Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Wild Wildlife: Everybody Loves New York



This Thanksgiving Annie and I visited family and friends in New York. Among our travels, we strolled through Brooklyn to a waterfront park, where I relished in the estuarine nature of the waters around the city and scurried back and forth over the seaweed-covered rocks like an enormous shore crab, searching for other signs of marine (or semi-marine) life.

I found evidence of oysters and barnacles, though no live specimens, and I also saw a diving duck that, predictably, dove every time I tried to photograph or identify it. (I think it was a merganser, though.)

I also saw a small group of brants sculling sedately through the water, to all appearances on a sight-seeing tour of New York City.


How do I know they were tourists rather than simply migrants going about their business? Because they let me take pictures of them in front of the Manhattan skyline, that’s how. They even turned towards me at one point so I could get some portraits.


Finally, after a few more glamour shots, they decided they had to be on their way and headed west towards downtown.

We should have followed their example when it came time for us to get back into the city; the L line was closed for the weekend, and it probably would have taken us less time to swim.




{A note: I do write all text and take all pictures. Please do not reproduce either without my permission.}

3 comments:

NHF said...

Oh no! you mean we missed a chance to see you? :( ARG! (wait, two posts in 1 week, I may lose my lurker status...)

biobabbler said...

"sculling sedately"... that's EXACTLY what brants do. Nicely done.

I find it exceedingly soothing/helpful to locate and stare-at/engulf-myself-in pockets of actual nature, while amid city cement & noise.

=)

Anca said...

This made me laugh and wish I were there! No brants on Lake St. Clair, alas, but plenty of diving ducks. It was such duck weather yesterday that I couldn't go check out the scene, but they could have come to take a swim in the basement, sigh.

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