Marine Park--Southwest 8/6: Another Wreck Added to the Collection

It was like birding a dumbbell today at the salt marsh: A lot of action when I first arrived at the Avenue U end, then  virtually nothing but robins along the stretch of trail that leads to the Gerritsen Beach end, where there was also a lot of satisfying activity. Repeat on the return trip except that by the time I arrived back at Avenue U there were no birds other than a huge flock of starlings.

The channel was being heavily used today by speedboats (illegally, natch) and I'd like to blame them for scaring away a lot of birds--though it seems that some birds like oystercatchers, gulls and the lone Great Egret I saw perched on a piling, are impervious to the disturbance of the motor craft and water skiers. Still, there weren't a lot of birds in the water waiting to get smashed.
30 species today--happy to see skimmers, oystercatchers, and plovers.

Mute Swan  2
Mallard  16
Double-crested Cormorant  1
Great Blue Heron  1
Great Egret  1
Semipalmated Plover  6
Killdeer  2
American Oystercatcher  5
Greater/Lesser Yellowlegs  1    
Semipalmated Sandpiper  2
Least Sandpiper  1
Laughing Gull  10
Ring-billed Gull  1
Herring Gull  25
Least Tern  1
Forster's Tern  2
Black Skimmer  3
Mourning Dove  10
American Crow  5
Northern Rough-winged Swallow  1
Barn Swallow  11
American Robin  30
Gray Catbird  4
Northern Mockingbird  7
Brown Thrasher  2
European Starling  110
Yellow Warbler  1
Song Sparrow  2
Northern Cardinal  3
Boat-tailed Grackle  1
House Sparrow  5
On the beach a new wreck has been added to the collection, hard up against the wreck that has been there for years and that now looks like its metal is crumbling into the ground--wouldn't want the spot to go unoccupied. Remember: This is a city park!  Hey Bloomberg, how about throwing the Parks Department a few bucks so they can tow this crap out of there--you know they're always whining about lack of funds. Pretend for a minute that it's Central Park. 

Glyphs from the indigenous people of the marsh

And just so that it is not forgotten:
SMART CAR WRECK
WEEK #9