We had plans to paddle out into Jamaica Bay from Floyd Bennett Field, but realized that canals already surrounded our meeting point (This is the Howard Beach A train stop.)
So we found a pretty launching spot,
and paddled out between houses on stilts and motorboats.
It felt more like Maryland than New York City.
Then out into the bay under the Cross Bay Boulevard.
Tiny mollusks clung to the bridge.
We paddled against the wind to Elders Point,
a little strip of an island near the Canarsie Pier.
The tide was going out,
and we walked the perimeter of the island.
It was interesting to be out there armed with apps. In a few minutes, Merlin Birdfinder identified six bird species by sound.
But Jessica identified the most special one the old-fashioned way, with her sharp eye and knowledge of the area.
A Glossy Ibis. Not just one, but what seemed like a whole colony.
They are rare and relatively new to the area. Here is an article in the New York Times about their arrival in 1971.
Now their numbers are in decline, along with others here, the Night Heron and Egrets. (These are Jessica’s shots, holding her iPhone up to the binoculars.)
Jessica grew up in Manhattan, not thinking too much about nature.
But one day, she took a walk around a Brooklyn block with Lisa Nett, organized through the Brooklyn Brainery. Something shifted. She started noticing the trees and the birds, and all the living things that surround us in the city.
Now her art practice centers on natural things; how they intersect with our bodies and emotions. This is an image from her artwork Mugwort Rising, Whispering Women, 2024, a video installation projected on long pieces of gauze.
As we were leaving the island, Jessica collected some plants. “Sea lettuce,” the phone said.
We had seen it dried like perfect paper mâché sculptures around the cord grass.
She sent me a picture later, the beginning of a new experiment.
This weekend, Jessica performs Comfort Sculpture at Glasshouse (251 Springtown Road, New Paltz) for Upstate Art Weekend, June 27–28. Here’s the info!
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