evening field trip

 
i met greg after work at 6 pm on pier 26, the tide deck.

hudson river park staff . . 

 

i noticed today when walking milly in the park, that there would be a guided tour out on the edge of the engineered marsh they had created to bolster native plant and wildlife.

tolland was our guide and he explained the different tiers the park had created (completed in 2020) to represent the original ecological community that flourished here for hundreds of years before manhattan island was settled by europeans in the early 1600's. here he is explaining how the boulders were placed to create the rocky tidal zone, along with plantings of smooth cordgrass, spartina alterniflora, which acts as a stabilizer to help control erosion along coastlines. it was currently low tide, so there were a few laughing gulls strutting around on the rocks.

looking east, away from the river toward the area on land labeled the maritime scrub, which is the first defense against rising tides and coastal flooding.

looking south . .

heading back to the maritime scrub and coastal grassland zones. the woodland forest would be the furthest inland, if it still existed.

a path through the coastal scrubland, planted with wildflowers, yarrow, goldenrod, milkweed and little bluestem grass (schizachyrium scoparium). the birds we heard and saw today were the song sparrow and northern mockingbird. 

i didn't realize that the eastern prickly pear cactus, opuntia humifusa, was native to our region (from florida to massachusetts).

there was a lot of milkweed to attract the monarchs.

we took a walk on the upper deck . . 

to look back and see where we were.

looking south with the statue of liberty a tiny dot in the distance.

looking north to the kayakers . . 

and looking west toward new jersey.

walking home along the river. the weather has been less humid and much more comfortable.