There's a tendency to think of summer when you think of New York City's parks, but thanks to the Urban Park Rangers, even a drizzly January day can be fun.
On Sunday at noon, Urban Park Ranger Marissa Miller led a small group of intrepid explorers around open areas of Cunningham Park on an Animal Tracking Tour, to search for the remnants of wildlife.
Except for the wild young bucks playing touch football on the park's great lawn, the remains of last week's paralyzing blizzard limited access to the woodsy trails in the southern reaches of the park, according to Miller.
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"But we can find plenty of evidence right here," explained the two-year veteran Ranger, one of a number of Park's employees who share a three-pronged mission.
"We conduct educational programs for children and adults; provide law enforcement and participate in animal rescue," she explained to the handful of amateur trackers who had enough of football and video games for the weekend.
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Miller produced two catalogues of animal tracks and information for the kids in attendance and led the group from the parking lot at 197th Street and Union Tnpk., pointing out numerous bird tracks.
She pointed out how seagulls, with their webbed feet, make tracks that are easy to spot and how pigeon tracks are easy to pick out from crow tracks, because pigeons "are pigeon-toed" meaning their feet point inwards.
Other telltales of animal presence such as scat, or "poop" as one young naturalist volunteered were obliterated by the frosty blanket, but the tracking continued nevertheless.
Founded in 1979, Urban Park Rangers count Queens Parks Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski and City Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe as veterans of the program.