By Vladimir Brezina
It’s heartwarming to see how much the Coast Guard loves and cherishes its birds! It spares no effort to erect, along every waterway, ingenious structures calculated to be ideal for gulls, cormorants, even ospreys to rest on and, now that it’s spring, to build their nests and raise their young, safe from predators and from human intrusion… well, except for some kayakers ;-)
... kayaked the waters around New York for more than 15 years in his red Feathercraft folding kayak. He was originally from (the former) Czechoslovakia and lived in the U.K. and California before settling down in New York. He was a neuroscientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He died in 2016.
... is a kayaker and technology researcher at Nemertes Research. She's an erstwhile engineer, particle physicist, and science fiction writer. She was born in California and has lived in Italy, Norway, Hawaii, and a few other places. She currently resides in New York City.
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Wind Against Current 
Lovely pictures! I particularly like the intense contrast in color!
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Sometimes, when the sun hits them right, those red and green buoys just glow! ;-)
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That make the photography more captivating! Thanks for sharing with us! Have a nice day!
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Great post! Cormorants forever!!
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Funny you should say that, Frank :-) This post actually started out by being specifically about cormorants, before heading in a somewhat different direction…
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Do the one about cormorants! They deserve it. They have so much personality and great fisher birds — they stay under the water for long periods going down at one point and coming up at another. Marvelous creatures!
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OK, since you request it… :-) The problem is that I don’t have many really good photos of cormorants. But I’ll do something.
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Very nice, and all this time I thought they were just navigational aids!
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It’s hard to believe that the Coast Guard does not consider birds when they design and install aids to navigation… I wonder when was the last time that a ship ran aground because a bird nest had obscured a navigational light? ;-)
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The last picture is particularly stunning.
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Unfortunately I did not have my good camera with a telephoto lens with me. But we were in the prime location to watch the birds, as we ate our lunch at the base of the tower while they constructed their nest at the top… This was on Sandy Hook this past Sunday.
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The glow without the lights, thanks for the wonderful images of birds again adapting to their surroundings in marvelous fashion, thanks MJ
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They do! Just as in Europe seemingly every tall chimney and tower has its storks’ nest
so in New York Harbor every light tower has its cormorants’ nest…
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delightful post, just love it.. : )
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Great! I am glad…
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great post! where is the tall tower, pics 4-5?
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Thanks, Philip!
That tower is about 1 nautical mile due north of the tip of Sandy Hook, about half-way between it and Romer Shoal Light.
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In Montreal some of the buildings have special ledges for the falcons – the pigeons just sit wherever they want but always face the same direction, except for the “special” one that didn’t get the memo…
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And that one gets eaten by the falcon?
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Enjoyed visiting this post, Vladimir. Say, who needs trees when we have friendly coastguards?
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Indeed!
Seriously, I think the Coast Guard doesn’t mind at all. I’ve never heard of them attempting to clear away all those birds’ nests :-)
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