Baby Pictures

There are very few critters cuter than baby birds, and Nickerson Beach on Long Island has provided a nursery for piping plovers, American oystercatchers, black skimmers, common terns, and least terns, and probably several kinds of gulls, for several years. I have spent much of this summer filming the little ones and taking baby pictures. Since the oystercatchers are some of the first chicks to hatch, they are the first to have their own Silly Videos and photo galleries.

Oystercatcher family, June 12, Nickerson Beach

Several of the beaches in New York have protected areas cordoned off to allow these birds to nest relatively undisturbed. The oystercatchers are usually the first to stake out their breeding homes, and their kids are the first to hatch. If you get too near to the string “ropes” protecting the dunes, the parents will buzz you, and if you don’t go away, they will sometimes stalk you with backs raised or fake a broken wing to distract you from their chicks.

Mama American oystercatcher and two little kiddies, June 4, Nickerson Beach

There are two videos chronicling the oystercatcher families that I saw on the beach. The first part of The Kids Are All Right shows the families from May second to June 12 and features music by Saint-Saens. The second part also has bassoon accompaniment with music by Jadin and Freithoff.

The oystercatcher kids are just the cutest little birdies I’ve ever seen, and it was so much fun to photograph them. The photos in this slide show were taken June 4 through June 17.

The photos of adult oystercatchers and their youngsters were taken May 2 through July 30.

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A Super Snow Moon Rises Over Fort Tilden

On February 19, 2019, a super snow moon occurred. I was fortunate enough to be on the beach at Breezy Point in Queens, near the Silver Gull Beach Club, when the Moon appeared at 5:49 p.m. behind the sands of the beach at Fort Tilden. We watched the moon for 10 minutes as it rose in the sky, until it disappeared behind the clouds at around 5:59.

Super snow moon over the beach at Fort Tilden, seen from near the Silver Gull Beach Club at Breezy Point.

I took video of the moon rise, which I speeded up to 125% and set to Paul Pitman’s performance of the Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven (sort of obvious, but it works!).

We kept walking on the Fort Tilden beach as we headed to the bus, and watched as the supermoon changed from a bright orangeish-pink ball into a bright white moon, with the flashing lights of planes landing at Kennedy Airport crossing underneath.

Time-lapse (8 seconds) photo of supermoon with lights of planes landing at Kennedy Airport.

The supermoon in all its glory, February 19

The Ancient Ritual of the Horseshoe Crabs

For more than 300 million years, horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) have left the ocean depths to crawl onshore to breed. In New York, these ancient animals — more related to scorpions and spiders than to crustaceans, and older than the dinosaurs — come to our many shores at full moons, new moons, and high tides beginning in May and continuing into June and early summer. On May 29, 2018, we went to Plumb Beach in Brooklyn close to high tide on a night with a full moon, and were rewarded as the female horseshoe crabs came onshore, with the males grasping onto them. The females dug a nest in the sand and laid their eggs, which the males then fertilized. 

Breeding horseshoe crabs, Plumb Beach, Brooklyn, May 29, 2018

The video showing the horseshoe crabs coming to shore was filmed on May 29 at Plumb Beach, using the soundtrack of the waves. Also in the video are some clips from other beaches throughout the city where I've seen the shells of dead horseshoe crabs, which are beautiful in their own right. Our trip to Plumb Beach was led by Keith Michael of New York City WILD!

Horseshoe crabs have 10 legs, which they use to walk along the ocean floor. They have hard exoskeletons, and nine eyes spread throughout their bodies, plus light receptors near their tails, or telsons. These long, pointed telsons are not used to sting or poison, but to help the horseshoe crabs right themselves if waves push them on their backs.

Horseshoe crab at Marine Park, Brooklyn, May 24, 2018

When the horseshoe crabs were on their backs, rocking back and forth and using their tails to turn themselves over, we watched until we were sure they could right themselves. There were some times when the male and female crabs were both shell down, their legs moving in the air and seemingly without the ability to turn back over. At that point I gently turned the two over and they were able to move again.

Horseshoe crab, Plumb Beach. May 29

A horseshoe crab attempts to right himself.

The horseshoe crab eggs, tens of thousands of them, are a food source for fish, reptiles, and birds. About two weeks after the eggs are laid and fertilized, those that survive hatch into larval horseshoe crabs, which are tiny versions of the adults but without tails. These youngsters settle on the sandy bottom of tidal flats, where they grow and molt, shedding their exoskeletons and growing larger ones, as they move farther into the ocean depths. Once they become adults, roughly 10 years old, they begin the breeding process.

Watching the horseshoe crabs on Plumb Beach, May 29, with the New York City WILD! group

Horseshoe crab shell on the beach, 2017