The Hudson River's still there.

Well, I mean, I was away for three weeks, and when I got back we had an earthquake, so maybe you were wondering.

And I can report that not only is the river still there, we've had a good crop of birds this year. Those of us who hang out down there had just about come to the conclusion the waterbirds hadn't come through; but while that appears to be true of the geese (who had only one visible clutch and seem to have lost them all) and the mallards (who had zilch), two Gadwalls have produced, one succesfully raising two and the other, seven! No one saw them swimming around until the babies were pretty well grown. One theory is, they hugged the seawall; another, they mostly swam at night. Or maybe they were born up near the rocky beach and only went north, where it's easier to stay hidden. Who knows? But they're looking pretty muscular by now.

The barn swallows did well, too, and the robins. The cormorants also made a couple of new cormorants; and we have youg terns, and of course, gulls, both herring gulls and blackbacks. And this morning, I saw a young blue heron -- lesser, I think, not great, though he was far enough out that I couldn't be sure -- sitting on a piling. That's not good fishing grounds for a heron. They like marshes, and the pilings are in deeper water than they want. So I can only conclude this was this year's baby, born across the river and now checking out the various available territories for when he gets back next spring.

Well done, birds!