As if we need another reason to complain about reckless bicyclists on the streets of Brooklyn – not only do they put their own lives at risk in order to make the city a less polluted and traffic congested place, but they kill trees!
Not by crashing into them – this is a slower more painful death. Apparently trees, those things with green leaves, are mistaken for bike racks. And blame it on forgetfulness or rust or stolen parts, whatever the reason, many bikes are abandoned attached to trees.
As the trees continues to grow they literally get choked by the chains that becomes tighter and tighter around the trunks, a fatal process called girdling.
One Brooklyn man is sick and tired of seeing these soon to be suffocated trees and began the Treedom Project to save them. He needs your help!
If you see an old rusty clunker chained to a tree, report it. On Sunday May 26th, Rob and his team of DIY tree heros will be cutting the locks off reported bikes.
I met up with tree vigilante Rob Birdsong and his big hound dog Bo on the corner of Moultre St and Norman Ave in Greenpoint to take a look at a reported tree. A rusty bike with flattened tires, unrideable after a rough winter, was left chained to the tree. It’s clear this cyclist doesn’t care about his bike – or the tree. And right around the corner we found another tree choking bike.
Birding season is upon us! Our feathery friends are returning from their winter vacations and making nests and making babies!
Man, I wish I didn’t have to go to dumb work or I’d be checking out birds on the Maspeth Creek (49th St & Maspeth Ave), tomorrow Friday April 26th, 2013 at 1pm hosted by Newtown Creek Alliance and Department of Environmental Conservation.
During the wildlife viewing announcements will be about the release of New York Wildlife Viewing Guide, Newtown Creek Alliance Bird Guide and the 2013 Birdwatching Canoe Trip Season with North Brooklyn Boat Club.
Everyone goes nuts about the Cherry Blossoms, but the true stunners are the Magnolia Trees, which make the most glorious giant pink and white flowers that only last a week. My last apartment in Greenpoint had a huge Magnolia in the yard and when it bloomed last spring we had a punch party to celebrate. These photos are dedicated to my Mom and Dad who took me to Brooklyn Botanic Gardens an infinite amount of times as a kid.
Do we all agree that spring sucks this year? Those electric blue skies, humping brown birds, bursting daffodils and even blooming cherry blossoms – but the damn cold won’t quit! Spring, stop sleeping in and get up and go to work! What a lazy season.
Share you Greenpoint snaps with us tag #greenpointers @greenpointers on Instagram.
I got an exciting email from K, who works at Martin Luther School in Maspeth. Yesterday, what she believed was a hawk joined the students for lunch, enjoying a freshly hunted seagull. After taking a look at the photo and seeing the distinct eye marking and dark head, I believe that this is a Peregrine Falcon.
Why is this bird so awesome? “The Peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 322 km/h (200 mph) during its characteristic hunting stoop (high speed dive), making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom.” (Wiki.) What a sighting! It might be suspicious to lurk around the school grounds with binoculars, but I need to get a look at this bird! Great shot, K!
Sometime, just one moment can set your day on the right course. This Cooper’s Hawk, the same I believe that we watched last year around this time stuffing its face with a pigeon was spotted this morning squawking loudly in the same tree. What an amazing Greenpoint morning!
In a span of a few days we saw some pretty cool birds in McGolrick Park. After we went on an epic birding expedition to Owl’s Head Park in Bayridge, Brooklyn, we took a stroll through McGolrick to pick up veggies at the Farmers Market. Of course, I left the big lens at home.
Yellow Bellied Sapsucker
We call that lens the anti-bird lens because when we don’t bring it we end up seeing awesome birds, like the time in Pennsylvania when we saw the Pileated Woodpecker, which is a giant woodpecker. But I’d rather see the bird than take its picture.
Yellow Rumped Warbler
On Sunday 10/14/12, we saw a Black Throated Blue Warbler pissing off a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. It seemed as if the sapsucker was trying to stick food into little holes he made in the tree and the little sneaky warbler was just going right up and stealing the food. What a little jerk!
Brown Creeper
Yesterday, 10/17/12, on my morning coffee walk through the park (I have a serious addiction to Variety cappuccinos) I saw a little brown creeper and a yellow rumped warbler.
Keep your eyes open and let us know what interesting birds you spot around Greenpoint this Fall.
The fun part about birding is finding a bird when you aren’t even looking for one. I was admiring a beautiful tree in McGolrick Park which Jon identified as a Willow Oak when we saw some rustling on one of the branches. At first I thought it was a woodpecker because it was pecking at the branches but upon closer inspection we identified it as a White Breasted Nuthatch. It was pretty twitchy and fast, and according to All About Birds, “they get their common name from their habit of jamming large nuts and acorns into tree bark, then whacking them with their sharp bill to “hatch” out the seed from the inside.”
On our way back from morning coffee Jon caught sight of the cutest little plump warbler in the grass. Warblers are basically the most difficult birds to identify, there is even a group called the Confusing Fall Warblers. We think it was a Mourning Warbler. We found this photo from Marie Winn’s Central Park Nature Blog
What a birdy morning coffee walk!
Have you seen any interesting birds in Greenpoint lately?
Jon and I have been slacking on our bird watching. But today we saw three amazing birds in our Greenpoint backyard. The most beautiful of which was a Baltimore Oriole. Up until now, I believed the most gorgeous bird to be the Cardinal, but the Oriole wins this beauty contest hands down. I have never in my life seen such a striking shade of orange. The damn bird gave me goose bumps. It was such a stunner.
Photo from Animal.Discovery.comFrom Birdsasart.com
We also were lucky enough to spot a Yellow Warbler (left) and an American Red Start (right), all while we were eating lasagna for breakfast!
Keep your eyes open for lots of cool birds visiting Brooklyn as their migrations begin.
Have you seen any unusual birds in Brooklyn? What is your favorite bird?
MillionTreesNYC is giving away a gift card to home depot and an official NYC Parks tree bed plaque to the tree steward who pimps out their tree bed. It is easy to enter, just upload a photo of your tricked out tree bed to their facebook page. The deadline is August 3rd, 2012.
Trees on your block are simple to care for: water them, pull up weeds, don’t let’s dogs pee on them, mulch them and don’t build a big box around them or cover the tree pit with bricks, otherwise it suffocates the roots and prevents rainwater from getting in.
Take it to the next level and Adopt a NYC Tree. Here is more information on how to care for your tree. Watch our Trees rule! video to learn about trees in Greenpoint.
As if we need another reason to complain about reckless bicyclists on the streets of Brooklyn – not only do they put their own lives at risk in order to make the city a less polluted and traffic congested place, but they kill trees!
I met up with tree vigilante Rob Birdsong and his big hound dog Bo on the corner of Moultre St and Norman Ave in Greenpoint to take a look at a reported tree. A rusty bike with flattened tires, unrideable after a rough winter, was left chained to the tree. It’s clear this cyclist doesn’t care about his bike – or the tree. And right around the corner we found another tree choking bike.
