the country in a prayer vigil for immigrant justice. I was one of three presenters. I focused on Irish immigration of the nineteenth century while the other two speakers dealt with more recent events.  Jean Montrevil talked about the New Sanctuary Movement, and Confesor Linares, pastor of First Mennonite Church in Brooklyn, described his experience as an immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

My presentation appears in green text below.  I concluded my talk by singing Mick Moloney's arrangement of McNally's Row of Flats.

My First NYTTS Annual Show

On Saturday, June 2, I attended the New York Turtle and Tortoise Society's Annual Show.  Here, NYTTS members exhibit their pets and receive awards for the quality of their animals as well as the quality of their husbandry.

What fun it was to see all the various turtles and tortoises, some wandering freely in the enclosed playground at the Village Community School where the show was held.

Some tortoises posed for pictures.

Pinta Island Tortoise now extinct

Updated July 3, 2012

Turtle Tidbit #7 reports the June 24, 2012, death of Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta Island tortoises (Chelonoidis abingdoni) that lived in the Galagapos Islands of Equador. Though it is tragic to see a species become extinct, George's death was not in vain. His situation - being the last of his kind - simulated "an extraordinary effort by the government of Ecuador to restore not only tortoise populations throughout the archipelago but also to improve the status of other endangered and threatened species," says Galapagos National Park Public Relations.

The Plight of Red Eared Sliders

Dinky, admiring his own reflection.  Isn't he pretty?

In honor of World Turtle Day, I want to focus on the problems associated with the breed of turtle that I own: the Red Eared Slider (Latin name: Trachemys scripta elegans, but commonly abbreviated as RES). These turtles, the size of a small coin as hatchlings, are widely sold by street vendors, flea markets, Chinatown tourist shops, carnivals and fairs. Buyers are rarely aware RES live 70+ years and grow as big as 12-inch dinner plates. Those who buy the cute little green turtles receive no information -- or wrong information -- about their care, even though raising a healthy turtle requires very specific elements and becomes more expensive as the turtle gets bigger and bigger.

Performing at the 2011 Catskills Irish Arts Week

2011 was a big year for the my Irish band, the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. The release of our first CD in March 2011 (see the sidebar on the right) brought us lots of performance opportunities. In this video you will see highlights of our performance at Catskills Irish Arts Week last summer. We were thrilled to perform at this prestigious US Irish music festival which has "the largest faculty (65 instructors) teaching the largest number of classes (120) of any summer school devoted to Irish traditional music and dance in the U.S." (Earle Hitchner, The Green Hills of the Catskills, The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2011)




This 5-minute video contains snippets of three songs from our CD. You'll see me on your left up there...  Close-ups (at 2.53 and 4:11) reveal I'm having lots of fun!

Many thanks to Albany photographer Timothy Raab for tirelessly documenting the music at Catskills Irish Arts Week year after year. Tim's entire collection of 2011 CIAW videos can be viewed HERE.



© 2012, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

More Adventures with Migration Assistant

Since my 2009 experience with Apple's Migration Assistant utility, I have had two more occasions to use this seductive tool. It promises so much, but I've come to believe that using Migration Assistant is rarely as easy as Apple makes you think it will be.  Here's a brief recap of my last two adventures with Migration Assistant, along with some advice and lessons learned.

Mourning Doves at Menno House

Last summer mourning doves nested on a windowsill of Menno House.  Manager Rachel Smith recorded the development of the squabs (that's what you call mourning dove chicks) from hatchlings to fledglings. 

Video by Rachel Smith

Did you know . . .

• Mourning doves mate for life
• Mourning doves often reuse their own nests or the nests of other birds, even squirrels
• Both parents feed their young with "crop milk" produced by glands in their crops
• The young squabs fledge (fly from the nest) after only 14 days, but parents continue to care them for another 2 weeks
• Mourning doves can fly at speeds of 55 mph

If you'd like to entice mourning doves to nest on your property, this site offers an inexpensive and nice looking nest box.   I bought one for Menno House and am hoping the doves will use it this year.

In case you're wondering how I came to know about the Menno House doves, well, I'm on the Board of Directors of Menno House which is owned and operated by Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship. 


Additional reading:
Mourning Doves and Their Young
The Mourning Doves Coo Begins Season Of Nesting and Feeding
Mourning Dove (Wikipedia, with great pictures and links) 



© 2012, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

A Bald Pigeon With My Name

My second pigeon rescue two weeks ago made me remember that the account of my first pigeon rescue somehow never got published.  Time to rectify that oversight!!

Sunday, May 15, 2011
It started out like any other laundry day.  I loaded my dirty clothes into the grocery cart we New Yorkers use to transport anything too heavy to carry and pushed the cart across the street to the laundromat.  As I entered, I noticed a young pigeon huddled at the side of the step. After loading my clothes into the washers, I went back to the doorway to see if the pigeon was still there.  Indeed it was, and the little thing just didn't look right.  It had some scabby-looking patches on top if its head and, although nervous, it seemed unwilling or unable to fly to a safer location.  The laundry attendant claimed it couldn't fly because an elderly woman had run over it accidentally with her cart.

I hate it when I happen upon situations like this, because I know that no one else is going to do anything.