A couple of big announcements for the next few days! First off: it’s Labor Day weekend. For those of you who, like me, mentally zonk out and forget the calendar by Friday, this is a timely reminder that there’s a good chance you won’t have to listen to your alarm clock on Monday morning. So, after you’ve gotten your extra winks, know that The New York Botanical Garden will be open (we’re usually not on Mondays) for any and all visitors looking to make the most of their day off. The forecast for Monday is suggesting highs in the 70s, so I’m thinking there’s no excuse to keep yourself cooped up indoors.
Also on the schedule for this weekend–something we’ve been pretty anxious about–is the return of the Saturday Bird Walk. The Red-tailed Hawks are getting back to their center stage antics just in time for the end of Debbie Becker’s summer hiatus, so pack along a pair of binoculars and join us at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning for a trek around the Garden with one of New York’s most experienced bird watchers. Seeing as Debbie’s been doing this long enough to name our feathered guests with her eyes closed, trust me when I say that you’re in good hands.
It was a little after noon on February 26 of 2009 that I enjoyed one of the most amazing experiences of my life. By that time, I had already been shooting photographs at The New York Botanical Garden for a year, and it seemed like every creature living in the Garden had cooperated with my camera except for one species: the Red-tailed Hawks which often hunt throughout the NYBG. I had been able to get a few shots, but always from a distance and far overhead.
Other times, I couldn’t ready my camera fast enough and my subject matter would disappear into the sky.
When you’re home to more than 250 acres of flora, you don’t have to stray far to uncover a virtual menagerie of fauna within it. Cormorants and wood ducks draw zig-zags in the duckweed of Twin Lakes, while Red-tailed Hawks hunt skinks and black squirrels from far overhead. There’s even a cranky snapping turtle or two. But for every rabbit or warbler out to make itself seen in the NYBG, there’s another species living out its life away from our cameras! As Director of the Forest, Jessica A. Schuler has turned some of her focus toward the elusive creatures living in our woodland.
Through a collaboration with Jason Munshi-South of CUNY Baruch College and Mark Weckel of Mianus River Gorge Preserve, Jessica is doing her part to help the pair document the many animals living throughout the city and Westchester county, as well as the effects of the urban environment on evolutionary biology. In the case of the NYBG, this is done by arranging four motion-activated, all-weather cameras in locations throughout the Garden’s 50-acre Forest, ready to capture the movements of any and all woodland wanderers that might amble by. And after only a month on site, capture they did! Calibrated to go off at even the slightest hint of a passing animal, these cameras accurately snapped shots of several familiar species lurking in our woods.
This might be a bittersweet Saturday for birders. Why? Well, truth be told, we’re bidding adieu to the Bird Walk! But don’t sweat–it’s only for a couple of months. As if the heat hadn’t already driven the point home, the calendar tells us it’s summer, and that means it’s time for a hiatus. Saturday marks this season’s last opportunity to don your boots and binoculars for an expert-led bout of birdwatching. (I am on an alliterative roll today.)
Debbie Becker has been at the head of these outings for over 25 years, making her the absolute authority on the NYBG‘s hawks, owls, and Pileated Woodpeckers (now resettled in the Garden after over seven decades). We can’t wait to have her back on September 1! But there’s no reason to make yourself wait that long, right? Come out tomorrow for the last walk of what I’m still stubbornly calling spring.
What’s a forest without the chatter of songbirds, or a pond without a curmudgeonly duck or two? Tom Andres, an Honorary Research Associate at the NYBG, won’t even consider the possibility. He’s too busy snapping pictures of our avian population.
It’s no great secret that The New York Botanical Garden is a northern birder’s paradise, home to owls, hawks, herons, and woodpeckers. Debbie Becker’s Saturday Bird Walks remain a staple at the Garden, now over 25 years since she began guiding groups of amateur and veteran birdwatchers alike through our 250-acre landscape. Even so, populations change with the seasons–migrants flood the Garden with song and color one week, only to disappear the next.
Tom doesn’t let the fickle nature of the birder’s obsession hamper his photography, much less his fascination. “The Garden plays an important role for feathered visitors,” he writes, “especially as a refueling point during migration season.” The Bronx River Corridor–winding through the Garden–is a major draw for neotropical birds migrating toward northern breeding grounds, or heading south for warmer climates. This explains the sudden influx of loud and bright warblers arriving early in spring, making a much-needed pit stop before they move on.
Look to have a bird-brained afternoon as we set aside this beautiful Thursday to celebrate the treetop tweeters of The New York Botanical Garden! We’re flora people, yes, but there’s a majesty (and, at times, comedy) to the diverse fauna of the Garden. Nothing speaks of elegance and grace quite like a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk fumbling its lunch all over Tulip Tree Allée.
If you’re looking to get better acquainted with our feathered friends, stop by on Saturday mornings for the weekly Bird Walk with resident expert Debbie Becker! Binoculars, cameras, and gasps of awe welcome.
It’s been a whirlwind of excitement for the past two months, but the Orchid Show is soon to bid adieu to another successful year. More than successful, really–the tenth anniversary exhibition is being called one of the most triumphant showings our orchids have had to date, thanks in no small measure to the transcendent designs of botanist Patrick Blanc.
For any of our fans who spent the past few weeks bickering with themselves over the choice to take a day in the Bronx, now is absolutely your last chance to experience the vivid verticality of “The Green Man’s” living walls in person. And I can tell you without the shadow of a doubt that there’s plenty for you to see alongside the exhibition–as if the otherworldly flowers of several thousand orchids weren’t enough to get you on your feet and out the front door.
This weekend we enter the home stretch of the Orchid Show balanced on a bittersweet note. Thousands of visitors have had the opportunity to experience Patrick Blanc’s inspiring vertical architecture, stepping under, around, and between the reaching walls of tropical foliage and luxuriant orchid flowers. This year’s spring display is a masterwork only “The Green Man” could have conjured.
Going into the final week of our tenth anniversary exhibition, we encourage everyone who hasn’t yet made the short trip to the Bronx to put on some comfortable shoes and step out for a day at the Garden. Between the sunlit brilliance of these spring afternoons and the rare form of the Orchid Show, there are few excuses for missing out.
From here to Pelham Bay Park, and straight on down to Central Park, the kinship of bird watchers is peaking. April and May are something of a pilgrimage holiday for the truly dedicated ornithological set, though few in New York hoof it far from home; they set out with their binoculars, their pens, and their dog-eared notebooks, taking time off from work to travel a scant few miles to the nearest stand of trees.
These dyed-in-the-wool avian aficionados don’t come to the NYBG in spring specifically for the Red-tailed Hawks, or for the Great Horned Owls. Their prize is far smaller. And as prizes go, these birds seem more of an indulgence than the rare and elusive species recorded with fingers scribbling furiously between the lines of a “life list.” Many New York birders–seasoned or green–instead come to see the little puffs of color and song known as warblers.
Cherry blossoms and Easter pastels make for a fair combination, don’t you think? The calendar’s once again rolled into a holiday weekend at The New York Botanical Garden, which just happens to fall in line with the start of spring break for the schoolyard set. That makes for a rare opportunity: a Monday opening! This weather is too marvelous for the kids to sit at home.
The Orchid Showis, of course, the belle of the ball right now, but our 250 acres are making a strong showing as new plants and trees burst into their spring finery with each passing day. Walk among the fields of daffodils and tulips, admire the hellebores, or peek in on the early azaleas–and don’t forget the brilliant cherry and plum blossoms brightening trees throughout the Garden.
A couple of big announcements for the next few days! First off: it’s Labor Day weekend. For those of you who, like me, mentally zonk out and forget the calendar by Friday, this is a timely reminder that there’s a good chance you won’t have to listen to your alarm clock on Monday morning. So, after you’ve gotten your extra winks, know that The New York Botanical Garden will be open (we’re usually not on Mondays) for any and all visitors looking to make the most of their day off. The forecast for Monday is suggesting highs in the 70s, so I’m thinking there’s no excuse to keep yourself cooped up indoors.
