Reader nolastname was wandering about yesterday morning, and watched as the beautiful weather kicked off with an awesome sunrise. She saw this crane at work in the Marine Park Salt Marsh. Snazzy…
Archive for the tag 'nature'
Those of you who always wanted to be environmentalists when you grew up, here’s your chance. You won’t even have to leave Brooklyn.
You may already be aware of the phenomena called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) that is wiping out bee colonies in North America.
It’s not something that we usually give much thought to, here in Sheepshead Bay, where we’re usually more concerned about our favorite fish. But around the rest of New York, others are interested in bees and not just for their honey. While the disappearing bees phenomena grows, so does the phenomena of concrete jungle beekeeping meeetup groups.
They’re generally called Urban beekeepers, NYC Rooftop beekepers, or Keepers of the Hidden Hives. But, whatever you call them, they are dedicated to doing their part to encourage an ecologically balanced horticultural system and they understand the part that bees play in that delicate system.
The Flatbush Gardener tells us that there is an opportunity for every city dweller to get involved in the effort to understand the plight to help stop the blight of bees. The site lists the call for public awareness and volunteers as follows (some links added):
The Great Pollinator Project, a joint effort of the Greenbelt Native Plant Center and the Center for Biodiversity and Conservation, is recruiting volunteers for 2009 to record and report observations of native bee species in New York City. They are conducting orientations over the next week from 6-8pm at the following locations:
Brooklyn: Monday, June 8th at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 1000 Washington Avenue
Staten Island: Tuesday, June 9th at Greenbelt Nature Center, 700 Rockland Avenue
Bronx: Tuesday, June 9th at Van Cortlandt House Museum, Van Cortlandt Park
Queens: Wednesday, June 10th at Alley Pond Environmental Center (APEC) 228-06 Northern Blvd.
Manhattan: Tuesday, June 16th at Central Park, North Meadow Recreation Center (Off of 97th St. Transverse Road)You can RSVP online , by emailing beewatchers [at] gmail [dot] com or by calling 718-370-9044.
So, let’s get bee-zy and watch the bay bees — before digital animations are the only ones we have left.
Even though, the designated day to celebrate Earth Day is April 22, special activities that draw attention to preserving the Earth happen all week and into the weekend.
This coming Sunday at Marine Park, there will be some special events commemorating this year’s Earth Day.
Here are the details of the New York City Parks Department-sponsored events as taken from the website:
Earth Day Event & Celebration
Sunday, April 26, 2009
10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Celebrate Mother Earth with a day of good deeds. Great opportunity for community service! Tools and gloves provided.
Celebrate the four elements of Earth with the Brooklyn Dance Center Ensemble, and enjoy a late afternoon filled with dancing and inspirational songs sung by August Michael.
Schedule:
10 a.m. Park clean up
11 a.m. Dance and afternoon song
12 p.m. Nature craft
2 p.m. Ecology hike
Location: Marine Park: Salt Marsh Nature Center, Marine Park (East 33rd Street and Avenue U)
More Information: (718) 421-2021
(Photo of the Dark-eyed Junco bird courtesy of Wikipedia)
Dillon de Give, an artist living and working in Brooklyn, extends an invitation to everyone to attend a free and very creative protest/birdwatching event this Saturday, 11/22/08. To send the message about how detrimental it will be for our local birds for six artificial grass turf soccer fields to be put in place at Calvert Vaux Park (a.k.a., Dreier-Offerman Park).
The event is entitled “Hello My Name is Dark-eyed Junco” – A Birdwatching Adventure and here is how it is described in the press release on the Implausibot website:
Junco examines the identity of the bird watcher in nature. The play will begin in a decentralized fashion at various stations around the park that humorously “teach” people about birding- transforming the entire area into a kind of military base configuration of psychic avian awareness. The audience will then come together and use the skills they’ve learned in an actual bird-watching tour.
Check for details about these events after the jump.
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