A Park by Any Other Name — Birds Bugs Buds

No matter the name, it probably didn’t smell as sweet as Juliet’s rose.

My closest park’s current name is a mouthful: Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. But over the last roughly 300 years, it’s also sported names like Flushing Meadows Park, Flushing Meadows, Corona Meadows, Corona Dump and Corona Ash Dumps. Even author F. Scott Fitzgerald called it “a valley of ashes” in The Great Gatsby.

Formed by at least three glacial periods, this area of north-central Queens started as a glacial lake that morphed into a salt marsh where the Algonquins and later Dutch settlers hunted and farmed.

I’ve known this park since 1985 when my 17-year-old self visited the Queens Fair. I knew I wanted to move from Indiana to this fabulous city, but never did I think that someday my home would be only a couple miles away.

“Rocket Thrower” - Flushing Meadows-Corona Park / Queens, New York

Truth be told, Flushing Meadows, as I like to say since the shorter name is less cumbersome, has not been a particular favorite of mine for nature pursuits. A festive city park of 897 acres, it is home to the Queens Museum, Queens Zoo, New York Hall of Science, and the adjacent Queens Botanical Garden. The U.S. Open tennis tournament is played there and so do the New York Mets. Remnants of two World’s Fairs please the history buffs, plus the park serves modern interests like skateboarding with a dedicated rink. On any given summer day, the barbeques are smoking, the bicyclists are zipping, and the ball fields are, well, playing ball.

“Unisphere” - Flushing Meadows-Corona Park / Queens, New York

With all this human interference and the flat landscaping that covers the area’s former use as a dumping ground as referenced by Fitzgerald, I have never thought too highly of the park for urban nature.

My mind has started to change.

This summer, with Covid-19 travel limitations, I found it a great spot to ride my new bike and explore. Sure, it’s a busy park, but there were still pockets of weedy wildflowers with insects and sections with thick mud, proving once again that one might try to fill a wetland, but water will find its way back.

Queen Anne’s Lace, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park / Queens, New York

Flushing Meadows-Corona Park / Queens, New York

Cattails, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park / Queens, New York

But it was on a recent winter day while walking around Meadow Lake that has forever changed my perspective. This refuge for the crowded neighborhoods of Flushing and Corona has won me over and I’m now a full tilt fan of Flushing Meadows for the respite it offers nature, too.

My far-too-close-to-freezing walk, during which I also spotted a few birders, featured the expected: throngs of Canada Geese, Mallards with males in full courtship plumage, and noisy Ring-billed Gulls. Plenty of Brant geese – always a personal favorite – joined the others in the Lake.

The birding folks told me of a Great Blue Heron whom I located in the Phragmites along with Song Sparrows using the plant’s stalks for cover as I walked by.

Though some may recoil, I rather like rodents and was thrilled to see a muskrat swimming to another side of the Lake. Hoping to get a closer photo, I moved in, but my furry friend stayed under cover. I soon understood why: a Red-tailed Hawk perched just above.

Continuing the stroll that was taking far longer than I expected thanks to all these great sightings, I found a secluded cove where two American Coots preened each other. Normally skittish, they took no notice of me, nor did the two Buffleheads that bobbed up to the water’s surface. I usually see these small winter diving ducks far off in the distance, but they were so close that I could see the iridescent feathers of the male.

Meadow Lake, along with the nearby Willow Lake, is not noted for fine water quality. In fact, just the opposite. But according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, some fish do survive in the greenish muck including Alewife, Largemouth Bass and the dreaded invasive species, Northern Snakehead.

Black-crowned Night-Heron / Queens, New York

Given the number of birds feeding in the water – my last sightings of the walk were a number of Hooded Mergansers and one Black-crowned Night-Heron who surprised me as much as I surprised him – there seemed to be good eats in the depths. And with quite a number of secluded makeshift fishing piers tucked into the Phragmites, there also appears to be human interest in fishing as well.

Hidden fishing “pier,” Flushing Meadows-Corona Park / Queens, New York

Perhaps this park of many names and many incarnations will someday continue to be a place of not only family gatherings and ball games, but also welcome even more nature with cleaner water and renewed marshland sections. The potential is there.

Summer sunset over Meadow Lake, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park / Queens, New York