Speaking of birds and the Houston Street pier, here is a gaggle of geese shot from the side of the pier which faces north. 

That's the Christopher Street promenade in front of the glassed-in high rises on Perry Street with the Empire State Building in the background.

 

The same geese, a few minutes later, having followed them around the corner and  facing west along the backside of the Houston Street pier with the wide old benches where the homeless like to take their afternoon naps, as they paddle onward gazing at the ever changing but always fabulous spectacle of the harbor and beyond.