Hudson Beach Combing Part 2: PIGS

Yesterday at sunset I went to one of my beach combing spots along the river, only to find a freshly dumped load of garbage (it hadn't been there 24 hours before).

Plastic kitty litter pans, brooms, shovels, crutches, fast food wrappers, and three bulging bags of household garbage, garbage, garbage.  

By the end of today the tide will have come and gone a few times, taking the crutches and plastic away for boaters to stumble upon.  Birds and animals will have torn open the bags and strewn the stuff around.   In the coming weeks and months wind and water will spread it out some more and it'll all be nicely dispersed.   Maybe someday a soggy piece of junk mail bearing the culprit's name will float to the shore and land on my foot.

Hudson Beach Combing Part 1, Glass

      

Just as I was about to compile my own local beach glass guide, the New York Post Parade Magazine published A Shore Thing yesterday, a little Sunday piece about "sea glass" collectors.  It calls us "secretive, greedy, even starry-eyed" (yeah, I guess), and runs down a list of glass color hierarchy in the sea glass collectors world.  For the most part, the article works as a guide for river glass collectors as well:

            "Green and Brown are common"  it says.
                             
I couldn't agree more and have to stop bringing them home, unless they are particularly smooth and well-shaped.


                 "Blues are harder to find, but not impossible".

Here in Hudson, blues are indeed rare  (those boaters are drinking beer, not Perrier---)  and it is the lime greens that are rarest, and a personal favorite.

 This is where the river experience differs from seashore.
 Parade names red glass "ultra-scarce"; the "holy grail" of beach glass collectors.

But I can usually find 1-2 a day on the Hudson shores.

Probably because red ones are made of tail lights and boats are in a more confined area here. (?)  For all I know these channel markers have glass lights on them too, that occasionally bust and wash ashore.

In any case, while reds are rare, at least they will scream out to you.

Today I ventured into new territory, and my haul included an unprecedented 

five reds and four blues

Without salt water and high seas, glass shards around here don't get very smooth, so I doubt I will ever face much competition in the local beach glass-hunting scene.

I love the color combo-ing though.

This very dense opaque red one is my newest favorite, 

and feels like it's been knocking around for quite some time.