Yesterday’s bone-cold weather created an interesting phenomenon that made it look like the Upper Harbor was smoking. The combination of very cold air, zero on the Fahrenheit scale and feeling even colder because of the wind, and the warmer water made for a kind of low level fog clumping and billowing on the blue harbor. It moved slowly, or so it seemed from up here on the Harbor Hill Moraine.
On Saturday, we walked down the hill to Bush Terminal Park, which abuts the harbor. It was half sunny and half cloudy when we began from 6th Avenue, but we could see that the New Jersey distance had greyed out. At 2nd Avenue a few pieces of snow started to pummel us, mixed with grit from a pile of dirt in an empty lot. It tasted awful. At 1st Avenue, visibility was about two blocks. By the time we got to the park entrance, the mini blizzard drove at us hard. But it passed quickly, first Jersey City becoming visible, then Manhattan. By the time we walked back up hill, the sun was shining in a blue sky.
There was only one car in the park’s parking lot. We saw nobody in the micro-blizzard, but as it cleared a half dozen people on the larger pier became visible. They had spotting scopes. Our people, the only ones out on a cold day, searching for ducks and gulls: the Brooklyn Bird Club. I’ll be leading a walk for them March 26.
Backyard and Beyond 
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