The talk is of badgers, muskrats, birds, fish, snakes – and downsizing. Sound incongruous? Not for the three women who met in Bayonne’s Sister Miriam Teresa Park recently to talk about their passion.
They are women of a certain age who have been “downsized” at work, so they turned to an avocation they loved: Observing nature.
Pat Hilliard, Susan Hill, and Joan Brunner are members of the Bayonne Nature Club, which was founded about three years ago by Hilliard and her husband Mike Ruscigno.
“I had generally been doing a lot of bird-watching in Hudson County,” Hilliard said, “and people would say that there was no nature in this area. But there are fantastic opportunities to enjoy nature without having to get in a car and drive someplace.”
“There are fantastic opportunities to enjoy nature without having to get into a car and drive someplace.” – Bayonne Nature Club cofounder Pat Hilliard
____________
The club organizes “owl prowls,” evening adventures that are best enjoyed with night vision binoculars. Hilliard said they attempt to observe these unique creatures as the creatures emerge to look for their favorite meal – rodents.
In other bird walks, the group has seen pheasants, ducks, geese, gulls, wood warblers, red-bellied woodpeckers, Baltimore orioles, egrets, herons, belted kingfishers, red-winged blackbirds, marsh wrens, sandpipers, plovers, and osprey, to name a few.
“I’m out every day of the week with my camera looking for birds and wildlife around town,” said Hill. “Growing up in Bayonne, I’d never seen hawks, but this winter I went down to the park several times and saw them attacking a bird or getting a squirrel. They eat any kind of small rodent, mice, rats, and muskrats, too.”
Among the sites in Bayonne where nature abounds are Rutkowski Park, Stephen Gregg Bayonne County Park, and South Cove Commons (Lefante Way), the beautiful walkway that starts in the commercial hub around the Stop & Shop supermarket and wends its way around the Bayonne golf course.
“I value the club because my eyes aren’t trained like Pat’s and Mike’s,” said Brunner, who is a fairly new member. “Mike can spot birds that I don’t even see until he points them out.”
Paddling and plants
The club also organizes paddling trips in which participants kayak or canoe on the Hudson and Hackensack rivers and around Newark Bay. A handy tide clock on the website helps paddlers plan the best trips around Liberty State Park, Mill Creek Marsh and Laurel Hill in Secaucus, and Hoboken Cove.
And if you don’t want to worry about the tides, you can go to Reservoir Number 3 in Jersey City. Don’t have a boat? The club can help you rent one.
If flora is your thing, the club not only sells plants but arranges wildflower trips, where enthusiasts can spot everything from violets to tufted vetch.
Most nature lovers have an abiding concern for Hudson County’s cherished and beloved waterfront. To that end, the club has a robust clean-up program that engages like-minded citizens in beach sweeps all along the shore. Everything from huge plastic tarps to small plastic bottle caps pose a danger to wildlife. The group is seeing more and more electronic equipment that has been dumped into the water and washed up on shore.
Sean Cyran, a neurobiologist by trade, recently joined the club. “I’ve been to a couple of shore cleanups and would like to run some myself,” he said. “You find tires, bags, oil containers, and computer parts, which should be properly thrown away.”
But, he said, “You can see improvement, which is why there is a resurgence of birds and wildlife.”
A former New Yorker who now calls Bayonne home, Cyran has seen wildlife right from his front porch. “About four months ago, I saw a red-tailed hawk on a high tension wire in front of the house, just hanging out,” he said. “I didn’t think a hawk could exist in a city area.”
Photography Club spinoff
Nature and photography seem to go hand in hand. When a nature lover sees a beautiful animal or flower, the natural instinct is to try and preserve it on film. The Bayonne Nature Club attracts both amateur and professional photographers who display their work on the group’s website.
“I’ve been doing photography only since there have been digital cameras,” said Brunner. “Now Susan [Hill] and I have joined a photography class.”
The Bayonne Photography Club is a spinoff of the nature club. Recently, a photographer who specializes in dogs was scheduled to speak at the library as part of the club.
Brunner said she loves all animals and likes to photograph them. “But there are a lot more birds,” she said, “so I have been concentrating on birds. I also do still-lifes of flowers, bug, and bees.”
The club is encouraging nature photographers by sponsoring a photo exhibit.
The theme, “The Nature of Bayonne,” is designed to show that nature does exist in the city. To submit your photos, visit bayonnenatureclub.org or e-mail info@bayonnenatureclub.org for details.
The club’s website is filled with useful information for nature lovers. In addition to alerts about upcoming events, there are quizzes that test your knowledge of birds, and helpful tips, such as making sure backyard birds have fresh water for the winter.
“I’ve met a lot of interesting people in the club,” Brunner said. “It’s a fantastic way to get away from the city life and just enjoy watching wildlife.”