Salt Marsh Nature Center--Abandoned Cars

Shari took her mother on a brief cruise to celebrate her mother's birthday, so I'm birding solo for a few days.

Since I don't like to go to Prospect Park on a summer weekend (too crowded and crazy), I decided to get adventurous and go someplace in Brooklyn where I might see some shorebirds. I took the F to Avenue U and then boarded a B3 bus which took me all the way out to Marine Park area. For me to take a bus in the middle of Brooklyn really is an adventure. Generally, I don't trust buses--they can go anywhere, unlike trains which travel on a straight line, making it easy to retrace your route.

Carved out of Marine Park along Gerrittsen Creek is the Salt Marsh Nature Center. Unfortunately, most of the center's trails in the main section have been closed by the Army Corps of Engineers--imagine my surprise. Fortunately, on the western side of the creek I found that there are extensive trails through marsh and forest habitat. I wound up walking, through a zig-zag pattern down to where the mouth of the creek meets Gerrittsen Beach--I'd estimate about 2 miles as the crow flies, but with all the detours I took, probably more than 3 miles walking there and another 2 on the way back.

The trails are for the most part empty--I met a couple of fishermen along the way. The trails are also a dumping ground for automobiles. It looks like the idea is to drive your clunker along one of the trails as far as it will go before getting stuck in the sand or muck and then simply abandon it. Setting it afire is optional.

In the haze, in the background, is the Manhattan skyline.

The denizens of this area also seem to be following a scorched earth policy--I came across lots of burnt areas where the ground was completely black. The plant life seems to hold on or regenerate, but it doesn't look healthy.

This is just a weird area of Brooklyn to me--the part I see from the Belt, all the creeks and inlets feeding into Jamaica Bay--I always think when we're passing over it, "Wow, lot of good habitat down there." Ironically, we're turning our former dumps into nature refuges while our nature refuges...you get the point.

I didn't see a lot of species today and a few were a little too skulky to identify, but I was happy to find Least Sandpipers, the waxwings, and the thrasher.
SALT MARSH NATURE CENTER
Number of species:     25
Double-crested Cormorant     8
Great Egret     2
Snowy Egret     1
Spotted Sandpiper     2
Least Sandpiper     2
Laughing Gull     10
Herring Gull     50
Great Black-backed Gull     2
Rock Pigeon     5
Mourning Dove     15
Chimney Swift     10
American Crow     7
Barn Swallow     4
American Robin     10
Gray Catbird     13
Northern Mockingbird     5
Brown Thrasher     1
European Starling     100
Cedar Waxwing     2
Yellow Warbler     2
warbler sp.     1
Song Sparrow     3
Swamp Sparrow     1
Northern Cardinal     4
Common Grackle     2
House Sparrow     50