Beautiful sunny day in the park actually it's been gorgeous for a few days, since we managed to miss the rain and thunder. JJ has her new summer cut - I am posting before and after pictures. She now has a velvety smooth coat and is much friskier. Less fur to carry plus she stays cooler. Met a woman who has had Border Collies or at least part Border Collies. Border collies get out a lot, and there are a lot of "parts" out there. Anyway, she says Border Collies are generally hardy and quite long-lived. this is a relief to hear. JJ is now 9. Our previous dog, Lucy, a Golden retriever, only lived to be 11. I know that big dogs don't live as long as small ones, so we were getting sad in anticipation. She said the longest lived dog in the world was a Border Collie who lived to be 27! Wouldn't that be grand!
Anyway, to get back to spring in the park...Sprucing up the cruising boat outside the Boat House. Port-a-john still topped over, lots of ducks, turtles out sunning everywhere (how silly of me to have worried!), 3 cygnets in sight, only 1 lone goose that I could see. HOWEVER, I did see Martin from Prospect Alliance about to go out in a boat, and had a chat with him.
First, the good news: the swan parents are nesting at the other end of the lake - not the same nest as last year, but a new one. They are doing fine. He says there are about 30 geese at the lake, all nesting.
The bad news: He has addled all the goose eggs he has found. He says he hasn't done anything to the swan eggs. We had a warm (less than heated, but with some passion) discussion about this. We agreed that killing all the geese last year was bad, and that it was not the Parks Dept. who decided to kill. That's the baseline of agreement. He says they are addling the geese eggs because they don't want any resident geese in the park, since that would eventually lead to an overcrowded situation and inspire someone (mayor? Feds?) to come and commit genocide again. Migrating geese passing through would be fine. I said that I thought wildlife was important, and that wildlife management meant keeping a small (50-100?) resident population of geese in the Park. And Martin, should you happen to read this, please feel free to comment and correct if I have misstated your position.
Anyway, the Brooklyn paper has an article and a video of one of their reporters following Martin to addle the eggs. Well, they don't actually addle the eggs, they just go and visit a pre-addled nest, and you get to see how upset and protective the father goose is. The reporter was totally gleeful about the whole thing, while I was not. Very disturbing that anyone can be so happy about killing wildlife and potential wildlife. Here's a link:http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/34/18/web_gooseaddlevid_2011_5_6_bk.html
Martin has not seen the 4th cygnet, the one that I think is male. No sign of him, living or not. It is quite likely that he has flown elsewhere, maybe to Gateway or another swan habitat. Let's hope.
My husband, who does try to get me out of my dark, angry moods, pointed out how nice it was to see the migrating geese this year, that it would be a nice cyclical thing by which to measure the seasons, etc. Hmph!
Thank you for attempting to speak up for the geese. It is very hard to do that these days as the birds are under so much assault and debasement.
ReplyDeleteObviously, the city's goal is extinction of native geese at Prospect Park.
A very reliable source quotes only 23 geese at PP as of yesterday.
If constantly thrwarted from producing any young, the mated pair of geese at PP will either "divorce" or just go somewhere else and attempt to nest.
By the way, I would be VERY concerned about the swan continuing to breed. You should be aware that Mute Swans are also considered an "invasive species" and are already on govt hit lists.
A few years from now you may have swan gassings at PP, saying they are "pests" or airline threat. The precedent has already been established with the geese.
My comment to Brooklyn Paper on the egg addling video:
ReplyDeleteThe goose egg addling video is troubling on many fronts.
First of all, there was only one nest found.
This, after the entire native population of geese were killed last summer and there are less than two dozen geese at PP now.
"Management to extinction" is not something to be supported by anyone who cares even remotely about wildlife, of which Canada geese are a part.
Also, eggs are supposed to be dropped in water to determine if they are viable. If viable, they are not to be oiled.
That was neither shown in the video, nor even mentioned.
I am normally a big supporter of the Brooklyn Paper and still thank you for covering this issue so skillfully and in depth.
However, the flip nature of this video is deeply disturbing, as well as its implications to the geese who are already so persecuted and decimated.
For shame on this.
"We have met the enemy and it is us."
Please extend my apologies for the human race to these two geese whose would-be babies have been destroyed.