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: 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

The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Source: Howard N2GOT / Flickr

Dan Hendrick is a Queens-based environmental activist producing a film called “Jamaica Bay Lives,” and he is about $400 dollars short of raising the funds needed to complete his project.

Speaking to the Queens Chronicle, Hendrick summarized the goal and importance of his project:

Hurricane Sandy is a wake-up call for our nation about the importance of preparing for a changing climate. Many people are now homeless or struggling to find ways to pay for repairs. The Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge has been permanently altered. The subway line that connects Jamaica Bay to the rest of New York City was seriously damaged and won’t open for months. The very future of the bay and those who call it home is a giant question mark.

Please help us document these pivotal moments and draw attention to the importance of saving Jamaica Bay.

To contribute online to Hendrick’s project, visit his website at ioby.org/project/jamaica-bay-lives or email him for more information at jamaicabaylives@gmail.com.

Source: Google Maps/ www.jamaicabayosprey.org

As part of a two-year research project, scientists at the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge outfitted a male osprey named Coley with a GPS device in order to follow him on his hunting trips during the summer and his migration down south in the winter. What culminated in the first year is an eye-opening discovery in the life of Coley, the Osprey.

The satellite tracker – you can see Coley being fitted with the device here, in a series of videos – will allow scientists to follow Coley’s hunting trips and his yearly migrations to the Caribbean or South America. The solar-powered pack weighs one ounce and provides the ability to collect data on the bird’s location, speed and “directionality.”

During the summer, Coley spent his time in Jamaica Bay, incubating his eggs, raising his offspring and hunting fish for them in the waters nearby. This information was on-hand from previous observations of other birds at the refuge.

However, during the migration months, scientists had little to no knowledge of the osprey lifestyle. Tracking Coley has shown scientists several intriguing aspects of the osprey’s life.

Here are some highlights:

Coley has set the stage for a picture perfect migration, departing Jamaica Bay on Monday at about 9:40 a.m. on September 10, and reaching a point 50 miles south southeast of Orlando, Florida by 7 p.m. on September 13. Over 1,000 miles in four days!

Coley has made it from Jamaica Bay to Cuba, over 1,350 miles, in just six days of flying.  He flew the last 80 or so miles in the dark over the Straits of Florida, hitting land about 30 miles east of Havana. By late Sunday night he had settled in central Cuba, about 100 miles further east, after a fairly short day of migration.

Has Coley reached his wintering home [in Colombia]? Whenever an Osprey stops in one place for more than a day or two during migration, we begin to think that he has reached his wintering home. Since he has been on the west side of the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta or more accurately in the Ciénaga Pajaral (or loosely translated as the Bird Marsh) for the last five days, there is a good chance that he has. He could also be resting and recuperating from his more than 2,600 miles of travels since he left home on September 10th.

Dr. Bob Kennedy, who is the voice of the osprey journey, and other researchers involved hope this project will encourage us to “become more aware of the nature that can be found outside of our windows, even in the most densely populated city in the country.”

As for Coley, we’ll have to wait and see how he makes it back to his home at the refuge.

From the American Littoral Society: The NY Chapter of the American Littoral Society is dedicated to preserving, restoring and enhancing the estuaries of NYC and helping to make the coast line of NYC hospitable to marine life. They’re involved in many projects from planting marshes, cleaning beaches and the coastline, removing derelict boats from the bay and debris from the nesting sites of horseshoe crabs. In addition, they offer a host of educational programs about the wildlife and fauna of the bay. They also have raptor management programs and band barn owls and osprey’s in the bay.

In this video, you get a glimpse of their barn owl banding project in Jamaica Bay.

Over the last 50 years, the barn owl has become a species of concern, as their population is dwindling. However, thanks to the nest boxes provided by the American Littoral Society, and the many rodents in the area, the barn owl population in NYC’s Jamaica Bay is thriving.

One of the original proposals for Four Sparrows Shopping Center.

Community Board 18 will present new plans for the Four Sparrow Marsh area, a sliver of parkland in Mill Basin that may be turned over to commercial developers for a shopping center.

The meeting will take place tomorrow, January 18, at 8:00 p.m. in the Kings Plaza Community Room (enter near the garage on Flatbush Avenue; the community room is to your right).

It was about this time last year that we first wrote about the Four Sparrow Marsh, a nature preserve near Kings Plaza that the city was considering developing into a shopping mall. A key component of the plan includes a commercial building to go on the left side of the existing Toys “R” Us building, housing Kristal Auto Mall. That building will house the dealership, showroom and the service space, and there are also plans to expand an existing marina.

On the other side of Toys “R” Us is where the controversy emerged. Two options were being considered. The first was for two commercial structures that would house multiple commercial tenants. The second option was for one large commercial structure that would house one tenant. They’re also planning on-site parking for approximately 820 vehicles.

Continue Reading »

One of the proposed plans for Four Sparrows Shopping Center.

Plans to build a shopping center with ties to indicted State Senator Carl Kruger on a city-owned nature preserve near Kings Plaza have been terminated by the developer.

Continue Reading »

An American White Pelican lives the good life at Jamaica Bay. Source: 10000birds.com

Living here in Sheepshead Bay, one is not necessarily exposed on a regular basis to a diverse plethora of exotic avian wildlife. Although we have pigeons, seagulls, ducks and swans — Lord knows we have swans — and are even graced with the occasional wayward Toucan (at least I think that is what it is), we are by no means a bird watchers’ paradise.

Fret not, budding Ornithologists — the American Littoral Society, Gateway National Park Service, NYC Audubon, and NYC Sierra Club are here to help! From a press release they sent our way:

Announcing a special 3-hour narrated sunset tour of Jamaica Bay aboard the Golden Sunshine. Learn about the history and ecology of the bay and see nesting & migrating hawks, Peregrine Falcons, Oystercatchers, Ospreys, Herons, Egrets, Ibis, shorebirds and waterfowl.

The tour will be led by Don Riepe, Guardian of Jamaica Bay and director of the Northeast Chapter of American Littoral Society and Mickey Cohen, noted local marine biologist. The tour is $45.00 per person and includes wine, cheese, fruit, and snacks. The tour will depart on September 25 from Sheepshead Bay, Pier 2 (Emmons Ave. and Bedford Ave, Brooklyn) at 4:00 pm. To reserve, send a check for $45/person to: American Littoral Society, c/o Don Riepe, 28 West 9th Road, Broad Channel, NY 11693.

The cruise is a cooperative program with the American Littoral Society, Gateway National Park Service, NYC Audubon, and NYC Sierra Club.

To learn more, go to www.alsnyc.org, call (718) 318-9344 or email donriepe@gmail.com.