SHEEPSHEAD BAY'S ONLY INDEPENDENT NEWS BLOG

Source: National Parks Service

Hundreds of horseshoe crabs invaded the subtle slopes of Plumb Beach’s shoreline in their own sex-fueled, prehistoric rendition of the Allied invasion of Normandy last week, as horseshoe crab mating season kicked off on Thursday, April 25.

The National Parks Service snapped the photo above of some of the crabs getting down and dirty. The animals have been taking to soft-sloped beaches of the mid-Atlantic during the spring’s new and full moons for 400 million years, one of the few living species known to predate the earliest dinosaurs. Female crabs come ashore and deposit up to 20,000 eggs each, followed by a handful of males clinging to their tails and fertilizing the eggs in their wake.

The crabs come up in late April, May, and throughout June – just before high tide or long after sunset – during full and new moons. You can see them around the following dates:

• Thursday, April 25, 2013 (Full Moon)
• Friday, May 10 (New Moon)
• Saturday, May 25 (Full Moon)
• Saturday, June 8 (New Moon)
• Sunday, June 23 (Full Moon)
• Saturday. July 6 (New Moon)
• Monday, July 22 (Full Moon)
• Wednesday, August 7 (New Moon)
• Wednesday, August 21 (Full Moon)

Also, check out this video Sheepshead Bites made back in 2010, when the American Littoral Society’s Don Riepe showed us around the beach and the horseshoe crab’s mating practices. Yes, it has bifurcated penises.

Source: CUNY Institute for Sustainable Cities / Flickr

Volunteers are wanted to help celebrate the upcoming Earth Day by helping to clean up marine debris at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in Queens, April 20 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. You can get there via public transportation on the Q52/53 buses.

The cleanup will require moderate physical exertion, so be prepared to flex those muscles. You should dress for the weather — wear long pants, long sleeves, sturdy shoes and bring a pair (or more) of work gloves.

Anyone can help out and groups are welcome too. Registration is required — call (718) 318-4340 to sign up.

Jamaica Bay Pipeline Source: Williams

After months of protests, legal wrangling and more last-minute protests, the controversial Jamaica Bay Pipeline project is now in construction. According to a report by Gotham Gazette, construction on the 1.6 mile pipeline that stretches underneath Jacob Riis Park and ends at a meter and regulating station positioned at Floyd Bennett Field is now officially underway, much to the consternation of opponents who believe the pipeline could pose an environmental hazard.

While officials at National Grid have stated that the actual drilling has yet to commence, preparatory work for construction has already begun. Eventually, National Grid will connect the pipeline to the planned gas meter and regulating station located in a hanger at Floyd Bennett Field. The gas lines will service customers in Brooklyn and Queens. The project links the National Grid delivery system with Transco Williams’s offshore feeder.

While environmentalists have protested the pipeline, citing potential harm to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, local animal life and danger to residents from potential hazards, as well as industrializing a national park, National Grid promised that the line would actually be good for the environment.

“Each conversion is equivalent to taking 15 cars off the road for a year,” the Gotham Gazette reported the company saying.

The first phase of the construction effort is expected to be completed by May.

Source: NASA via Wikimedia Commons

It looks like Coley, the famous osprey, might be giving the slip to the scientists that track the Jamaica Bay bird’s every move. According to a blog update posted by Coley’s trackers, the majestic bird’s GPS transmitter straps have become loose, necessitating their removal so he can stay safe.

A few week’s ago, we updated you on Coley’s long flight from his winter vacation spot in South America back to his home in Jamaica Bay. So far, Coley’s loose straps have not interfered with his ability to fly, fish and mate, but scientists do not want to risk putting Coley through more potential stress by reattaching another device to his body.

After they remove Coley’s futuristic gear, they will be looking for a new osprey to track and study, freeing Coley from his suffocating celebrity status.

Source: NASA via Wikimedia Commons

We’ve been passing along updates from the National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy on the movements of the wondrous Coley, the Osprey who makes his summer home in Jamaica Bay. And now, it seems, the year-long cycle has just about wrapped up, with Coley and his mate back in the Jamaica Bay area.

Scientists tracking Coley first observed that his mate had returned to Jamaica Bay a few days before Coley. She was probably busy preparing their nest while Coley was sightseeing somewhere in Virginia.

Coley finally made it home this week and the scientists tracking him teased us with what’s in store for the bird.

Coley, our amazing avian traveler, completed his northward migration yesterday, March 20th.  He fittingly arrived at Jamaica Bay on the first day of spring and was quickly reunited with his mate.

We’ll continue to keep an eye on his travels and re-acclimation to the Bay. Although there are many exciting possibilities on the horizon (eggs! chicks! summer fishing!), for now let’s all say a hearty congratulations to this amazing bird.

Coley’s journey home via jamaicabayosprey.org

Source: Howard N2GOT / Flickr

The Gateway National Recreation Area announced the state of their recovery following the destruction left by Superstorm Sandy late last October.

Many parks have already re-opened for the summer season, including the campgrounds at Floyd Bennett Field, which opened March 1, while even more are slated for spring openings. Here is a rundown of what’s open and what’s set to open, courtesy of the Gateway National Recreation Area’s release:

The following areas of the park are already open to the public; Fort Wadsworth, Great Kills Park (with the exception of Crooke’s Point), the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, Floyd Bennett Field, Frank Charles Park and Hamilton Beach. The park is pleased to be able to announce more opening dates.

… To make a reservation at any of our camp sites please visit www.recreation.gov. Some fishing areas are already open, others, such as Crooke’s Point will open soon. Unfortunately some fishing areas won’t be open this year due to safety issues. 2012 fishing permits will be honored through March 31st, and 2013 permits will be available after March 15th. Most guarded beach areas will open as normal for the summer season, Memorial Day Weekend.

Riis Park will open Memorial Day weekend (May 25-27, 2013). Fort Tilden Beach will be closed this summer due to safety concerns, but the facilities in Fort Tilden, including the Rockaway Little League, will be open for the summer. The Breezy Point Tip access road remains closed until it can be regraded. Canarsie Pier remains closed until an engineering study can be done.

Source: 10000birds.com

If you are unemployed, between the ages of 18 and 24, and looking for a good paying job, than this may be the opportunity for you. The New York City Department of Parks and Recreation is hiring 200 people to help with the “clean-up, restoration, and reconstruction of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge,” according to a post on Workforce1. The job is full-time and will pay employees $11 per hour.

It is preferred that the candidates live near the Jamaica Bay area but all applicants from NYC will be considered.

No formal education is required. These are the tasks the website stated would be preformed by workers:

• Working with NYCParks’ Natural Resources Group (NRG) and Natural Area Volunteers (NAV) to restore natural areas, woodlands, wetlands, and parkland in and around the Jamaica Bay Area
• Removal of tree debris, tree care, and potential new tree planting
• Trail creation and restoration
• Removal of wood, metals, docks, concrete, housing, boats, and other inorganic floatables from the sand areas inJamaicaBaypark
• Community outreach and educational efforts including needs surveys, customer satisfaction assessments, and interventions for residents of surrounding areas

All applications must be submitted today!

To apply fill out the form here.

Thanks to Councilman Lew Fidler’s office for tipping us off to this.

Source: allairports.net

Jamaica Bay is one of Mother Nature’s precious jewels, filling our lives with wondrous natural fauna and cute little baby ducks.

An airport is the polar opposite.

Airports are environmental hazard zones, spewing pollution, chemicals and other toxins into the wide-open spaces they have trampled in their wake. There isn’t much to be done to fight the necessary evil that airports bring to the environment, but the Wild Wilderness Project is doing its best to bring environmental awareness into the airports themselves, according to a report by E Magazine.

The Wild Wilderness Project’s goal is to broadcast the “pulse of nature” surrounding airports into the complexes themselves. For example, they recently set up shop at the Mineta San Jose Airport in California’s Silicon Valley, filling the facility with large and beautiful real-time images of local wilderness that surrounds the airport.

The presentation isn’t just installed for aesthetic reasons. Scientists and programmers behind the project are studying and marking down the effects that climate change has on the region, and synthesizing the results via time-lapse photography for traveling passengers, bringing a critical sense of environmental awareness to peoples’ psyches.

“The project isn’t really about the raw statistics of climate change, such as carbon dioxide emissions,” project artist Freya Bardell told E Magazine. “We’re more about capturing nature’s pulse and making that pulse accessible to the public.”

It’s a fascinating work that would be perfect for JFK Airport, especially considering its proximity to the wonders of Jamaica Bay. As we recently reported, the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is holding its own photo exhibit documenting the impact of Superstorm Sandy on the region, highlighting the fast-evolving impact that the environment is having on the region.

It would be interesting if the Wild Wilderness Project could coordinate with the Wildlife Refuge and broadcast the results straight into the airport, bringing awareness to the millions of people that use JFK every year.

I think it’s a good idea – do you?

Photo by John Noble, courtesy of John Warren

A fascinating and revealing photo exhibit is being unveiled at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Queens next week, detailing Superstorm Sandy’s impact on the Gateway National Recreation Area.

The exhibit, dubbed, “Hurricane Sandy: Before and After,” will open on Sunday, January 27, between 3 and 5 p.m. It features photographs taken by National Park Service (NPS) employees in a large format, two feet by three feet, detailing Sandy’s destruction on the park.

“While these pictures demonstrate damage, the take-away message should not be one of doom and gloom, but rather one of resilience,” stated Superintendent Linda Canzanelli in a press release. “There is still a lot of work to do and some things have changed forever. But the park is reopening, the natural areas will rebound and park visitors will be welcomed back.”

The extensive photography undertaken by NPS employees was part of the greater recovery effort which also included clearing road, moving sand and moving trees. The effort to stabilize the area after the events of Sandy has been described as the largest incident response in National Park history.

If you’d like to see the exhibit when it opens on January 27, head over to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge Visitor center located at 1oo Cross Bay Boulevard in Queens. The exhibit will be open daily, free of charge from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., until the end of March.

Source: NASA via Wikimedia Commons

Coley the osprey, the majestic bird being tracked via GPS by a group of scientists, is not home right now. The lucky guy is sunning himself in tropical Colombia, hunting his prey while the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge is frosted over, according to an update by the team tracking Coley’s exploits.

While we all might be jealous of Coley, whose life is a constant amazing journey of flying on his own wings between wondrous habitats, we ground-anchored mortals can content ourselves by checking out Coley’s New York summer home while he is away for the winter.

Ranger Colleen Sorbera gives us some stirring insight on the conditions at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge this winter.

If you’re willing to brave the cold, a midwinter walk through the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge can be a beautiful escape from city life.  If you’re lucky, a dusting of snow will lend an air of enchantment to the scene, and the wonders of nature are never far away here.Though many birds (including our osprey Coley) are enjoying the southern skies and chipmunks are resting underground, lots of wildlife remains to be discovered.  Cardinals, house finches, sparrows, and juncos cluster at the bird feeder behind the Visitor Center.  Flocks of starlings fill the branches of one tree at a time, chattering to each other before flying off all at once.  A great blue heron, a regular winter sight, is also a reminder of summer days.  A bald eagle was reported just last week soaring silently overhead.