Not Too Shabby!

With all of my post Hurricane work done, i.e. yard clean up, tree chopping & helping the neighbors, it was time to take a walk to check out my local patch. The nearest wooded area near my house is Grekowski Park or as Townies know it, Bissett's Pond. It was named after a lifelong resident and first Mayor of the Borough of South River, James Bissett. If you are a Ham Radio Operator, you know what I'm talking about. For a small patch of woods (58.6 Acres, 38.9 acres are preserved Middlesex County Open Space) it usually has something interesting to find. Of course the eyesore of a baseball field they built sometimes distracts from the fun. I wonder how many Box Turtles were displaced during the construction of it?

Usually one can find at this time of year, White-throated Sparrows, Dark Eyed Juncos, Tufted Titmouse & Song Sparrows going about their business in the mixed woods. These being the most noticeable bird species other than Canada Goose & Mallard. While watching a flock of Junco's, I hear a Alarm Squeak from a Titmouse. Only to look up and see a Hawk flying overhead at about 12 feet of the ground. And not just any hawk but a Red-shouldered Hawk! I can recognize that rufous anytime, most likely because I only see it once in awhile & think is was female based on size. She can to rest on a large branch about 25 feet away with prey in the talons (smaller than a Chipmunk maybe some type of Vole). I made a move to line up a photo, but she moved up to a higher branch. Trying to be extra quite and sneaking trough some dead Goldenrod, I stepped on a branch and spooked her off.

Done with lunch

After letting the trees hear my sailor trained language skills, I headed off to check the banks of the South River. As luck would have it, she didn't fly that far off, managed to pop a few shoots off, then I let her be.

Eyes are some what too soft.

Post Hurricane Blog

So like many other East Coast Bloggers here is my Hurricane Sandy post. As one can see I survived, only lost a few roof shingles and a mid-sized tree. My house sits right at the edge of the flood plain for the South River. With the surge I actually had water up to my second front step, only 3 days with no power, cell or internet. I was horrible!  Anyway here are some pics of the aftermath.

Before the storm

After the flood

I think I had one of these as a kid

Floated into the street from a block away

Across the street from the trailer

Flood Line

Trash

More trash

Downed Pole

Two days later

Flat Roof Gone

Thursday Morning

Apparently one needs to be from a newspaper to take this photo

Local Lads cleaning up Main Street

Someone should of told Sandy

Gang Bangers In Blue, Part Two

While out & about today, I once again had the pleasure of interacting with the South River Police Dept. This time it was only 3 cops that do not understand my first amendment rights. Apparently walking around a "High Crime Area" with cameras is a detainable excuse. One in which if you refuse to ID, you will go to jail & talk to the judge for obstruction.
So let me fill you in on my first minute or two with Officer Mario Pinto #54. He pulled up as I was walking down the street and said " What are you doing? I want to talk to you". Before I could ask if I was being detained, he said" Let me see your ID or you're going to jail for obstruction and you can tell it to a judge". I was then escorted to the cruiser and he rifled through my pockets looking for an ID. At this point I turned on my camera and started to record. Officer Chris Monek #21 (sp?) then showed up along with Sgt. Gartner #16. And you can see the fun here.

 

I was not on my liberty game today and didn't feel like challenging the obstruction idea, also I made a few mistakes by talking about complaint & info requests. Around here if one gets arrested on a Friday they usually have to wait in the "clink" till around Monday or Tuesday due to MLK day on Monday. Did you notice the part that Pinto asked Monek to make sure I was not recording? I did misquote the request from the DOJ to the judge, it was, if an Officer interferes & seizes a recording device without a warrant that would be unconstitutional. Read about it here.
Anyway if the SRPD thinks they can bully me into not photographing around town, they are mistaken. It has made me want to flex my rights even more and I found some interesting things about Officer Monek.
UPDATE: My inquisitive nature decided to check PTL. Pinto's claim that I was in a high crime rate area. This screen shot is from City Data and in my opinion he is full of it as you can see not much goes on around here.

SR Crime Rate

Herrmann-Aukam Handkerchief Factory

I been doing some legal research these last few days, which will be the next post most likely, but had some time to take a walk through the neighborhood. Herrmann-Aukam Handkerchief Factory has long been an local decaying icon. Word on the street is, its not long before this area becomes a lot. Any here are a couple of shots from today. A little info regarding this site here.

A staple of Herrman Street

Second Floor Fire Escape

A View From The Public Space

Miscellaneous

With running timelapses, scouting locations, searching for those last few insects, panoramas, finding old grave sites and collecting seeds, I have been like a chicken without a head these past few weeks. So lets get too it.
While scouting on Sundays for cool locations for timelapses, I also do panoramas. It is my dream to set up two or three cameras in sync, then stitch them together for a pano TL. Maybe one day even HDR, even though I hate HDR. Learn to meter properly & average all ready, will ya!
So here is a couple of panos for my travels, the first one is a small bit of flooding on the Causeway in South River.

Like Venice, only in New Jersey

This second one is from by the Veteran's Memorial Bridge also in South River. I cropped out the lovely Edgeboro Landfill on the left. On a warm Summers night you can really smell the Jersey Pride.
Anyway once you crop, its a pretty nice view.

Fall in The Garden State

Now I took a little trip into East Brunswick last Sunday to get some me time. I've just discovered this place Ireland Brook Conservation Area, also Know as "The Pig Farm" to some. It is not the whole park just an area off of Riva Ave in East Brunswick. Find this sign and you will be there.

IBCA has about one trail so far, there might be others but I haven't explored enough to tell you. What it does have is a old family grave plot. Only one of the stones was readable and it marked the grave of Jonathan Provost 1803-1839. Finding it was quite a suprise, while walking on the "Blue Trail" I ran across it after crossing a large clearing. It looked recently cleaned up, figured it was family but after some internet searching, found out the Nov 5th was Fall Trail Day in NJ. Must have been cleaned up not one day before my visit. There were also a few broken stones, so who knows how many people are buried there. Will be sending an email to the East Brunswick Historian to find out more, will keep you up dated. Anyway here are some pics, Provost headstone was taken on my Crackberry, because I forgot my normal lens in the car. My favorite is the second one, kinda weird!

 

A tough read, I know.

Hey wait, That ain't no 19th Century keepsake!

After the walk at Ireland Brook my travels took me to Davidson's Mill Park. You may have remembered that place from the last post. Fall was in full effect here, don't know if it was peak, but it was pretty sweet. The air was warm with a light wind and the trees were a whispering. That is the sound that they make when the wind blows. I strolled around looking at some storm damage from Snowtober and made my way to the back pond. Spotted a few Autumn Meadowhawks and some Muskrat damage to a tree or maybe it was a Beaver, I don't know but it was either of those two. While that is some natural damage and just part of life, I did find some human troubles.

The plight of a Beech Tree.

I can't say, I've never tagged a tree, but this is a little to much for me. The path to the pond was quite an enjoyable time, saw some extremely large Oaks and Maples as well as some huge Beech Trees. No wonder they get sightings of Pileated Woodpeckers around here. I don't know if the tree stands at this park are old growth but they look it. The canopy is pretty high and dense, must be nice and cool on a summers day. Anyway that is about it, so I leave you with some tree pics from the park. Thanks for reading!

Hurricane, Smurricane!

I woke around 5 a.m. and got ready for the 6 o'clock beating we were planned to take, but it was nothing more than a bad wind storm. Around 8, I ventured out of the house, nothing was blown over or missing from the yard.

Deciding to check out the town, I made my way to the Railroad Tressel which spans the river & connects Sayreville to South River. Usually the water level stays a foot or two below the bottom of the frame work but not today.

That's some big water!

Making my way down the street I reached downtown, it was some what of a mess. A lot of people standing around, some even took a water tour of the area. To be young and own a Kayak!

I then made my way to Main Street, there again were a lot of people standing round. The big show for this area was this Daredevil who tried to make it across a flooded road. Don't worry he was safe, a flat boat Captain & his dog oversaw his retrieval of personal paperwork from the truck.

I wonder if Maritime Law applied in this situation?

I worked my way back up the street and checked out my bank. In the lot next door some local canines got some exercise and a sweet stick. The only one with brains was that Great Dane that stayed on dry land.

At this point I was getting a little tired so I head home, while stopping to take some pictures.

Local youths enjoy a river tour.

So that's about it, until the next flood.