Surprisingly, summer in Prospect Park doesn't seem to be as eventful as the winter. The park gets greener and greener, trash comes and goes. Comes on the weekends, gone by Tuesday. The water fowl swims around all over the lake, not just in one particular area. Lots of the best viewing spots (especially of sunning turtles) are so overgrown that you can't see them at all. Probably better for them, but not so interesting for those of us who enjoy photos of 7 or 8 turtles sunning in a line on a log. The birds are harder to see now that everything is fully leafed. There are more and more people and dogs early in the morning, now that the temperature is in the 90's and everyone wants to be in front of a fan or in air-conditioned splendor by midday. She swans are out for a gentle morning swim,. The cygnets are growing quite fast and look wonderful. I think they'll be adult sized in one year, but not white until the second year. Then they usually fly away to find mates and breed.
We are not the only ones rescuing turtles, not by a long shot. Ed and Anne do, of course, but there are others. This kind soul was returning a huge turtle to the lake. It's not exactly real wilderness in Prospect Park, and they do need our protection from time to time.
The biggest news is that it looks like the bridge is going to be repaired. This is the big cast iron bridge over the Lullwater. It's a beautiful piece of park architecture, put up in 1890. They closed it last winter, saying that it was unsafe. At least they tried to close it. They put barricades up so no cars could traverse it, which was fine. They also put up all kinds of signs, police barricades, warning notices, and fences on the two paths going underneath, to no avail whatsoever. Walkers, runners, boaters, fisherpeople, cyclists kept on going here. The rumor was that the Parks. Dept. had no intention of repairing it. Luckily, this seems to be no longer the case. There is some big machinery and supplies near it now. Looks like repair work. Hope it's not a false alarm, since I guess it could be a prelude to tearing it down or putting up a concrete wall. That would totally suck, so I sure hope I am just being paranoid about that possibility. Will continue to observe and report.
The photo of the swans is gorgeous. I was so looking forward to a family of swans at Harlem Meer (in Central Park). But, the female of the pair was found dead in early May and her mate vanished a couple of weeks later. Spring can be cruel. Still, there are three Mama ducks with babies at the Meer. I call them "Clementine" (7 surviving ducklings), "Matilda" (the feisty Mom with only two babies) and the latest, Gracie, with 7 newborns. Also a fantastic family of Canadian Geese at Turtle Pond, Mama, Papa and six fast-growing goslings! Still, I am so sad about the swans. Really nice to see the beautiful family on your blog site.
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