They're moving in - there goes the neighborhood!

I counted 40 geese lined up at the edge of Prospect Park lake - just quietly hanging out. No one was feeding them, and I go the impression they are waiting...waiting...waiting...for food? more geese? I know it's hard to stop people from feeding the geese. There are other ways to keep the population down - plantings, laser lights, egg interference, border collies, and many many more. Just a voice in the wilderness for the humans side of things.

But the really exciting news was the arrival of three more swans. They look to be young. Swans leave the nest after 2 years, and these look just that age. Will they stay? Hook up with the Lone Male next spring? Looking forward to the next chapter of "Swans in Prospect Park." I admit. I like them much more than the geese. The swan family is happily ensconced near the boathouse. Here's a little video of papa hissing at me and being protective as I got too close. I was hoping to end the video with a giant leap in my direction, but no. I think he knows me, and/or senses that i am not really threatening.

Also new in the park today: we saw people actually working on the bridge repairs, and a nice family taking advantage of the incredibly beautiful day (a little cooler, sunny, perfect) for a family photo op.

And here's the youtube.com address of a funny little video of geese wearing Nazi helmets and saluting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ1KRPjsbTo

On the rats = geese = rats...issue

The other day, Liena from Ditmas Park Blog was nice enough to post my entry about geese returning to Prospect park - filling a vacuum, as it were. The comments have been educational, revealing, and sometimes horrific. There are a couple of people who equate geese with rats as far as being a pest. I object. Even though I did refer to the geese's nazi-like behavior in invading and taking over the lake.

Here are some ways to tell the difference between rats and geese:

Rats have a symbiotic relationship with humans. If the humans disappeared, the rats would, if not disappear, certainly diminish in numbers. The geese are independent. If the humans disappeared, the geese would barely notice, except for the park ones who wait to be fed. They'd have to go looking for their own food.

Rats live in our houses, sewers, basements, stores, restaurants, schools, factories, anywhere they can sneak in. They have been know to bite and injure babies and small children - maybe even larger ones. Geese stay out of our buildings. They just like our beautiful lakes and meadows. they tend to stay from us (except when molting, when they can't fly away.).

And then there's the disease. Rats carry typhus, hantavirus, salmonella, leptospirosis, and meningitis. All terribly illnesses, causing things like diarrhea, vomiting, fever, and death. Remember your history? Bubonic plague and black death? Brought to us by rats, and the fleas that they bring with them. Rats have caused untold death and damage in human history - they are not just innocent wild animals living in our midst.

Geese do carry a few parasites in their feces. Mostly cryptosporidium and gardia. They cause mostly upset stomachs. Beaver in the Adirondacks are big carriers of gardia - it's why you can't sip from a clear babbling stream in the mountains any more. And the amount of cryptosporidium passed through geese is insignificent compared to the vast amounts produced by runoff from factory farms and the pigs and chickens they raise. Avoid eating goose poop and drinking lake water in the park and you should be fine. And use those wipes on your or your kids' hands after they've put them in lake water.

So stop comparing geese and rats. It's nonsense.

More goose chatter

It was a tiny bit cooler this morning, and there were lots of dogs and owners at the Peninsula Meadow, all (the dogs) having a lovely time swimming in our little dog beach. JJ has become quite a good swimmer and not afraid of the water at all. We've been up to the lake in New Hampshire and taken her life jacket with us. Yes, we are the kind of slightly loony dog owners who have a doggie life jacket. Anyway, she has become quite a strong, fearless swimmer. And the water is so cooling! We're going to get her trimmed again this week - her hair is growing that fast!!

All the talk is of the geese massacre still. Tony from FIDO was there. I mentioned that the Dept. of Agriculture said there's be no more killing this year. Tony pointed out that of course there wouldn't be - the geese have finished molting, and they can't catch them anymore. Sometimes I think I'm very smart, and then sometimes....... Of course the four geese who escaped the massacre are now molting. We all speculated if they'd get grabbed and killed in the middle of the night.

There's a facebook page now called "For the love of geese in Prospect Park," a group I've now joined. They're planning some kind of big rally on August 14, but I think that's when we're leaving for Canada so I can't go. Normally, we go away very little in the summer. This year, with all the activity in the park, we seem to be away so much!!

Here's a nice picture of some of the newly arrived geese waiting for Brooklynites to arrive with their breakfasts. Well, that's what it looks like. And one of JJ rolling around in the dirt after her swim. And one of Ber in front of the 14 ft. high phragmites.

Thanks to PattyA, who commented here yesterday, and brought "Making Peace with Geese" to my attention. It's a video on the Prospect park page of Facebook, and also on youtube, about how Seattle is finding humane and workable solutions to their geese problem. Parks Department: Check this out!!

Nature abhors a vacuum, really

For about the last 10 years or so, we have had very wet springs and summers. So much so, that the idea of watering is a forgotten skill - sort of like using a manual typewriter. This year, it is dry, dry, dry. I really notice it when walking to the park. All the lawns are brown and yellow, with a merest hint of green. My own front yard looks pathetic. Then, you get to the park, and it's all green, lush, verdant, all those good words. Soothing to look at and pleasant to be in. The phragmites are 12 feet high or more - all that nice lake water and sun. the trees are all pretty old, with huge roots that feed them well. The top of Lookout Hill, which was pretty bare in winter, is a small forest. No longer can you mark it the center of the world - you can't even get in there.

And there are more geese! We saw Ed and Anne, who count them scrupulously. There are now 28 of them. Four escaped the extermination, and the rest have flown in to the beautiful, empty lake that they saw from above. I wonder how fast the population will grow. The Dept. of Agriculture claims that they have done all the killing for the year. What a peculiar statement to make! Also, I think they are doing some thinking - after all the publicity about the secret extermination, the fact that they killed resident geese, not migratory ones, and the possibility of other methods of geese control.

A bit cooler today - people and dogs were back at the center of the Nethermead, not just in the shady edges.

Back to park watching

Back to the park today after a week in New Hampshire, where the lake is cool and delicious, and the last two days the weather was cool. What a shock to come back to 100 degree weather! Anyway, we got up and out pretty early, while it was still merely very warm.

The geese seem to be regrouping. I didn't count, but an article in the Times says there are 26 now, and I don't doubt it. They are playing nicely with the ducks and pigeons. The Times article also says that they want to get rid of about 2/3 of the geese in the Northeast. This seems excessive, to say the least. Hard to believe that in the 50's Canada geese were on the endangered species list. Apparently, people took the eggs to hatch them, and the geese laid a second time. Twice the number of goslings. Then, the taken eggs hatched but were not raised by geese parents, and didn't learn to migrate. So now, many Canada Geese do not migrate, just stay in one spot, breeding and pooping and becoming a nuisance. Also, feeding geese is very very bad, although everyone loves to do it. It just breeds more of them. Kind of like tribbles (from Star Trek).

I always tried to avoid feeding the geese in the park. My popcorn was always aimed at the swans and ducks, who always seem to need it and are not so invasive. Alas, the geese were very pushy and always got their share plus. Today, I saw people happily feeding the birds so much food that the lake edge was lined with crackers and bread crumbs. People like to feed animals. It's in our nature. Perhaps the Parks Dept. can come up with a way to accommodate this precept?

The Times article also referred to future goose killings as euthanasia. This is such a misuse of the word that I am appalled. This is the Times, after all. They're supposed to print good English! Euthanasia is mercy killing. Where is the mercy here? Absolutely nowhere. Let's use the correct word: killing, murder, or extermination. Maybe harvesting if the geese are to be used for food. But not euthanasia. The geese were not miserable and didn't need to be put out of their misery! Enough. I'm ranting.

The cygnets are growing beautifully. They are still living near the Audubon Center, swimming with the turtles.

There is actual repair work being done on the Lullwater bridge!! Nice to see!

Elsewhere in the park, the trash cans are not overflowing so much, a welcome surprise on a Sunday morning. I know there must have been a lot of people in the park on Saturday. And we found dozens of clean, new trash cans still in the Skating House. I wonder what they are saving them for? Wouldn't they be better out in the park, maybe COLLECTING TRASH!!!!!

Don't kill anything while we're away!!

Tomorrow we're off to NH again for another little vacation week of hanging out in a nice cold lake with friends. I certainly hope the Parks Dept. doesn't take advantage of this opportunity to do any more secret, dead-of-night, nefarious activities. Coming back Saturday night, so the next Park Watch will be on Sunday.

Today, it looks like the ducks are taking the back the lake. When the geese were here, and since the geese were killed, the ducks have been hanging out mostly at the fringes of the lake, in the Lullwater, and by the Boathouse. Now it looks like they're returning to the middle of the big lake. Nature does indeed abhor a vacuum. Still no sign of any male mallards.

The Brooklyn Paper had a nice little article about the geese memorial. http://brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/30/dtg_deadgeesevigil_2010_07_23_bk.html
They estimated the crowd at over 100. Maybe my estimate of 200 was a bit high, but not too bad, I think.

And people do seem to be trying to keep the Park clean - many, many bags piled, but all right next to the trash cans. Now it's up to the parks Dept. to get to them before the raccoons do.

Geese Memorial and swan family photo

Looked to be about 200 people at the Goose Memorial last night at the Gazebo. A few friendly police doing crowd control, and some politicians. The emphasis seems to be on preventing future exterminations, which I think is the absolute right thing to do at this time. There was a State Senator named Eric Adams there, who claims to have "no life at all," and is up at 3 AM reading his e-mails. He encouraged people to email him about this, at eadams@senate.state.ny.us. Way to go Senator Adams!!!!

Someone once very cynically described a leader as "someone who looks at where the crowd is heading and jumps in front of them." While there's undoubtedly a grain of truth there, what else is an elected official to do? Who on earth could have predicted that the geese in Prospect Park would become an issue like this? It is so outside the usual political topics of safety, schools, and taxes.

Anyway, it would be very nice if there could be some open, coordinated process to solve the geese overpopulation problem. Apparently, geese overpopulation is becoming a problem in many areas, and people seem to be inventing all kinds of solutions: border collies, red lights, fake eagles, mylar tape, nest prevention, egg treatments - google Canada geese, and you'll be amazed.

We got a nice family shot of mama swan with her babies, and of the lone sxwan chatting with a visiting friend. Lone swan seems to be coming out of his funk and getting sociable again.

Lots of equipment to repair the bridge, not no actual repair activity yet. Sorry about the double shot, but last time I tried to delete a photo, I ended up deleting the whole blog entry.

Lastly, yes indeed the other end of the lake is back where it's supposed to be.

The Swan family is thriving!

We did go over to the boathouse today, and there was the entire swan family, all going fine. The cygnets are quite large - almost as big as the adults. They're still covered in soft gray down, but if you look closely (which they let us do), there are some white spines interspersed - the beginnings of their white flight feathers. It takes two years to become fully white, flying swans. Here's to their good health. Papa hissed a little when I came close, more to make a statement than to ward me off, I think. There was a small family giving them popcorn, so I'm sure they'll be well-fed. The six survivor geese from yesterday are still. The funny thing was about the ducks. All of them seem to be caramel colored, which are probably the female mallards. I didn't see a single mallard male! They're the ones with the pretty teal green heads. Could they have gotten rounded up with the geese? I hope not. Will keep on looking.

It was amazingly hot, even at 8:00 this morning. The Nethermead usually has a whole knot of people in the middle, chatting while their dogs play. Today, they were all smushed together at the far, shady end.

There will be a rally this evening to remember the geese - starting at 6:30 at the gazebo. That's the little house by the lake, across the road from the Vanderbilt Playground (the SE of the Park). FIDO has on it's website a nice summary of the responses, letters, what you can do to protest, etc., about the geese extermination. http://www.fidobrooklyn.org/geese.html Tupper Thomas says there's going to be a committee to look into what can be done about the geese in the future. At least that's what I think she's saying. It's hard to tell from the language in the letter.

Today was the start of the park's fishing competition. Not many participants so far - perhaps anger about the geese? Anyway, the secret of what is in those new storage containers was revealed - tables, chairs, little shelters, and lots and lots of fishing lines. Also some signs warning about how to fish without hurting the birds.

Rumor, Innuendo, Gossip & Hearsay Tidbits (RIGHT)
Haven't checked it out yet, but I heard that the Lakeside end of the Lake, with its new skating rinks and many plantings, is finally opened, and the Lake has been refilled at that end. There is a suspicion that protecting this area was one of the factors behind the geese extermination.

Rumors, innuendo, gossip and hearsay

Time for a bit of a reboot on this blog. The story of the dead geese is everywhere, the Times, Brooklyn paper, on NPR (Thank you Leonard Lopate), the Ditmas Park Blog. I feel like I have missed the boat a bit, since we were away for a week. Also (true confession) my leg has still been bothering me, so I don't always go to the park, but rely on Ber and JJ and their reports. Anyway, I'm getting plenty of 2nd and 3rd hand information about this horrible event. As a former lawyer, I really do think that hearsay is inherently unreliable. However, Here's a roundup of some of what I'm hearing.

The geese were rounded up at 4 AM on Thursday - under cover of darkness - then put on trucks and gassed with carbon dioxide, supposedly a humane kill method which does leave the meat edible. The Parks department immediately started lying about the lack of geese. "they flew away." Impossible since 1) they were molting and 2) the goslings can't fly yet - no wings, just fuzz. The goose with the arrow in its neck, which the parks Dept. was trying to save a short while ago, was included.

The claim is that geese were removed to protect the planes, to create a 7 mile no-fly zone around JFK. Prospect is more than 7 miles from JFK - more like 12-13 miles. Supposedly, the people who did the gassing were originally planning to kill the geese at Jamaica Bay (right next to the airport). The Gateway people wouldn't let them, so they came to Prospect Park, since they had all the equipment anyway. Again, THIS IS RUMOR AND HEARSAY, NOT PROVEN FACT.

Commentators in all the papers, blogs, radio, are having their say, often very strongly and on both sides. The geese must die - people are more important. The geese must live - anything else is murder. And everything else in between.

The real problem: the Parks Dept. cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Their decision-making is secretive and surreal. The geese had a definite fan base and will be missed. Yes, there were too many of them for the space, but surely there was a better solution, if only the Parks Dept. had bothered to look for it. That's really all I think I want to say on this.

The Good News: I finally went to a doctor (an orthopedist) about my leg. As my daughter tells me, the first step is to admit you have a problem. The second step is to put yourself in the hands of a higher power. the higher power in this case is a rehabilitation person. Since my leg has been hurting, I've been using my "good leg" more. Now I need to rebuild the "bad leg," then it will stop hurting. So I shouldn't worry ab out "overdoing" it and injuring myself more. Nice to know. So I'll be in the park more, and I think I'll stick to what I actually see when I'm there. No more gossip,l rumor, innuendo, hearsay. Opinions, yes. the fun of blogging.

What I saw in the park this morning:

We only went as far as the Peninsula. We saw 6 geese. Four in one group, looking like they are starting a tiny flock, and two others. There may be more in other parts of the lake. We saw two adult swans in the lake. Tomorrow we'll make it over the the Boathouse and check on the rest of the Swan family. The paths are looking fairly clean - many trash cans set out now. All the cans that FIDO bought that were being kept in the skating building are now finally out. However, the paths into the phragmites are overgrown and truly disgusting - people are using them as toilets - and I don't mean just the smell of pee. There is one disgusting photo. You are warned not to enlarge it if it will disturb you. The fishing line receptacles are all full. Will they be emptied? Inquiring minds want to know. And the ducks look quite happy to have the lake back.

All the geese in the park are dead

This seems surreal, but all the geese, about 400 of them, in Prospect Park are dead. As of last Thursday. thought it seemed quiet in the bird dept. Seems they were thought to be a hazard for JFK Airport. Also, they were molting and not flying. So the Ag. Dept. gathered them all up and gassed them, the bodies to be put into trash bags and sent to the dump. This seems crazy. According to the article in the times, these were not the geese who have been bothering planes - this was just a precautio9n. Apparently, they could have killed them and used them as food for the hungry - this has been done before. But no, they were just slaughtered and wasted. I know I had referred to them as Nazis, taking over the lake. BUT THAT WAS A LITERARY TROPE, not a call for extermination.

Of course I don't want geese flying into plane engines and bringing them down, but this seems really excessive and horrible. Don't know what else to say.

We're Back!!

We had a wonderful extended 4th of July weekend in New Hampshire. My kids (who are grown) have been going for years - friends of theirs have a family place on a lake. Their Grandfather bought it about 60 years ago, and it's been in the family. Two branches - 1 gets July, 1 gets August. Every 4th of July, all the kids go up. We've always been invited, and decided to go this year - a perfect respite when the temperature is over 100! It was quite wonderful. 28 overnight guests! Tent city! They have two houses plus two little cabins, plus a nice lawn for tents. Opportunity to compare their lake with Prospect Park Lake! Would make a nice Venn diagram.

1. Theirs is bigger, but not a whole lot. 1/2 mile by 1 mile, more or less.

2. Both have plants growing and taking over the lake. Their's are native, and slower growing than our invasive phragmites. We took a shift pulling them out of their lake - roots were quite firmly in place, but we had a grand time getting cool and covered with mud pulling them out.

3. Clean swimmable, cold water vs. warm, shallow, not-so-clean water in prospect Park Lake.

4. Both have ducks. Only PP has swans and geese and occasional seagulls.

5. Both have fish, but you can catch and eat the New Hampshire fish. Both have very loud bullfrogs. Don't know about New Hampshire turtles.

6. PP Lake has pedal boats. NH has canoes, kayaks, and a few motorboats and party boats. Also a raft with chairs that putt-putts around the lake. Looks weird - like chairs walking on water.

7. Prospect Park has fireworks on land, NH has them around the lake - different lake-house owners put on their own display for the rest of the lake. One guy had a huge display, trying to outdo everyone. Our group had a few largish rockets, but mostly small ones - sparklers and such. They are legal in "Live Free or Die" New Hampshire, though you have to pay and get a permit for a campfire on your property.

8. NH - hardly any trash. No point in mentioning the PP trash situation. It gets pretty bad in summer. However, there are now a few large dumpsters in the park (see photo). Definitely better than the too-few trash cans, p0lus they are probably safe from raccoons.

Today was FIDO's Coffee Bark - usually it's the 1st Saturday of the month, but they moved it one week after, cause of the 4th. Norana and Austin and their new adorable Australian Terrier Chewie joined us. A fine time was had by all. It really feels like a peaceable kingdom - dogs and owners sharing food and liquids, with no barking, fighting, or any of that.

Swan family photos

My, my, my. Hard to believe our little cygnets are only 6 weeks old. They're already bigger than the ducks that we socialize with!! Yet they're still gray and downy and cuddly looking - sort of like that giant baby in Toy Story 3. The size and the appearance don't quite mesh. Makes you understand where the concept of
The Ugly Duckling" came from. Anyway, our swans are living in what looks like Paradise! Lots of yummy duckweed to eat, friendly neighbors, and the geese don't seem to come around here to bother us. Occasionally a mischievous child will throw something, but luckily we are fast and their aim is poor. Our exercise regimen: run from the children. Here are a couple of videos, taken today, age 6 weeks. I love how the cygnets are already bending their little necks - they almost look like vultures at times!
And just look at the still photo of the little ones spreading their stubby little wings! Hard to believe that they will ever attain full 5 foot wingspread and swoop around the lake, but they will!

Another bit of news: spoke to the bridge repair crew. they are repairing the four corners of the bridge, shoring up the corners to prevent bricks from falling, as a few have done. They say it should only take a few weeks. Hope it doesn't look too much like a band-aid!

No blogging till next week - off to New Hampshire for a long weekend of lake and sun and BBQ with friends.