Blue Goose ~ Day 92

August 31, 2014 ~ Basking Hill, MJ to East Meadow, NY

There were five NWRs on Long Island that I planned to visit, but I was not looking forward to the travel necessary to get to them. In fact, I had been dreading it the whole trip so far.  Still, Sunday noon was probably a good time to go.

It was in the high 80s and humid; there was an accident on the Verrazano bridge so two lanes were closed resulting in major congestion and slow-downs; I was low on gas and the warning light was on; and I learned about the lane-changing mania of east coast drivers...lane changes at high speeds with some type A drivers even sort of drifting diagonally across three of four lanes trying to find the one moving the fastest. But there were also courteous drivers, allowing room for merging, which everyone does constantly. One gets used to traffic like this (I guess). And then, the tolls with lanes for EZ passes versus Cash versus Exact Change, specifically posted as to lane, but then the lanes would change as one approached the toll booths. Tolls ranged from 50 cents to $15.00; however, I finally got onto Long Island and headed for Jamaica Bay just west of JFK International Airport. 

I subscribe to a birding listserv called 10,000 Birds and one of the owners posts frequently from Jamaica Bay. Since I was here, I decided to check it out. It's a large bay protected by highly developed barrier beaches called The Rockaways to the south. At the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge (not a NWR exactly and under the aegis of the National Park Service), I got a map and decided I would walk to the East Pond across the street but had to hurry as a storm was brewing, bright yellow on radar and headed my way.  I wasn't dressed for this venue AT ALL. It was like a jungle with canes and mud. I had flip-flops on and stubbed my toe hard on something when I half tripped.

East Pond access - Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge - NY

So I aborted this effort to see what turned out to be great shorebirds which I discovered as I read this report the next day on 10,000 birds where the writer saw 15 species of shorebirds but in the process he also says:

When I finally took myself away from the dowitchers I scanned north and spotted a young Bald Eagle feeding on a duck. As I watched it took off and flew a bit north on the pond and hid behind some reeds. I kept that in mind as I continued north through a zone of no shorebirds, probably spooked by the giant predator that had been there. So I picked up the pace a bit even though I was in a bunch of pretty squishy mud. Then my right boot got stuck and my forward momentum carried my sock-clad foot right out of the boot. I tried to get my tripod down to catch my weight but it was too late. My foot went into the mud. Grossness. Then I had to get my foot out of the mud and back into the boot all while not falling over or dropping optics into the goop. I managed to get it done but in the process kicked up some mud into the other boot too. Now both feet were covered in mud inside of my boots. There was nothing for it but to continue north and look for more birds! 

The storm was imminent and I trudged back along the very littered sidewalk to the parking lot where I decided to head in a roundabout fashion toward Oyster Bay NWR on the north shore of Long Island which I planned to go the next day. But, instead of going back north, I went south to the Rockaway area and got turned around, in and out of iffy neighborhoods, huge firetrucks and emergency vehicles screaming up behind me, occasional rain on the windshield, fretting, trying to get directions from my iPhone, through Queens and Brooklyn... I kept stupidly expecting nice quet resort areas with manageable crowds and traffic; not 10,000 cars everywhere and ALWAYS one right smack behind me and not gracious about any hesitation on my part.

But I slowly made my way to East Meadow and sat in the hot van while it rained intermittently but hard enough I had to close my windows. It was not a 24-hour Walmart and, for the first time, I woke up to a security guy tapping with his flashlight on my window: "Ma'am what's going on here?" So I tried to explain, and he told me that Walmart "rents" this parking lot and that he would let me stay another "two hours" but then I would have to leave. It was 1:00 in the morning, so he wanted me to leave at 3 a.m. Great, but I did, driving aimlessly about for 30 minutes, wondering if I could get by with parking on a residential street, deciding against that as the houses were all well lit, like it was 9:00 at night which, I suppose, is a security thing. I ended up in a 24-hour CVS parking lot whereupon someone immediately began the noisy machine cleaning, making passes close to my car, and I fully expected to be told to leave again, but no one came and I slept....after a fashion.

Stormy skies at Jamaica Wildlife Refuge - NY