[Journal entry for November 20, 2011] In the afternoon, I visited Garvies Point Preserve in Glen Cove, NY. I parked near Morgan Memorial Park, just to the north of the preserve and walked across its broad lawn to the beach. I examined the sea life clinging to the rocks of the jetties. They are encrusted with barnacles and mussels and an occasional oyster. Never before have I seen living oysters on Long Island, though I have many times seen the shells of dead ones, which are plentiful. I tried walking out onto the big jetty that extends a thousand feet or more into Long Island Sound. The going was very tough, for the stones were large and irregular. I gave up after getting less than half way to the end. The rocks were interesting: gneisses with aplite veins and limestones with solution features and chert nodules. I then walked along the shore to Garvies Point, passing a flock of domestic geese as I passed the a boat launch. The tide was low and a large swath of beach was exposed between the Sound and the high sandy bluff, consisting of sand and rocks and patches of Spartina alternaflora grass. This area is said to be one of the few on Long Island where pre-Pleistocene material is exposed – Cretaceous coastal plain sediments consisting of sandstones and unconsolidated clays. The clays outcropped near the bottom of the bluff. The beach was littered with many sandstone flagstones, but I saw nothing that would count as a bona fide outcrop. I found a couple of limonite concretions that had weathered out of the clay, distinguished by their high density that gives then a greater heft than an ordinary rock. One was rounded in shape; the other was flat and encrusted with well-cemented pebbles. I then hiked up into the preserve, taking one of the wooden staircases that climb up the bluff. I walked a loop through the woods. It must have once been someone’s garden, for I came across many ornamental shrubs and trees, such as boxwood hedges and dwarf Japanese maples. I passed and area in the southeastern corner of the preserve that had twenty or more wellheads, none which seemed in use. Each consisted of a central well pipe about six inches in diameters, capped and set in a concrete pad, surrounded with a triangle of protective steel posts. I then looped back west, passing a small pond, also clearly ornamental, that had a tiny central island. I passed the museum building before heading back down to the beach, but did not visit it, for the afternoon was growing dim and time was now near closing. The sun, bright when I arrived, had set beneath a band of clouds on the western horizon. I walked the beach back to my car. I stopped at the Landing Bakery, on Landing Road, for a pastry and coffee before heading home. About two hours.