June 25-26 - Palisades NY

I’d come in last night to visit my cousin Blythe, and her husband Bob.  They welcomed me, and we went out to supper at the Hinode Japanese restaurant, and had good sushi and quite a good visit, catching up on each other's family and doings.  I did a little birding here, but these couple of days are all about family and food.

I spent a couple days here, catching up on my Blog and enjoying my time with these two ardent progressives!  Bob served as Founding Director of Intersections International, a global initiative of the Collegiate Church of New York, the oldest corporation in North America.  He’s also the author of ‘Beyond the Comma’, an uplifting call to arms for justice.

Read This Book!

Their home hosts some of the local wildlife, including turkeys, chipmunks, and we even glimpsed one of the resident red foxes.

New York Yard Dogs . . .

Cute li'l Eastern Chipmunk

I was up around 6 a.m. on Tuesday, and got up to work on my blogs.  Around 7 a.m., the heavens opened and it rained hard for nearly an hour and a half.  The deluge had abated by mid-morning, and Bob & Blythe came back from their errands around noon, so we went to lunch at the (TFS) The Filling Station * Burger Works along Highway 9W.  This evening, we went to supper with another cousin - Burke and Betsy and the boys at the Zapata Mexican restaurant in Palisades.  I have pretty good relatives, no doubt much more congenial than I am, and great company.

I could have driven, but need to walk & see the birds

On Wednesday, it was a clear and pleasant 67º morning, and warmed rapidly.  I went down the road to the Piermont Pier and walked the mile from the Art Rittenberg Field out to the end of the pier.  Parking is available at a limited number of spots on the pier with a permit from the Village’s Clerk’s office, but I parked at the park entrance, adjacent to the Art Rittenberg Field, and walked to the end of the pier.  The Pier is a city park for the Village of Piermont, and is part of the Hudson River National Estuarine Research Reserve.

The Piermont Pier stretches about a mile into the Hudson River.  The pier was built in the 19th century to accommodate commercial river traffic, and used during World War II as an embarkation point for troops heading to Europe.

End of the pier

You can see the Tappan Zee Bridge, just north of the park.

The Tappan Zee

Piermont Pier is open year-round, providing anglers access to the deeper water off the banks of the river.

South of the pier is the salt water marsh along the Hudson River,

Here's hoping the pipe is just for storm water . . .

and the Dept. of Environmental Conservation has a research station here.

The birding wasn't all that exciting, it being a late, warm morning, with mostly Mallards, Canada Geese and such.  I do enjoy seeing the East-Coast Song Sparrows, as they are colored so differently to the chocolate-dark ones I see back on the Northwest Coast.

Mamma Mallard was keeping her eye on . . .

. . . her half-grown ducklings

Some Starlings on the 'beach' tried to pass themselves off as shorebirds.

I don't know what species of turtle this is; I'll look it up later (unless someone wants to enlighten me...)

I didn't walk all the way out along the North Shore Walkway, but it appeared to be a good place for a pleasant stroll.

This evening I took Blythe & Bob out to supper at Maura’s Kitchen in Nyack.

Photo by Maura Azanedo in the Nyack News

This is a Peruvian restaurant, and has pretty good food.  I had the ceviche mixta and a bowl of PEI mussels, and tried a drink of their Pisco sour.  Pisco is a Peruvian brandy, and the drink had lime and egg white.  It was quite tasty, and went down like a fruit drink.

Ceviche Mixta - Photo by Bill Batson in the Nyack News

Not wishing to overstay my welcome, I packed up, since I understand Benjamin Franklin’s adage that “Guests, Like Fish, Begin to Smell After Three Days” . . . 

Double-crested Cormorants at Piermont Park

Tomorrow, I’m planning to head north toward Maine, where I hope to see Atlantic Puffins, for a “Life Bird”.

Piermont Park 8:20 a.m. eBird Checklist is Here

Piermont Park 9:20 a.m. eBird Checklist is Here

Male House Sparrow