Reporters: 4; Coyotes: 0

A wild turkey meandered up the driveway. Eleven cars sat in the lot. Two bikes rested in the rack.

 

 

 

Parents and children wandered the trails. Three deer ran through the woods.

Despite two recent coyote attacks on young girls in Rye, all seemed normal Thursday afternoon at the Marshlands Conservancy in Rye.

Nobody (except me) even wanted to talk about the potential threat of coyotes. Not the curator at the 173-acre facility and not the family of three walking through the meadow, one boy toting a camera around his neck.

The only signs that anything at all was amiss on the first day of July were the three members of the media who paid a visit to the park (four if you count me) during a 45-minute stay. That, and the Westchester County truck holding two ATVs that are used to track the coyotes at night.

Peace ruled at Rye Nature Center, too.

A young girl in a pink dressed clutched her doll as she ran through the grass. Chipmunks crashed their way though the brush. Birds sang and butterflies flew.

The number of visitors at the two Rye wildlife spots along Boston Post Road was typical despite police warnings to take extra precautions, especially with children.

"It’s pretty normal," naturalist Mary Gillick said. "We were actually pretty busy yesterday."