Heron Hideout

I had my after school environmental club with 3-6th graders from School 25 in Yonkers. We did our marsh exploration program and as we entered the pathway to the marsh a great blue heron flew out from under the bridge feeding on our killifish in the tide pool. It was a beautiful sight as it took flight away from all the loud kids and headed north to a vacant piling.

King Tide

Author: Robbie Hothan

The photos were taken on October 27 2011 at 0958. It shows the King Tide at Beczak Environmental Education Center in Yonkers. It's part of the King Tide campaign- an effort being conducted by the National Estuary Program to raise awareness about sea level rise. The high waters are caused by an enhanced gravitational pull due to the alignment of the sun, earth, and moon. It's not caused by sea level rise, but could give us an idea of what an average high tide will be like in 20 or 30 years.

The National Estuary Program has a call out to for photos of this event, here are mine.

Subway Cars on the Hudson

A decade ago, in a moment of inspiration, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority stumbled on a way to help the environment and its own bottom line: donating retired subway trains to the little-known cause of creating artificial reefs. More than 2,500obsolete subway cars — including 1,269 of the classic ocher-hued Redbird cars — were packed up, shipped out and then, with a splash, dropped into silent graves at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, somewhere off the coasts of six states up and down the Eastern Seaboard.

Members of the Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club, Beczak’s next-door neighbor, have seen this “subway barge” as they entered the Spuyten Duyvil from the Hudson River. Says paddler Steve, “I was surprised by the quickly moving barge jutting out in front of me from the Harlem. It was such a breath taking and gargantuan sight to see! Subway cars piled six high.”

Just this week Jack, another paddler, told us, “A few of us were paddling down near Sputen Duyvil when the barge left the Harlem River and headed out to sea.”

Here are the New York Times photos of their final resting place:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/05/15/nyregion/20110515VISUAL.html?ref=nyregion#1

Return of the Bald Eagle

Each winter, between December and March, Bald Eagles from Canada and northern New York and New England fly south to the lower Hudson Valley to feed on fish and waterfowl found in unfrozen waters. It’s then that we see eagles at Beczak’s Hudson River beach.

On Saturday, February 26, at 7 PM, Beczak is excited to host Hudson Valley eagle expert, Tom Lake, for a presentation called RETURN OF THE BALD EAGLE. Don’t miss it! He tells The Tidal Zone why he finds Bald Eagles so fascinating.

“Bald Eagles are one of those species, like loons and bears, that authenticate the wilderness. As wild (non-developed) areas in this country shrink, we need such symbols to keep us from getting depressed.

They mate for life and, in my experience, show tremendous fidelity to their ‘spouses.’ Their courtship displays, which are occurring even now, are like ‘aerial ballets.’ The adults are great parents tending to their nestlings.

Eagles are incredible hunters. They can find food under the most-dire climatic circumstances. They are very strong, resourceful, and from my vantage, seem very intelligent.

To the Native People of North America, they were (are) a sacred bird. While many of the attributes discussed above are of little interest to many people, to Native Americans, they define what it means to be a kindred spirit.

I have been monitoring a nest in Dutchess County (daily from March through June) for a decade and have been allowed to ‘know’ the mated pair. They tolerate me because I have been a predictable neighbor. The sights and sounds of that ten-year relationship have given me an appreciation of their place in our world.

Tom Lake is the Estuary Naturalist for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation's Hudson River Estuary Program. Besides shadowing eagles and teaching the ecology of the estuary, he edits the Hudson River Almanac, a natural history journal now in its 17th year.

Harbor Seal in Yonkers

I usually kayak back across the river from Beczak’s beach, but last Wednesday night I had my street shoes on, so to avoid getting my feet wet I left from the dock at Yonkers Paddling and Rowing Club.

There, lying on its back on the icy dock, I saw a beautiful black seal.

Under the full moon and street lamps I could see it clearly. It looked healthy, a good sized harbor seal, perhaps 70 lbs. It slid off the dock and into the water, then swam back and forth while I talked to it, observing me interestedly with the top half of its body standing straight up out of the water, before dipping around the edge of the sea wall and out of sight.

I wondered why it wasn't more afraid—perhaps the seal-like black balaclava on my head reassured it. It didn't seem to notice or care about the yellow kayak on my shoulder.

I have been checking every night since then, but haven't seen the seal again.

Richard Scott

Richard Scott is the intrepid commuter who crosses the Hudson River by kayak! Read his earlier blog here.

NOTE: Richard didn’t have a camera with him when he saw the seal in Yonkers, but two days later, on January 21, LoHud’s Vincent DiSalvio took this photo of a harbor seal near the Haverstraw Ferry launch.