Bike Ride Thoughts and Advice from Tulips

   

     Let's face it, this has been a terrible week with awful events in Boston and Texas and still dealing with it. Terrible news makes me sad, and I try to avoid too much of the news and even the stuff people post on social media not because I don't care, but sometimes people jump to conclusions and judge others before the facts are even straight. I like to see the good in people, I like knowing that people still help each other in times of crisis and awful events. I like to see the beauty in humanity by seeing that good. I like to look to the natural world for inspiration and good vibes and I thank the tulips for my inspiration today.
     I often tell people, when walking by a bed of tulips, how much I love tulips (I really do!) but it always makes me sad that they last maybe like a week or two, then turn ugly, and disappear for a whole year. I really hate that they go away. I hate those bare stalks and the petals scattered on the ground, like someone shredded through them. But on my bike ride today (I ride approximately 11.5 miles home from work, so I had some time) I was thinking about the events this week, spring, and tulips. It is such a random combination of things but this is what I thought about:
     So spring, it is seen as a rebirth in nature. The deadness of winter is gone, things come back to life. Colors return in the green leaves of trees, the yellow of the daffodils and forsythia, blue, white, and violet crocus. Life returns as birds come back from their winter in the tropics, chipmunks awaken from underground, and turtles come up from the mud of the ponds. New life begins as flowers pollinate to make seeds and birds build nests in preparation for their precious eggs. Spring is the comeback season, people are generally happier, the sun shines, that warmth is finally felt for the first time in what felt like forever.
     Every spring the tulips grow, they start as a tiny little nub, poking from the ground and over a few weeks turn into that towering flower we all love, somehow the skinny stalk holds up that large bulb of petals. So I rethought my idea of tulips and how they die and how it makes me sad. Well, what happens when you think about it in a different light? This is what I came up with:
     This bulb, this ugly bulb is put into the soil, but with special care. Bulbs can't be put too close or they don't have enough room to grow and they can't be placed too deep or too shallow, it has to be just right. With love and care this ugly bulb grows into this gorgeous plant. The leaves are this perfect shade of green and look deliciously smooth and then the flower itself has these giant petals that you just want to touch and put your nose to.
     The tulip may appear to have a sad slow "death," as it petals drop and the plant shrinks back down to the earth it came from - but it always comes back year after year. The better the care it has the stronger and more beautiful it is. Even with the smallest amount of care, just simply clearing the land it grows on, it will still come back beautiful as ever.
     So if you listen to a tulip and think about people, when given even just a little bit of love and compassion, people turn out alright. People who were shown love, direction, and compassion in life are  some of the most beautiful people and they usually share that with others. So grow your own tulip, show people love, kindness, compassion, or just lend a hand, you are helping to plant something beautiful in the world.
     The tallest trees will topple but when tulips topple, they always come back. Even when the world has got you down, even when things are terrible, remember there are good, beautiful people out there (and if you agree, you're probably one of them!), they help us come back from these terrible things that happen, they help spread love, and support others with kindness and direction.
     So when I think about tulips, I won't think about that sadness, I will think about how amazing they are because they spread their beauty and still come back after they have gotten down. I hope that when you now look at a tulip, you will be inspired to spread the goodness that is inside of us all. And like spring, it is never to late to come out from feeling bad about things and do something good for someone.

There is beauty inside us all! Spread kindness in the way that works best for you, take it from a tulip, spreading smiles is not all that hard :)

Surprise!

     Sometimes you don't have to look for nature, nature just finds you. I was walking around this morning at work and some coworkers found this guy in a place where he shouldn't be. He was successfully captured and let go without injury, back into the wild of New York City. This was my first encounter with a whip-poor-will. What an amazing little bird with a gorgeous faux bark look to its feathers. The bird gets its name from it's call, just listen to it, there is no further explanation needed. Here are some photos taken with my phone right before his release, enjoy a little slice of wilderness in NYC...

An Eastern whip-poor-will. Those whisker-like projections are not hairs, they are 100% feather. Bird feathers vary in size, structure, and function. These play the same role as whiskers, as these birds are most active during darker hours and these feathers serve as a sensory structure.

While the beak looks very small, the mouth runs down under the eye and just past. They have a very wide gape, so when they open their mouth it appears surprisingly large. These birds feed on insects that are active at night.

The cryptic coloration of this bird makes it very hard to spot. They appear to look like tree bark/leaf litter. These birds will find refuge on the forest floor during the day, making them hard to come across.

One last look. Good luck, lil' guy! (or gal!)

An Old Favorite!

     Quite some time ago, I was a nature camp instructor and educator with Audubon. It was such an awesome job, and when we had summer camps we were able to take the kids offsite for an entire day and one of my most favorite places to go for that was Shu Swamp in Mill Neck, NY. I have only been there in the height of summer and know in the summer the place is full of wildlife. So going there in the spring was something new and also, it has been years! It also was a nice little trek because I got to take my best friend, Pam along with me. We have always gone exploring different places together and she is one of my favorite people to go on adventures with. Pam is my best friend, I've known her since the 6th grade and she is just the absolute best!

     I always remember the swamp being very lush and that lushness just started to emerge. The skunk cabbage had already sprouted, those wide, vivid green leaves, really gave the place some much needed color. The birds were very shy, we heard plenty singing, but they were really good at concealing themselves. We spotted mute swans, Canada geese, red-wing backbirds, grackles, ruby crowned kinglets, grackles, hairy and downy woodpeckers, palm warners, belted kingfishers, osprey, and great blue heron. I heard a frog, as in, I walked down to a pool of water it chirped and jumped and I screamed and jumped. We both kind of scared each other. We also saw some HUGE carp. The carp are not native but when you walk out to one portion of the swamp where the water and trees open up, the carp spot you and swarm over under the boardwalk. They must get fed often and they are large maybe, 2-3 ft in length.

     Another thing we saw a lot of were uprooted trees. Probably from hurricane/superstorm Sandy. Some of the tree root systems were absolutely huge in their width! Even with wide roots, the soft soil and shallow root system just couldn't hold a bunch of the trees in place.

Mute Swan close-up!

This swan was acting very unnaturally, it approached us right away and even followed us as we moved about the boardwalk. It is probably acting in such a way because it is fed by visitors. Hand feeding wildlife is unadvised, it can lead to a variety of problems for the animals, the environment, and you - that thing they use to eat, that mouth, they can bite with it.

One of the many rather large carp. Carp are native to Europe/Asia and are usually kept as ornamental fish. Koi are really just pretty carp. Goldfish are also a part of the carp family. Carp do well in water with low levels of oxygen, they are able to gulp air from the surface and use oxygen from that! I love their little barbels (whiskers). Those barbels are a good indication of how they behave, like catfish they are bottom feeding, using those whiskers to find tasty morsels.

A Canada goose on the other end of a tunnel. As soon as he saw us, he also came swimming over.

Grackles and red-wing blackbirds were in all the tree tops. We were waiting for something out of Alfred Hitchcock to occur.

So I looked it up, and if this guy did his math right, this appears to be the tallest tree. The DEC keeps a registry of tallest trees, but does't have any official measurements to show. Tulip trees are my favorite. My picture of the tree came out like garbage, but if you don't know what they look like, please refer to my earlier post from Inwood Hill Park.

A hairy woodpecker tries to decide where he will drill next.

Beautiful green skunk cabbage!

The skunk cabbage here refuses to let that fallen tree stop it from growing!

Those pretty yellow ones are marsh marigold.

A water strider, a type of insect, uses the surface tension of the water to skit across it. Surface tension is what allows a water droplet to ball up  or if you are very skilled, float a paper clip! 

Normally I don't take pictures of people, but I had to take a picture of Pam and I to use for scale in how wide the roots of this tree were.... We are also standing the the crater it left. Pam laughed at me as I tried to set the camera up, and then we both laughed when we walked to the other side and realized we could have propped the camera up on its trunk... This was more fun, and dangerous, as I had to run over and not fall into the pool of water also in this crater and make it and not look ridiculous before the timer went off...

See? Without us, it's just any other up rooted tree.

Skunk cabbage gets its name from the smell it gives off, especially when a leaf is torn or ripped. Their stinky smell attracts flies and things that can help pollinate. Their flower isn't what you think of when it comes to flowers, they are those purple pitcher-shaped thing.

Turkey tail fungi grows on a decomposing log. The fan shaped fungi is actually mostly inside the log itself. The fruiting body is what we see on the outside. They get their name for the banded appearance that looks similar to the tail of a wild turkey. Fungi while appearing plant-like in appearance are actually closer in relation to animals than plants. Turkey-tail fungi are one of my favorite types of fungus, they are so pretty!

     Hopefully I will be able to get out here again as the weather warms up. It really is such a nice little place and I was so glad I got to visit. To learn more about Shu Swamp, please visit here. They don't really have a real site, so just go visit instead!

Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head...

     Those April showers moved in today, after having that lovely warm day on Tuesday, it's now rainy and a bit chilly - but thankfully nowhere near winter chilly. I left work early because I had a long two weeks and my exhaustion and earned time caught up with me. When I got outside though, I felt compelled to take the long way to the subway. No one was really out for once and I do like a nice walk with no one around. The flowers are starting to bloom in Central Park and the raindrops on their delicate petals just looked so pretty. So I used my iPhone to take some okay photos. I hope you enjoy the plants and rain as much as I did!

Disclaimer: I am not a botanist. I thought this tree was a dogwood - then I read the sign, it's a magnolia. 

Pretty sure this is another type of magnolia.... but don't quote me on it.

Spring flowers are my most favorite. I love daffodils, tulips, and and those bushy clustery ones that come up lavender or blue (see, not a plant person). I love spring flowers but hate that they go away after like 2 weeks and never come back till next spring.

April showers bring.... floods!

No idea what they are, but they are very pretty, especially with water droplets on them!

I like that I am seeing that spray of green on the trees!

These mallards think the big pond behind me is overrated, they have their own private pond.

I noticed that many of the trees were frothing and even had piles of froth at their bases. I learned that the froth is caused when it rains a significant amount/intensity, the water mixes with all sorts of things that have settled on the tree bark. This plays around and changes the make-up of the water and the way the water behaves, especially its surface tension and causes it to look like someone gave this tree a bubble bath, or that this tree was blowing raspberries. Find out more about this interesting phenomenon here.

Skipping Spring for a Day

     This past Tuesday was amazingly warm. We reached a high of 84 for the day. I had rode my bike to work and on my way home, especially when riding through Prospect Park I got that awesome summer vibe. People who have been hiding all winter had emerged from hiding. You don't realize how many people populate Brooklyn and Manhattan until the weather gets nice, people just spill from every crack and crevice out into the world. Maybe that is why I enjoy winter hiking so much, so many less people around and much quieter.
     Riding my bike home through the park on a Tuesday didn't feel like a Tuesday afternoon at all, it looked and felt more like a Sunday. People were picnicking, barbecuing, playing sports, fishing, flying kites, on bikes, on roller blades, running, walking, horseback riding, everything! (It felt like the end of the song "Hello Mutha, Hello Fatha") And yes, you can actually ride horses in the heart of Brooklyn. So I decided to go home, shower up because I actually was sweating for once, and head back out in a tank top, talk about crazy, a month ago it snowed 3 inches and we were wearing parkas!
     Anyway, it was so wonderful to be out, I love summer, I love warmth, I love tank tops, I love sandals (I got to wear my keens!), I couldn't not just go home and stay inside. My walk through the park took me off the regular crowded paths through some of the trails where it gets instantly quiet and away from people. The pond was abuzz with insects and palm warblers to catch and eat them. I also spotted both ruby and golden crowned kinglets, chipping sparrows, song sparrows, handsome male ruddy ducks and the more modest females, a great egret, robins, and red-wing blackbirds singing their little hearts out. The warm weather also brought the turtles out to bask on logs, mostly (maybe even all), red eared sliders, an invasive turtle species, most likely brought here by people no longer wanting them as pets. In the pond does lurk some rather large common snapping turtles, I know because on my old commute to Prospect Park Zoo, I'd move them off the main road, either towards their nest site or back to the water (whichever way they were going) and teach some very astonished and sometimes scared park goers about how awesome snapping turtles are and how they, unlike the sliders, belong here. Maybe I'll make some early morning treks later in spring/early summer to see some of those nesting mamas.
      But for now, enjoy some early summer:

A palm warbler caught a fly on the fly. This guy was very acrobatic and was able to catch his food in the air.

A robin forages along the edge of the pond. 

A male ruddy duck is in his breeding plumage. You just have to love that perfect blue bill. Blue is one of my favorite colors in nature, probably because you really don't come across it too often, at least on terrestrial animals.

Another palm warbler looking for some insects to catch. These guys were all along the pond edge.

Talk about good camouflage... 

This golden crowned kinglet was so tiny and just darting around after gnats. 

Two red eared sliders hang out in the lullwater, where there are far less people around.

This female ruby crowned kinglet gives the look of some serious attitude. The males of this species have a red splash of feathers on top of their head. This kinglet felt so much bigger than the golden crowned, she did sit much closer and didn't flit around too much. 

A chipping sparrow out in the meadow. I love these guys, mostly for their call, it reminds me of the "laser" sound that a kids laser toy would make.

Brooklyn Salt Marsh: Part 2 - Osprey in Love

A female osprey pulls in her talons as she takes off from her nest.

     I love birds of prey, they all have some amazing adaptations. There is something about that keen vision, those huge sharp talons, and the power in their wings that makes them absolutely mesmerizing. Even a red tail hawk will capture my attention, every.single.time. The Marine Park Nature Center had a trail open that loops on the preserve's Eastern side. The trail is just a loop and the last time I visited it was closed, so it was exciting to take a walk down this way. The area the trail covers, borders the Marine Park golf course to its East. There are two platforms set up for osprey to nest on. The one closest to the nature center looked very unoccupied, but further down the trail, the other platform was built up with sticks, debris, and other things collected to build a nest. 

     At first I didn't see any osprey, but then I noticed two dark lumps sitting amongst the tall grasses, on some posts, and it was a pair of Osprey. While I was there I saw them fly to the nest and the male even mounted the female (I guess eggs will be on the way?) and attempted to mate with her. Bird mating is kind of comical because the male, essentially stands on the female's back - he actually flew and landed on her - and does his thing (by the way, most male birds do not have, err, "equipment," so it is a matter of matching up their rear ends - for the sake of not getting too nitty gritty here....) and it's just the most ridiculous looking thing. They attempted to mate twice while I was there, not too sure how successful they were, I'm sure the wind made things challenging. 

     Seeing Osprey around and breeding is such a great thing. Osprey, in their ecosystem, are top predators, nothing really eats them. Being a top predator comes with some baggage though. These birds were one of many animals effected by the use of DDT, a chemical used to eliminate pest insects. Well birds and fish ate the insects, bigger fish and bigger birds ate those, and top predators, like osprey ate them. This results in a phenomenon called, bioaccumulation. Where the concentration of chemicals becomes more and more as you move up the food chain, leaving top predators full of the chemical and leading to various types of problems. For osprey, and many other birds of prey, like bald eagles and peregrine falcons, DDT made their eggs brittle, which resulted in parents literally cracking their own eggs under their weight. When DDT usage ceased, these birds all bounced back without issue, it's amazing how even the littlest thing - some pesticide - effected the greater ecosystem in a huge way.

     The osprey gave me some amazing photos as they were quite active while I watched them. I honestly don't know how long I sat and watched, they were just too cool, and really hard to walk away from. 

The male carries in some nesting material. He had a VERY hard time going the 150 yards or so, the wind was so strong, it even pushed him backwards further than where he started. JFK is not too far from here, so I love that there just happens to be a man made bird in the background of the real thing.

They totally see me spying on them. The female is on the left, the male on the right. I also love raptors because the female birds are not screwing around. They are big, powerful, and she literally watched the male carry that material and arrange it just so in the nest. Good for you, girl! Female raptors tend to be larger than males.

The male, on the right, really shows his exhaustion from carrying that clump of material. His wings were drooped to his side, the wind was really not in his favor.

The male took off and now the female goes out for a flight around the water. Landing gear is being pulled in. Osprey talons are very large for grabbing slippery fish, their feet are also very rough, so they can get a strong grip and not lose their catch. 

This herring gull has some serious nerve to tussle with the female osprey...

Like, honestly dude, were you really going to mess with that??

Yeah, I didn't think so.

Easiest way to identify the osprey in the air, they tend to hold their wings in an open "M" shape, as opposed to bald eagles , which hold their wings straight.

Another cool shot - this time the female has the air plane jet stream in the sky above her

  

Male and female in flight together

The female lands first...

...Then the male. Gosh, I hope he minds his talons.

Cue the Barry White...

This was the second of the two attempted copulations... Is it weird that I find myself cheering them on when I watch? 

And the Male is back in the air.

Female osprey

I didn't see where the male went, this is where I left the female. 

     So, it was pretty exciting watching this osprey pair and now I look forward to coming back and hopeful to see a new generation!