A trip to a remote corner of Staten Island with David Rosane is what NNYN is all about. Today's visit is to the Mt. Loretto Unique Area, which consists of 194 sprawling acres. The majority of Mt. Loretto's 194 acres are in grassland (56%) and coastal marine (25%) habitats. There also is a mile-long shoreline. With five ecosystems marine/coastal, grassland, forest, and tidal and freshwater wetlands, Mt. Loretto is everything New York's nature can be.

Today's group of walkers, birders and curiosity seekers is an interesting assortment of New Yorkers almost all interested directly or indirectly in the city and its environment. There are community gardeners, small business owners, writers interested in urban ecology, graduate students studying the city.

The trek begins with the Staten Island Ferry and a long bus ride to Mt. Loretto. Once there David leads the explorers through the grasslands, the largest section of land at Mt. Loretto. One of the main management goals at Mt. Loretto has been to improve and maintain nesting habitat for grassland birds. Grassland bird species such as bobolink, common meadowlark, and savannah sparrow are in decline because nesting habitat is disappearing. But there're plenty of other species in attendance today: green herons, yellow warblers, brown thrashers, common yellow throats, yellow-billed cuckoos. David points to some indigo buntings and explains how each bird has its own highly personalized song - or vocal signature. There also are ospreys and kingfishers and red-winged blackbirds.

We stop to marvel at the abundance of birds and take time to recognize some of the sounds - sounds we all have heard sometime somewhere before - that David helps us identify.

On the shoreline walk, fellow traveler Todd Jorgensen, a self taught geologist, explains the geology of the rocks on the shoreline and helps identify some of the fossils and rocks on the beach. Two horseshoe crabs, brought ashore by the water, are trapped amidst the rocks. It requires all the ingenuity and strength of Eric Chung, a graduate student, to pry them loose and set them back into the water.

We walk back through fields of clover, hawkweeds and goldenrods. David stops to point out different, blue-eyed-grass or (Sisyrinchium montanum) and blue flag (iris virginica) . Scattered amidst the flowers are spectacular spicebush swallowtail butterflies and sulfurs, floating effortlessly and taking in the nectar.

The entire trek, grasslands, wetlands and shoreline has taken us about five hours. Amidst it all we talk about ecology, conservation, and about some of the lessons of the experience.

Birds, flowers, insects and a wealth of unexpected treasures on the beach, including two stranded horseshoe crabs. Less than an hour from the heart of Manhattan, A perfect urban NNYN experience.

Mt. Loretto Videos

Entering Mt. Loretto

False Indigo Pollinated by a Bee

Female Horseshoe Crab


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