giving Scarsdale and WhitePlains the bird

In 1885, just about the same time as our ClockTower was being built so was the Kensico Dam, cutting off the Bronx River from its headwaters.

Today it survives on a small tributary stream. That’s the Whitlock 6 subway stop on the left.

But that little stream has proven enough. With grant money secured by our U.S. Representative José Serrano, the Bronx River gets cleaner everyday.

Incredibly, until a November 28, 2006 agreement the municipalities of Scarsdale, White Plains and Mount Vernon, among others, actually dumped their raw sewage directly into the river allowing it to float down through our borough until it reached the East River and eventually New York harbor.

That finally ended May 1, 2007.

That same year Bronx Zoo biologists with the Wildlife Conservation Society spotted a beaver in the river. There had not been a sighting of a beaver in New York City in over 200 years.

Also returning are the cormorants, large and black, highly intelligent birds that breed on Mill Rock Island, south of here in the East River.

The green A in the lower left marks Mill Rock and the red marker in the center is where I noticed the bird and took these photos.