Croton Point
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Winter Sounds
Over all, the wind in the trees, like an overtone. Cardinals chipping. Blue Jays screeching. Two trees, or perhaps trunks of the same, rubbing together. The tapping of a woodpecker. White-thoated Sparrows scratching in the leaves. The gnawing of a squirrel on a nut.
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Little, Big
A Savannah Sparrow (Passerculus sandwichensis) looks somewhat like the Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), but with a shorter tail. There is also usually a yellow cast to the lores. A couple were atop the old landfill at Croton Point recently. I went looking for Bald Eagles. There was a dearth of them for over an hour.…
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Cairns
No rocky place should be left unhonored. The Hudson shore at Croton Point. A weathered piece of old brick, from the kilns that fed the metropolis down-river, contrasts nicely with a downed tree, so like rock itself.
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What a day!
Croton Point Park: as the train pulled in, not a single Bald Eagle was visible in the trees fronting the bay. Uh-oh. I’d promised eagles to the folks I’d dragged up to celebrate my birthday. The absence of ice seemed to be telling; the birds were heading back upriver. When I was there at the…
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Eagle Resurrection
Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) over Croton Point Park. Hugely perched in trees, wheeling in the air on their seven-feet wingspans, primary feathers sticking out like fingers, or powerfully, but not super-speedily, rowing through the air. I was reminded of the giant eagles in Tolkien, deus-ex-machina-ing over and over again to pull Hobbits and wizards out…
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Tender Buttons
These smooth, hard clay nodules are from Croton Point Park, formerly the location of a brick factory. They were sticking out of a large pile of less-clayey material, as if the surrounding had been eroded away by… river, rain, wind, all of the previous? The largest is the diameter of a quarter.This is what the…
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Croton Point
This Red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) was perched near the entrance of Croton Point Park as we entered and then, several hours later, as we left, albeit on the other side of the road. We recognized him by his chest plumage and streaks of russet on the neck. This is a nice walk. We take Metro…
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Field Trip: Croton Point
Croton Point Park is an hour north of the city by train ($18 roundtrip, off-peak). The park itself is just to the west of the Croton-Harmon train station – which inspired this line I donate to Country music gratis, “my heart’s as empty as a commuter parking lot on Sunday” — across a bridge spanning…
Backyard and Beyond 