Governors Island, a short ferry ride from the tip of Lower Manhattan, is an oasis for stressed-out New Yorkers. It is usually open from May until October, but in this pandemic year it opened later, and now will be open until the end of October. It can be reached with a timed ferry reservation. For birders and nature lovers, walking the island often provides closeup glimpses of migrant warblers, sandpipers and other birds, as well as nesting red-tailed hawks, common terns and yellow-crowned night herons. The many wildflower plantings play host to bees, butterflies and other bugs. And for me, the highlight of any visit is lunch at Little Eva’s, dining on bratwurst with cabbage slaw. (Sorry, too busy eating my brat to take a photo.)
Fading coneflower, Governors Island, September 18, 2020
I visited Governors Island on Friday, September 18, hoping to see migrating warblers. Several warblers had been reported the previous days, but when I went I didn’t see any birds except robins, cormorants, starlings, semipalmated sandpipers and a kestrel, plus three red-tailed hawks flying around. But the bugs were plentiful, as were the blooms, so I had a great day photographing buckeye butterflies, a monarch butterfly, other butterflies, and two praying mantises on a fence full of morning glories.
The slide show here has a pearl crescent, buckeye butterflies, skipper butterflies, and others I’m not sure of.
Monarch caterpillar on milkweed
Morning glory
Praying mantis on the morning glory leaves
Praying mantis
Wasp
The bees were buzzing all around the flowers.
Hibiscus
Monarch butterfly
Beautiful chicory
Praying mantis
Milkweed bugs
Not sure what kind of fly this is.
Isopods aren’t bugs, but small crustaceans.
Hibiscus closeup
The cormorants were still being sentinels on the piers, and the robins were finding worms at Nolan Park. While I saw three red-tailed hawks flying, the only raptor I got to photograph was a little kestrel on the speaker near Fort Jay.
A cormorant stands sentinel on one of the piers.
Ring-billed gull
A young robin in the grass in Nolan Park.
A kestrel was perched on one of the speakers …
Lower Manhattan, from the Governors Island Ferry
… keeping watch over Fort Jay.
BMW bridges (Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg)
After a nice four-hour visit, and with satisfying memories of my bratwurst lunch, I caught the ferry back to Manhattan, ready to face the city again.