Day 22: Earth Day Redux Triumphant

Last Saturday, to celebrate Earth Day, Mother Earth gave us the gift of torrential rainfall as we labored to mend her wounds. But this weekend she played nice. Over 70 volunteers from the NYC Audubon Society, the American Littoral Society, Bloomberg and my own esteemed circle of colleagues showed up for a sunny Earth Day part deux.

The day's mission was to clear debris from the channels in advance of the coming moon tides and horseshoe crab invasion. The plastic and wood never stood a chance against this army of rake-wielding mercenaries.

A team from Audubon braved waters teeming with harmless killifish to dredge sunken debris.

Caspar wowed us with his wicked marsh guitar solos and a dead skate.

The Hardcore award went to Alex of Sheepshead Bay, who tossed 100-lb waterlogged timbers around like so many whiffleball bats.

More photos on Gateway National Recreation Area's Facebook.

Once the channels were sufficiently cleared we moved on to our next goal, erecting an osprey platform. Having sleeved it in a PVC predator guard (to deter egg-snatching raccoons), we hauled it out to the magic spot and hoisted.

Wait, hold it right there for the obligatory Iwo Jima shot...

And up it went without a hitch.

Jubilation ensued. This video conveys the general pace of the afternoon. It's dedicated to Jen Silverman, because I couldn't make good on her original Ramones request.

The platform, made entirely from wood gathered in the marsh, is now Rocky Point's centerpiece. With any luck it will be occupied by a pair of osprey sometime in the near future.

A big, big thank you to Alex, Ivo, Caspar, Steve, Grace, Brian, Jen, Rob, Jessica, Alex, Francois, Christian, Joni, Joanne, Remy, Chuck, John and all the wonderful people from Bloomberg, Audubon and ALS whose names I lack.

Thank you Don for co-organizing this day and for all you do. Thank you Broc for overseeing the osprey platform construction, you were missed, get well soon. Thank you Tony, the godfather of the marsh, none of this would have happened without your support and encouragement over the past seven months.

And last but not least, except in stature, thank you Irene for your lovely photos and wifeliness.

High of 66, average wind NNW @ 10 MPH, .4 low tide @ 12:41 PM. Moon @ 10%.

Water level recorded at 3 inch mark.

Birds seen in marsh: mallard, starling, red winged blackbird, green heron

Birds seen in bay: black brant, Canadian geese, oystercatcher

Day 21: Earth Day and Aliens

We had a bonanza planned for Earth Day. Around 100 volunteers were to show up. There'd be an platoon of rake-wielding waders battling the debris, there'd be overflowing dumpsters, there'd be a glorious erecting of the osprey platform a la flag over Iwo Jima. There'd be press. But by Thursday the forecast promised 100% chance of precipitation. Everyone rescheduled for next week. Except ten of us.

The rain was the extra-wet variety. It made my Gore-tex jacket feel like a Brawny towel. But the people worked through the storm without speaking, without stopping, and without complaining.

Everyone seemed to have their own curious mode of keeping dry...

Don Riepe wrangled a dumpster which we filled in little more than an hour.

No less than two minutes after we'd finished the rain stopped falling. So we took the opportunity to scout our osprey platform site. Here it is.

Afterward, Steve Finn of the US Fish and Wildlife Service took me on a little invasive species tour of the marsh. He reeled off so many aliens I couldn't keep up. I think we'll have to take an inventory sometime in the near future. For now, here's a serene portrait of an English garden snail (Europe) climbing a cherry tree (Asia).

Weather permitting, Earth Day II will be celebrated next week at the marsh.

Thanks again to Lisa, Lorraine, Francois, Steve, Brian, Miguel, Miguel's niece, Tony and Don for braving the downpour.

High of 61, average wind SW @ 18 MPH, 6.0 high tide @ 07:40 AM. Moon @ 97%.

Water level recorded at 8 inch mark.

Birds seen in marsh: mallard, robin, starling, crow, greater yellowlegs

Birds seen in bay: black brant, red breasted merganser, gannet

Birds seen on tip: kestrel, piping plover, flicker

Days 19 and 20: Killifish and Me Lay Siege to Marsh

Whenever the marsh floods I push a huge log up to the bank to make a floating dock for the wheelbarrow, and load out the sludge that way. Here's two hours condensed to 90 seconds:

This was my first all-marsh weekend. I usually only spend one day, but having been absent for two weeks I felt obligated. The combination full moon, storm and high tide completely flooded the site. And on the deluge rode massive schools of inch-long killifish.

The water seethed with them from the mouth to the culverts. I'd seen a few darting around before, but never in this abundance.

Many congregated near the grass. They'd swirl around each other and plunge into the sand after I don't know what.

When I approached they'd sometimes do a little flip, momentarily flashing a bright silver side toward me. I wonder if this is meant to disorient predators.

While searching the main pool for a spot to plant my new yardstick, I discovered the bottom of the marsh in almost completely carpeted in dead wood. Removing that will take some doing. For now, the wood graveyard is feeding a large algal bloom that sprouted just in the past month.

On Saturday Broc and I recycled some marsh boards into an osprey platform. Permits pending, we hope to install it next weekend for Earth Day. If you're reading this and want to join us, come anytime between 10 and 2 and we'll find something for you to do.

High of 61, average wind SW @ 18 MPH, 6.0 high tide @ 07:40 AM. Moon @ 97%.

New yard stick installed. Water level recorded at 11 inch mark.

Birds seen in marsh: mallard, robin, starling, crow, American oystercatcher

Birds seen in bay: black brant, red breasted merganser, gannet

Rocky Point's Mysterious Past

A mystery has plagued the marsh ever since ecologist Patricia Rafferty visited last fall: what did Rocky Point used to look like?

The answer would have profound implications for the site's potential restoration. The historical quandary goes as follows. There are two groins (low seawalls built perpendicular to the shore) framing the marsh. Did their construction form the dune that separates the marsh from the bay? If so, it would suggest that prior to the groin construction, the marsh flooded daily, not monthly, as it does now. In order to restore the daily influx, the dune would need to be removed using heavy machinery. Patricia suggested that historical aerial photos might shed light on what happened. She provided images from 1951, 1974 and 1996. Using Google Earth's historical imagery tool, I captured satellite photos dating from 1994 to present. After patching them together, we're a bit closer to solving this mystery. Watch this:

Ever since the groin (upper left) was installed, sometime before 1951, the shoreline has remained fairly consistent. Note that some 100 houses, an entire marsh-front neighborhood, disappeared sometime after 1951. Were they vacation homes or residences? Why were they moved? Where did the people go? click image to expand

The road was removed sometime between 1974 and 1994. The crumbled remains now serve as my wheelbarrow highway.

Sometime between 1951 and 1974, an additional groin was built immediately to the west of the marsh. The creek mouth initially bordered the eastern edge of the groin. But sometime between 1974 and 1994, it migrated to it's present location, and has remained stable for at least a decade.

In conclusion, Patricia wrote, "It looks like the bayward edge of the marsh has had a dune feature. Thus throughout the 1951 to 2008 time period it seems to me that the creek has been the sole source of hydrologic exchange with the bay (except perhaps during extreme storms when the dune would be overtopped or overwashed.)"

So what did Rocky Point used to look like? Despite all the changes to the surrounding area, we discovered it looked very much like does today. But before we can abandon any dune-busting plans, we need to see the marsh before 1951, before the 'big groin' was built. Patricia says the NPS has recently acquired and is currently georectifying imagery from around 1924. An image from that time period could potentially close the case on Rocky Point.

Special thanks to Patricia Rafferty for providing the imagery.

Day 18: Locals and Plovers

Last week's dramatic cleanup transformed the marsh. Those towers of wood and trash were mementos of my slow but steady progress. With them gone it suddenly felt as if I was starting from scratch. And there is a lot left to do. As I stared into the water contemplating this I heard human voices approaching from the road. I'd camera trapped a few people but I'd never actually encountered any in the marsh. It was an older man and his 30-something daughter. They were locals.

"I can't believe I've nevah been back heah," she said.

They asked why and for whom I was cleaning up the place. I said it was for the animals, the birds. Then he surprised me.

"You should get the people from Breezy to come out and help," he said in a Brooklyn accent thicker than a stack of bialys.

I asked if he thought the Breezy Pointers would actually be interested.

"F*** yeah," he exclaimed, sounding both proud and mildly insulted.

As they walked away he turned around and yelled at me, "you doin a good thing heah."

That's my next goal: enlist local volunteers. I'm embarrassed I hadn't thought of it before.

Halfway through cleaning the pond I walked out to the beach and found six piping plovers flitting about. They'd arrived fresh from the Bahamas, or South America, or some place warmer than here.

These little guys never asked for controversy, but in New York they can't seem to avoid it. Because they are a threatened species, and only nest on beaches, vast swaths of summer playgrounds are closed on their behalf. Some people are more than a little bitter about it. But there are plenty of beaches. Not so many plovers.

They're the reason I first started volunteering at Breezy ten years ago. Now they occupy the same space of my consciousness as cherry blossoms and short skirts: harbingers of spring. Watching one scurry down the sand is a bit like watching a wind-up toy on rocket fuel. They go this way:

And that way.

Then they swirl the sand with their feet as if waxing a car, and plunge in after anything that moves.

Their beaks emerge filled with what looks like mostly sand. How they sieve out the good bits I don't know.

Eventually they tire of me and wing it a hundred yards down the beach.

It was hard to break away from them but I eventually convinced myself to start a new log pile and finish cleaning the pool.

At the end of the day I walked back to the truck, still slightly disoriented by the mass cleanup and the scope of work remaining. But as I passed through the relocated hills of wood now consolidated by the road, I was reminded of something important. All of that used to be in the marsh.

High of 41, average wind NW @ 16 MPH, 4.5 high tide @ 02:23 PM, water level unrecorded.

Birds seen in marsh: robin, crow, ? flycatcher. Osprey seen above Riis landing.

Birds seen in bay: black brant, red breasted merganser, oystercatcher, piping plover

Day 17: Supermoon and Jesus Converge on Marsh

Last Friday, Jamaica Bay Guardian Don Riepe rang to say he'd received a call from the Church of God based in New Jersey. They had 100 volunteers looking for a NYC location in need of cleaning. He nominated the marsh and wanted to know if I could be there. Sunday morning I frantically scouted the site to assess how best to command God's army. The supermoon tide had completely flooded the marsh. Where would I get the extra waders? Where would they pile the debris? There was no time to consider this trivia, because when I turned around there they were. Not 100, but 200 of them.

They were undoubtedly the most gracious, compassionate and spirited group of teenagers I've ever had the pleasure of working with. Before any of us had a chance to give marshing orders they attacked with the full fury of the Lord. Instinctively and methodically they shuttled loads from bank to roadside like so many leaf-cutter ants. They toiled with such zeal as to lead one to believe they were paid by the splinter. I took ten (that's how many waders we had) into the wet and hauled out massive logs I previously thought unmovable without the use of a dozen water buffalo. In two hours the group cleared away what took me five months to excavate.

I extend my sincerest gratitude to the 200 Church of God volunteers who joined us Sunday (btw, as soon as they'd finished with the marsh they went to clean up after the NYC half-marathon.) I hope they'll return someday to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

Don plans to mobilize another 100 volunteers in April to move the unusable wood and garbage from the roadside to dumpsters. It is very possible that this marsh will be cleaned up by summer. I'm already feeling the pre-partum depression.

In other news: Andrew Baksh of BirdingDude took the last two wood duck boxes to install in Van Cortlandt Park. Camera trapping was excellent this past week. We added another undetermined-gender cat we'll call Daryl. That makes four ferals I've caught.

I post this last photo as a size comparison between the three most active marsh dwellers. The raccoon appears to be on synthol. Now that my woodpile backdrop has been removed I'll have to find another cam trapping spot.

Volunteer photos courtesy Don Riepe

High of 47, average wind E @ 10 MPH, 6.2 high tide @ 08:50 AM, water level unrecorded; all marsh flooded.

Birds seen in marsh: mallard

Birds seen in bay: black duck, black brant, red breasted merganser, grebe

Camera trap activity since 3/12: possum 2 nights; 2 raccoons 1 night; 3 cats: (Drew) 4 nights, (Cameron) 1 day, (Daryl) 2 nights; 3 humans on 1 day

Day 16: Teenage Reconnaisance

A project in the shop limited my marsh time to just a few hours, but they were well spent. With all channels now clear, it's just a matter of letting the tide push the debris against the bank for easy scooping.

As I was moving logs through the water I heard the unmistakable sound of adolescent cackling originating from the beach. I turned and found perched atop the dune, teenagers, ten deep, whacking the grass and gawking at me as if I were the Montauk monster. I'm sure they were wondering where my orange vest and the prison guard were. From across the water we exchanged gazes for what felt like a half hour, equally fascinated, and then, with a few more sand kicks, snickers and grass swats, they headed off down the beach. As the weather warms I suppose I should expect more terrifying encounters like this.

There was little camera trap activity over the past week, but I did pick up our fifth species: a meadow vole.

High of 47, average wind SW @ 15 MPH, 4. high tide @ 12:46 PM, water level unrecorded.

Birds seen in marsh: mallard

Birds seen in bay: black duck, black brant

Camera trap activity since 3/6: meadow vole 1 night; 1 cat (Drew) on 2 nights and 1 day