Norton Basin Migratory Bird Sanctuary

A juvenile Cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) collided with one of the back windows today.The thud was undeniable and the little fellow died almost instantly. This was my first sighting of a Cedar waxwing in this area. When I looked it up on the internet, one of the comments was that Cedar waxwings are vulnerable to window collisions. The Audubon has some suggestions for the prevention of these collisions.

More on the subject later.

We concentrate on the good today. I could show pictures with all the garbage that is dumped,or not picked up, but instead pictures of Queen Ann's Lace, Mullein and Marsh Mallow. When we were done the garbage had been rebagged, and all looked pristine again.

Today was a great day, RWA kids and teachers came out to do a beach cleanup event. They were joined by two people from Brooklyn and two people from Manhattan. A family from Beach 56 Street and one resident from Rockaway Park came out to help as well. We collected more than 25 bags of debris, a bicycle, a car wheel and a huge pile of garden refuge, and a pile of cement waste and chunks of tar-top.

We started to take down one of the three piles of buldozed junk.

The group circled the bay up to the sandspit, and took a little time out to study the fish and other fauna.

Words fail me...

There is no limit to the shame of humanity. As I walked by today to make a photo of the bags that Doris had gathered on Saturday, November 7, I noticed a new fence across the street, and a big dump of cement, sand and the kind of gravel that is used to install fence-posts. Coincidence? i think not!

Instead of removing invasive species, I went out with the RWA to do some seining with Mickey Maxwell Cohen, the naturalist of the American Littoral Society. Jeanne Dupont, and her little band of teachers and students, including her children and some of her neighbor's children were already suiting up as I arrived.

All the kids got turns to go out and haul in a net. Fun was had by all, and the weather was just perfect. No special species, mostly killy fish, some silversides, and a bunch of schrimp. Snails were present as well. Teiler did see a blue fish, but it got away.

I put on a suit myself, so I could go out there and give some support. The oyster got counted in between, amazingly they had grown a lot, some of them were bigger that 4 cm. The grey heron and the marsh harrier were still busy looking for food.

Doris came around 1:00 pm, all excited and exhuberant about the surfing lesson. It is hard to keep a good woman down to earth.

We had only two hours to work today, so we went straight out, and we were joined by Elaine, who gathered all the discarded bottles and cans. She could not get over the fact that she was able to fill a full bag. What can one say. Doris worked the waterside and I took on the section around the electrical pole. Much crabgrass (90%), it grows really tall, at the base you grab the root and try to get some of that out. It is really funny how these type of plants seem to send a message to the roots, you shake and pull it and then let it go. When you try again in about fifteen minutes a lot of root just seems to have unstuck itself and it comes right out.

There were clouds, but no rain, and we got a lot done. As I went out on Sunday, I just caught the park sanitation dumping the lot in the truck. That makes it nice for the rest of the week and it will not encourage dumping as was done last week.

Lovely day, a bunch of starlings sitting on the wires sunning themselves this morning. It looked so nice, I decided to go out early. Worked for an hour, one section, two bags and a little pile of bottles.

There is poison ivy in the lot at that point. Must plan.

Added the bags to the pile from last Saturday, and send a request for pick up to Temple, who promised to send the crew out.

Rockaway Waterfront Alliance rwalliance on Vimeo.

The Firehouse is a good thing in Far Rockaway's future, and also for the rest of the barrier island that we all huddle on. I walked to the beach today and much of the beach had been erroded during the last few weeks. But if nothing major happens we will be fine for another year. As I was walking along the littered roadways I had to think of Jeanne Dupont and the Rockaway Waterfront Alliance. The Alliance has certainly had a positive influence on our lifes. Eventhough there were again piles and piles of dumped garbage, it is not as bad as it used to be. This week coming home on the subway I saw that the DOT has repaired the lights on the boardwalk. I must repair my bike. The video is done and it looks quite good. The young men from Brooklyn did a great job. That just goes to show you that young people can make a difference. I wish I can do equally well soon.

With the rain expected in the afternoon I went out early to do one of the last sections of the edge near Beach 36 Street. It is a nasty area, neglected by the house on the corner. There was garbage among the plants, and I also ran into a patch of poison ivy. Not much, but we need to deal with that. I worked to the edge of the asphalt, and where the little Black lotus tree is a little further. One man came to ask me what I was doing. He is a visitor somewhere in the street. I put the bags in the park by the can. I also took the Park's parasol back to the caretakers in the building. There were people working on repairing the benches. The wood looked very good only the holes where the bolts went through were rotted. The guy told me they would be recycled. I hope that is the case, beautiful straight grain wood it was. On my way home I met a women who has lived in the area for 30 years. She was waxing poetically about the beauty of the our area. It is good to meet people who do realize the value of their surrounding.