{"id":10453,"date":"2022-01-06T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/?p=10453"},"modified":"2022-01-06T15:17:08","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T15:17:08","slug":"pole-sitters-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/","title":{"rendered":"POLE-SITTERS"},"content":{"rendered":"
BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/h5>\n
Great-Uncle Al was a creative man. A resourceful non-conformist.\u00a0<\/h5>\n
That\u2019s a euphemistic way of saying he was a hustler.<\/h5>\n
Al never let logic or credentials stand between him and the chance to earn some cash. His resum\u00e9, so to speak, read like a script from the popular movie and radio serials of his day in which, week after week, the hero would undertake some preposterous adventure.\u00a0<\/h5>\n
For example, Al worked for a time as a pharmacist here in St. Louis during the Great Depression. Creativity, in this case, included spinning a fictional tale about his education \u2014 he never attended college and I\u2019m not sure he even completed high school \u2014 and a tragic fire in the hall of records at his fabricated alma mater.<\/h5>\n
This wasn\u2019t a dangerous job for Al, but I shudder to think of the risks taken, unknowingly, by his customers\u00a0 Every prescription must have been a cliff-hanger.<\/h5>\n
I hadn\u2019t thought about Al for a long time, but while wandering the highways and byways during the holidays, I found myself reminiscing about the stories my dad and his siblings used to tell during gatherings of our clan.<\/h5>\n
I think it was the pole-sitters.<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I must have spotted over a hundred Red-Tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis<\/i>) during my travels, and they’re regular features in the Lafayette Square neighborhood, perched like finials atop lamp posts and utility poles, hoping for a meal.<\/h5>\n
Just like Uncle Al.<\/h5>\n
Flagpole-sitting was a fad during the Roaring Twenties and the early days of the Great Depression. A test of endurance for someone who would attempt to roost on high for weeks or months at a time. The sitter would negotiate a fee prior to the attempt, or an assistant on the ground below would collect money from spectators. To Al, it must have looked like a much easier way to earn a stake, or a steak, than working as a day laborer.<\/h5>\n
The hawks I saw scanning the landscape were also looking for an easier way to earn a living, but they were hoping to collect their meal ticket in the form of pocket gophers, not pocket change.\u00a0<\/h5>\n
I didn\u2019t observe a single gawking crowd but I did spy several birds diving for dinner although, cruising along at 70 mph, I wasn\u2019t around long enough to tell if it was Hard Times<\/em> for the predator or the prey that day.<\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Some other birds of prey will hover and soar, taking a proactive approach to grocery shopping. But unless they’re quite hungry Red-Taileds use a wait-and-see strategy. They have keen vision so a telephone pole provides an excellent vantage point to watch for the movement of small mammals below, and standing uses fewer calories than flying.<\/h5>\n
Laziness or efficiency? I guess it depends on your personal work ethic. I know my great-uncle would have admired those raptors.<\/h5>\n
Al\u2019s days as a pole-sitter were brief, and I doubt he set any records. From what I can tell, he was a man of action and a distinctly social animal. Not a sitter by nature… unless you count a bar stool. Besides, flagpole-sitting was a short-lived craze.<\/h5>\n
Among humans, anyway.<\/h5>\n
Next time you\u2019re out for a drive, stop texting long enough to scan the telephone wires along the side of the road and you\u2019ll see pole-sitting is still popular as ever among Red-Tailed Hawks, who tend to be a bit less gregarious and a lot more patient than Uncle Al.\u00a0 They\u2019re also less prone to break into song than some of their songbird cousins.<\/h5>\n
They have too much dignity, and the cars speed by too quickly, for a chorus of Brother, Can You Spare a Dime.<\/em><\/h5>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n
\u00a9 2011 Next-Door Nature\u2014no reprints without written permission from the author (I\u2019d love for you to share my work. Just ask first.). Thanks to these photographers for making their work available through a Creative Commons license: kansasphoto<\/span><\/a><\/em>, Ingrid Taylar<\/span><\/a>, Andy Blackledge<\/span><\/a>, and Audrey<\/span><\/a>.<\/h5>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Great-Uncle Al was a creative man. A resourceful non-conformist.\u00a0 That\u2019s a euphemistic way of saying he was a hustler. Al never let logic or credentials stand between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":0,"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[424,16],"tags":[59,26,575,23,574,86,9,10,12,101,102,14,15,103],"class_list":["post-10453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds-wildlife","category-wildlife","tag-animal-behavior","tag-bird-behavior","tag-buteo-jamaicensis","tag-flora-and-fauna","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-lafayette-park","tag-lafayette-square","tag-nature","tag-predator-behavior","tag-red-tailed-hawk","tag-urban-wildlife","tag-watchable-wildlife","tag-wildlife-and-roads"],"yoast_head":"\nPOLE-SITTERS - Lafayette Park Conservancy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"POLE-SITTERS - Lafayette Park Conservancy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Great-Uncle Al was a creative man. A resourceful non-conformist.\u00a0 That\u2019s a euphemistic way of saying he was a hustler. Al never let logic or credentials stand between […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lafayette Park Conservancy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-01-06T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-06T15:17:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/redtail-on-a-pole-by-kansasphoto-ccl-by-2.0.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kieran Lindsey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kieran Lindsey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/\",\"name\":\"POLE-SITTERS - Lafayette Park Conservancy\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-01-06T08:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-06T15:17:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#\/schema\/person\/2cba4be97295c0df84ef191866513038\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"POLE-SITTERS\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/\",\"name\":\"Lafayette Park Conservancy\",\"description\":\"Oldest Urban Park West of the Mississippi\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#\/schema\/person\/2cba4be97295c0df84ef191866513038\",\"name\":\"Kieran Lindsey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/709fa3f0f7f4fb352a687ea886ec2d0d9925cea24e7fd75e630a82a339d94fe9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/709fa3f0f7f4fb352a687ea886ec2d0d9925cea24e7fd75e630a82a339d94fe9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kieran Lindsey\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/author\/kieran-lindsey\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"POLE-SITTERS - Lafayette Park Conservancy","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"POLE-SITTERS - Lafayette Park Conservancy","og_description":"BY\u00a0KIERAN LINDSEY, PhD Great-Uncle Al was a creative man. A resourceful non-conformist.\u00a0 That\u2019s a euphemistic way of saying he was a hustler. Al never let logic or credentials stand between […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/","og_site_name":"Lafayette Park Conservancy","article_published_time":"2022-01-06T08:00:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-06T15:17:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/redtail-on-a-pole-by-kansasphoto-ccl-by-2.0.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kieran Lindsey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kieran Lindsey","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/","url":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/","name":"POLE-SITTERS - Lafayette Park Conservancy","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-01-06T08:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-06T15:17:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#\/schema\/person\/2cba4be97295c0df84ef191866513038"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/pole-sitters-2\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"POLE-SITTERS"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/","name":"Lafayette Park Conservancy","description":"Oldest Urban Park West of the Mississippi","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#\/schema\/person\/2cba4be97295c0df84ef191866513038","name":"Kieran Lindsey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/709fa3f0f7f4fb352a687ea886ec2d0d9925cea24e7fd75e630a82a339d94fe9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/709fa3f0f7f4fb352a687ea886ec2d0d9925cea24e7fd75e630a82a339d94fe9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kieran Lindsey"},"url":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/author\/kieran-lindsey\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10453"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10453\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10502,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10453\/revisions\/10502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lafayettepark.org\/staging_5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}