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 <mailto: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 <mailto:NYSbirds-L@cornell.edu> > Cc: Nyc ebirds <ebirds...@yahoogroups.com <mailto: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 <http://refspace.com/quotes/Sun_Tzu> Sun Tzu <http://refspace.com/quotes/The_Art_of_War> The Art of War (\__/) (= '.'=) (") _ (") Sent from somewhere in the field using my mobile device! Andrew Baksh www.birdingdude.blogspot.com <http://www.birdingdude.blogspot.com> -- NYSbirds-L List Info: <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm> Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave Archives: The Mail Archive <http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html> <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L> Surfbirds <http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01> ABA Please submit your observations to <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/> eBird! -- -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
