Overcast, windy!,
with periods of rain, high 70s
This morning was a windy and
rainy start to the day. But
we are not out of the woods yet.
Later this afternoon, strong steady rains are predicted and we are
presently in a “Tornado watch” until early this evening. The skies are an eerie gray and the
winds have been strong and steady out of the south. All this and yet the 30 – 40 mph winds are strangely
warm.
We decided to take a quick
ride south to the Croton Point Park area and see what effect the strong winds
are having on the avian life. We
really did not expect to see the Hudson River behaving as it was, however. With the winds coming directly out of
the south and the high tide occurring around 12:40 P.M. and having just passed
the New Moon phase, the water was extremely high. The waves looked more like the ocean than the Hudson!
As for the birds, the only
sign of avian life we encountered that paid little heed to the wild conditions
on the river were the mallards. In
Croton Bay, somewhat protected from the wild wave action of the river, we found
three mallards simply riding the waves with little if any worry about the bad
weather.
At the south side of the park
where the land is totally exposed to the south, the winds were driving the surf
up and over the breakwater. Here,
even the mallards knew better than to tempt the fates. Check out the conditions as recorded on
the video below.
As we headed back north, we
stopped at George’s Island Park in Montrose. The waves were crashing ashore here much as they were back
at Croton. A lone mallard was
tucked in behind the seawall and didn’t seem to mind the waves crashing just
above his head.
With all this activity
occurring on the river before the arrival of the predicted storms, we can only
imagine what conditions on the Hudson will be like later today. If I were a mallard, however, I’d think
about getting back into quieter waters.
We wish them luck and smooth sailing.
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