It’s spring, and birds, birders, and naked men are once again appearing amid the shrubbery at Montrose Point. The Magic Hedge sanctuary at the east end, a 15-acre expanse of fields, hedgerows, scattered trees, and thickets that was once home to a U.S. military installation, provides a haven for migrating birds–and for men looking to hook up.
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Saturday morning, March 19. I see only one nonbirder today. I’m on a main path on the south side of the Point when a pallid guy in a white T-shirt and jeans approaches from about a hundred yards away, pushing through the brush. I move out to the big field in the middle of the Point, and he turns and goes in another direction. He keeps up the laps around the Point, and I pass him at least three more times. Later I see him near the entrance to the Magic Hedge. Someone has abandoned a half-dozen domestic rabbits there, and he and a few birders are trying to corral them for the Anti-Cruelty Society, which is en route.
Thursday afternoon, March 24. I circle the Point on the narrow path that runs along the construction fence on the south side. I haven’t walked this way often since encountering a couple in flagrante delicto here last year. I’d noticed a couple of guys disappear into the undergrowth down the trail, but I kept scanning for birds. Then I saw a swath of skin through my ‘nocs. One of the men had his pants pulled down. I didn’t see much of the other guy, but he was crouched in front of the pantsless guy. I hurried back to the open field.
There are a few avian arrivals today too. First brown thrasher of the year, first field sparrow, first swamp sparrow, first eastern phoebe. A pair of house sparrows–the ubiquitous “mice with wings”–are setting up a nest on the east end of the Point, and a brown-headed cowbird is hanging around a few feet from the nest. Cowbirds are parasitic nesters, laying their eggs in the nests of other birds. As I stand watching the drama, a bald man in his 50s in a blue cardigan peers at me through the grass from about 100 feet away.
Later I see two guys standing about 100 feet apart in the Magic Hedge. Their eyes meet occasionally, but something’s clearly preventing them from ducking into the undergrowth. I keep walking and see a man sitting in a lawn chair deep in the brush reading a newspaper.
