I was there yesterday during low tide. According to my notes taken of the
marker, It has drained just about .60 since July 13th. While that indicates a
good flow, it could be a little too late as we have a long way to go and with
rain in the forecast, it is going to be touch and go. I am keeping my fingers
crossed for those juveniles. As a side note, I had a few Spotted Sandpipers
doing their stutter flights from the south end so they must be thriving
(breeding?) on the pond where the water level has reached into the Phragmites.
Something positive?? Okay, maybe I am reaching but I got to get Steve off that
ledge. I need to see that man ankle deep with sneakers on that pond.
As far as the trails both ends definitely need cutting back and usually, I
would take a crack at them rather than waiting on NPS whose strategy these days
seem to be centered around the Shorebird Festival. This heat has been
oppressive so you’ll forgive me for not having the trails ready for you
Monsieur Walter 😂
Keep the faith my good man. I have not given up on the season just yet.
Cheers,
--------
"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of
others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." ~ Frederick
Douglass
風 Swift as the wind
林 Quiet as the forest
火 Conquer like the fire
山 Steady as the mountain
Sun Tzu The Art of War
> (\__/)
> (= '.'=)
> (") _ (")
> Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device!
Andrew Baksh
www.birdingdude.blogspot.com
> On Jul 25, 2020, at 7:27 PM, Steve Walter <swalte...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
> So whatever hope I took out of Andrew’s post has evaporated – which is not
> something that’s happening on the East Pond. I didn’t have great
> expectations, but I hadn’t been to Jamaica Bay in the daytime in over two
> months. So I had a look for myself today. Granted there’s been some rain in
> recent days, but the water level had to have still been bad before the rain.
> I don’t know exactly how the pond level was when the valve was addressed on
> July 13, but I have to wonder if it helped at all. It is deep, with no
> shoreline whatsoever. I’ve seen years when long legged shorebirds could at
> least find spots to hang out. But there was nothing of that sort today. And I
> would say that it’s worse than last year at this time. My records show that
> at least Lesser Yellowlegs were present on August 4 last year, and that by
> early September the pond was actually in a good state. I now feel quite
> pessimistic about getting anything out of this season.
>
> On a side note, the trail at the south end got overgrown with Phragmites. I
> did have pruners with me, and started cutting my way through. I stopped when
> I got to a point in the trail where it had turned to deep mud. So now
> comfortable access may become a problem – even if we get something to access.
> Maybe someone can talk me off the ledge, but I’m really discouraged and
> fearing that the East Pond will never be what it was. Unless there’s a
> complete replacement of the valve, or a change in management of the pond that
> can perpetually keep it lower. And one note I’ll add is that when I finally
> got out to the Raunt last September, I noted that the water level was
> noticeably higher when I left than when I arrived. That may indicate that the
> problem at the valve is more than just blockage. But what do I know? Just
> calling it the way I see it, and it doesn’t look good.
>
> Steve Walter
>
> From: Steve Walter [mailto:stevewalt...@gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, July 25, 2020 6:45 PM
> To: swalte...@verizon.net
> Subject: Fwd: [nysbirds-l] Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge East Pond Update...
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------
> From: Andrew Baksh <birdingd...@gmail.com>
> Date: Mon, Jul 13, 2020, 1:25 PM
> Subject: [nysbirds-l] Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge East Pond Update...
> To: nysbirds-l <NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu>
> Cc: Nyc ebirds <ebirds...@yahoogroups.com>
>
>
>
> The RBA on Friday, mentioned a problem with the East Pond water level. It
> was an understatement. On Independence Day, Don Riepe and I visited the
> outflow on the bayside to check on the drainage and found that the valve was
> buried and hardly a trickle of water leaving the pond.
>
> It would have been easy to give up on the Season given how high the water is
> but no! I subsequently sent out an e-mail to NPS management who responded
> with a plan to dig out the valve this AM.
>
> I am pleased to report that today, an NPS crew was on site as planned and
> this AM dug out the valve. The water is flowing quite well and we (Don,
> myself and NPS) will be keeping an eye on it to ensure it continues to flow
> unimpeded.
>
> As you can imagine, wearing full waders on a hot day was not easy but the
> work was done nevertheless. A link to a short video clip which I posted on
> twitter can be viewed here.
> https://twitter.com/birdingdude/status/1282716449744838662?s=21
>
> If you want to be kept updated on the pond and the level draw down, please
> send me a note offline. I will provide intermittent updates to the list serve
> but wait for some movement of the water level before doing so.
>
> Many thanks to those of you who show a genuine interest in the management of
> the East Pond water. We are doing all we can to salvage the Shorebird season.
>
> Cheers,
>
> --------
> "I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule
> of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence." ~
> Frederick Douglass
>
> 風 Swift as the wind
> 林 Quiet as the forest
> 火 Conquer like the fire
> 山 Steady as the mountain
> Sun Tzu The Art of War
>
> (\__/)
> (= '.'=)
> (") _ (")
> Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device!
>
> Andrew Baksh
> www.birdingdude.blogspot.com
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