Pupnic photos!

What a great time we all had at the Pupnick! Friendly people, loads of great dogs, and wonderful food! We had a special off leash time from 5 till dusk. There were obstacle courses, etc., for the dogs. I had to take about 20 picture to get one with a dog in the middle of a leap!
The beauty of digital cameras!

Other pictures: Power demo at 14th street. The bicyclists are providing all the power for the band! This m,ay be a vision o0f the future!

The geese are saved? This is sarcasm.

But before I get to the geese, there were a bunch of good things in the park this morning. Swans doing beautifully, feasting amongst the duckweed. Lots of duckweed. Ducks, too, by the boathouse, leaving clear wakes as they swim, eat, swim. The life of a waterfowl!! The statue is looking quite fabulous in the green duckweed. Perfect spots for beautiful views.

In another area, it's nice the Parks Dept. is taking good care of the plants. Beautiful mulch circles ensuring the health of the big trees.

And, outside the Park, the Brooklyn College parrots (they've been living at BC for years, keeping warm all winter by nesting on the Athletic Field lights) have been moving. I guess there's more and more of them. I got a shot of two of them outside a house in Prospect park South. A little hard to seek since they're green birds in a perfectly matching green tree, but worth a try. This was on Stratford, a few houses north of Beverley.

The geese. Everyone who cares about them is announcing that they have been saved, that the Parks Dept/USDA/whoever murdered the c. 400geese last year, listened to the geese lovers, that all is well. Excuse me. What a load of BULLS**T!! Read the New York article: http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/06/geese_killers_not_even_botheri.html Don't just take my word for it.

Of course, this is my blog and I won't stop saying what I think.

Why this is BS:

1. They are killing 600-800 geese in NYC this year. Gee, they're not spending thousands of dollars to kill the approx. 26 geese now living in Prospect Park. Not only are they killing 600-800 other geese, they're keeping it a big secret so that no one tries to stop them . Apparently NYC citizens have no say in what goes on in their parks.

2. They're letting our 26 live because last year's assassinations/murders were so successful. This means that they can come back and kill any time they say there are too many. And, of course, there is no mention of what would be an acceptable number. No one anywhere is coming up with a number - typical, they might actually be held to it, and no bureaucrat ever wants that!!

3. I don't understand why anyone can be happy about this. They are killing thousands of geese all over the Northeast, geese that have NOTHING to do with airline safety. This is summer. No geese are migrating, and the ones that do migrate in season are living up north now, not here.

DON'T FORGET PUPNIK!! TONIGHT!! 5 PM TILL DUSK IN THE NETHERMEAD!!

Make your dog take you to PUPNIC!!

Prospect Park seems to get more beautiful and lush every day, although it's best to stay on the paths and not look into the tempting, thick shrubs. I guess that's one big difference between a park and the actual wilderness in Adirondack Park. Not that the wilderness is totally clean, but that's another story.

My daughter and her husband (and their wonderful dog Chewie) moved - not too far away, just to Foster and 29th - but it's too far for a regular morning walk in the park. I'm surprised at how much difference it makes in our morning walk. First, there's a bit of empty nest syndrome. All 3 of us miss them. Second, JJ does not really play with other dogs. She used to when when was younger, but she is 9 now, and is more protective than playful. I wonder if this is because of her age? Breed? Life experiences? training? Our attitudes? As the world's worst dog psychologist, I don't even dare to make a guess. Chewie's heart and soul was playing with other small dogs in the Nethermead. Now we go on some different routes, since we don't have to go to the Nethermead every day.

However, life is constantly changing, and we will certainly be there on the 24th, IN THE AFTERNOON, for the FIDO PUPNIC!! See the picture of the flyer, and the Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154670501269229. Off-leash, from 5 PM to Dusk, in the Nethermead, by special permission. Bring a small dish of something (check the link). I'm hoping for great weather and a wonderful turnout. Nice to see more stuff at this end of the park. Who knows, maybe there could be bathrooms and clean-up crews in our future!

Speaking of clean-up crews, did you know that they collect cars that have re-possessed just south of the park? Quite a collection. They bring them there, then load them up and cart them off somewhere. That's what the picture of the truck being loaded up is all about.

THE REALLY GOOD NEWS: Goosebuster [man,. car, dog] is gone!! Deep Throat, Anne-Katrin, and several other people verify this. He was never needed at all this year, but still it's nice that he is finally gone. Let's hope this means very good news for the 20-30 geese still happily living in the Park, and all their many fans and admirers.

Thanks for your comments

To David:

Thanks for the info about seeing about 18 geese. This is very good to know. I am so glad you were enjoying commenting on the Ditmas Park Blog. It would have driven me absolutely crazy. Keep up the good work!

To Anonymous: I have absolutely NO actual information suggesting that "law student" works for Bloomberg - it's just that he seems to be such a strong supporter of the idea of a Bloomberg park (12 square feet of grass, one tree, no animals.) And he has so much time repeating his erroneous facts about geese and everything else.

Thanks for caring.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all you dads and pops.

Sun, sports, and, of course, more about the geese

Gorgeous day after yesterday's dreary rain. 2 people and 2 dogs today, since our daughter is moving, and we took Chewie with us in an effort to exhaust him while the moving is going on. Some success. People in the Nethermead were actually standing in the sun, not the shade so happy to have some sun!

On of the cygnets is in the Lullwater, separated from the other two and quite near a couple of fishermen. We watched for a while from the bridge above them. The fishermen seemed careful and responsible.......I certainly hope so, couldn't stay forever!

Beautiful walk, breakfast from the Snack Bar in the Parade Grounds. It was a delicious breakfast, by the way, such a surprise for a park snack bar! Bacon/eggs/cheese on a roll, good coffee. We sat in the shade watching the sports action. On one side, youth football - kids that looked from about 7 to 17. amazing how some were very fit, others huffing and puffing. Nice to see them all out there. On the other side, the Cosmos had some kind of soccer game going, and we watched for a while. Better quality than the usual weekday morning crowds, but they almost never score!

The geese: The rumor is that they were "accidentally" locked up behind the Lakeside fence, and someone cut the fence to release them. However, I saw zero (0) geese today. And then there's the Ditmas Park Blog story.

Ditmas Park Blog is our local neighborhood blog. I like it a lot, as it reports all kind of things in the neighborhood. FULL DISCLOSURE: They list this blog on the side in a side column, and had a little article about me, but I liked them long before they did those things. Link: (http://ditmasparkblog.com/news/saving-the-geese) Anyway, they list items and people comment. Most items get from 0 to 5 comments. Hot neighborhood issues (e.g. will the new Dunkin Donuts destroy the neighborhood by driving the Gourmet coffee places away?) get maybe 20 comments. SO, they had a little article about the geese. 248 comments, and then they stopped taking new comments. Not 248 people, but rather a few people on each side, pro and con the geese. Some who claims to be a law student (I think he actually works for Bloomberg) who HATES the geese, and a lot of people who love them. Makes fascinating reading, at least for a while. I think people comment like they're having a conversation. But conversations end. People get tired, or bored, or have to go to the bathroom, or even fight, ;but at some point the conversation stops. Not on the Internet. I think we all have to eventually adopt the position: I made my point. In several different ways. this idiot can't see it. I cannot convince him/her. Let it go. Of course, that's NOT what makes the Internet interesting, or so people say. Oh well.

Nice to see clean up crews out in the park, on what will sure be a picnic-filled weekend.

??????? Geese ?????

I don't know exactly what's happening with the geese, except that I only saw 4 of them today - one swimming, three flying low. there are some incredibly wrong and misleading writings about the geese right now, now that they are molting and vulnerable. Some moron named Andrew Burman, writing for AOL travel, has an astonishing collection of misinformation about them. He claims that someone started killing the geese in 2009. WRONG! It was 2010, when there were hundreds of them in the park - too many, I thought. He claims the scandal was a few geese landing in a landfill. WRONG!! It was 100's of them being murdered in the middle of the night, with no warning, no knowledge from the parks Dept., and then the murderers lying about for a week. He claims it was an air traffic safety thing. WRONG!! The Park geese were RESIDENTIAL. This means they stayed here, flew low from one end of the lake to the other, and endangered NO planes at all. The really dangerous ones were the ones at Gateway, right next to JFK, but they are federally protected and cannot be killed.

And then there's the N.Y. Times, who have a delightful (this is sarcasm) article about how someone is planning to kidnap the c. 25 geese from the park, drive them to Pennsylvania, then kill them and feed them to some homeless people there. ARE THEY SERIOUS?? Is this the stupidist idea ever? How many hundreds of dollars will this cost, to feed some poor homeless people a bunch of stressed out geese? Do we really want our beautiful Park to become a butcher shop?

FACT: It was not the Parks Dept. who had the geese killed. It was Bloomberg, and apparently he didn't even bother to tell the Parks Dept. about it.

FACT: There are very few geese this year. There are no piles of goose poop. No geese are attacking humans. This is a beautiful opportunity for Brooklyn children to learn a little about wildlife.

The Park was beautiful today except for the complete chaos, misinformation, confusion, and possibly death of the geese.

Animal Life in the Park

Gorgeous morning in the park, and it looks like the entire borough of Brooklyn was there. Perfectly clear blue sky, and the lights and darks in the trees, etc., were so crisp and clear!

Many fisherman around the lake - they all looked responsible, let's hope so. Tons of dogs and owners on the newly mowed Nethermead. So nice not to get wet sneakers! I keep taking pictures of the dog groups, but they never come out looking like much. Oh well. The geese seem happily hanging out on the beach. Lots of turtles sunning, including one teeny one on a huge log. The picture does not do it justice - it was only about 2 inches long, but the zoom lens makes it look bit.

There was a white egret in the Audubon lake, as well as the swans. And there was a cygnet riding on Mama's back! So cute!! I don't know if only one rides or if they take turns, and will probably never know. All the cygnets look exactly alike to me. My husband and I have ODD (Observational Deficit Disorder).

The only think subtracting from the total perfection of the day was a black helicopter which kept going around and around the Nethermead - big, close, noisy.

Nice hike over Lookout Hill. Only 3 crack bags, but 6, count them, 6 plastic trash bags (no longer there.) Need I ask what is wrong with people yet again? The top of the hill used to be flat and empty, but now is fully grown. Lovely plant life around the edges. Raspberries not ready to eat - give them another week or two.

Swans: the stars of Prospect Park

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Assorted observations

26 geese, all at the beach end of the Lake, and we didn't go around the lake. So, the Eastern part is unknown to me today. 10 crack bags on Lookout Hill. Am I becoming completely OCD? My daughter says I should not count anything for a few days, go home, and see if I worry about it. Probably a good idea, but I'd rather keep track of things right now.

Truck tire on end at the Parade Grounds, looking very artistic. Temperature was reasonable today - so nice after yesterday's 97+ degrees.....saw the little white duck, very cute.

And the swan family is swimming delightfully around the Audubon Boat house part of the Lake.

too hot

Thanks, commentators, for the information about the birds. How many kinds of herons are there? It seems that every time I see a new, large bird in the park, it's a different kind of heron.

Both dogs complained like crazy about the suddenly "long" walk to the park. Today, they refused to go at all, so their walks were a few blocks around here, doing a couple of little errands. No everyone is at home, keeping cool. We don't have full house AC, and last night was the first night we used the bedroom AC. We have an old house with lots of cross-ventilation and very little direct sunlight. We are very happy for all this.

Stay cool, everyone. It's supposed to be reasonable this weekend.

More geese, more unspeakables

So I decided to check on the gosling today, but there was no sign. there was a flock of 24 geese in the middle of the South shore of the lake, then a smaller flock of 8 a little further on. As said, no sign of the gosling, but we didn't go all the way around the lake. On the weekdays, I don't like going around the Lakeside fences - you are in the road with hundreds of cars speeding to get to work. Weekends are fine, just the usual cyclists, runners, rollerbladers, scooter people, walkers, etc.

The park is looking beautiful, very lush and summery, but it's a lie. Every single on of the interesting, dense bushes along the south shore turns out to be a toilet - lots of toilet paper and heaven knows what else - I didn't look closely, but the smells were very bad, truly horrible. At first, since we watch a lot of Law and Order re-runs, we thought there might be a body, but we didn't want to look too closely. Then we thought that it might be winter stuff all decomposing at the same time, though it's a little late. Then we noticed all the bathroom sites. DON'T LET YOUR CHILD GO PLAY IN THE INTERESTING, FORT-LIKE SHRUBS!! And it's senseless, like the authorities are completely ignoring the presence of the homeless in the park. Do they think that if you ignore them they will go away? The problem is that THERE ARE NO BATHROOMS!! There are port-a-johns at the SE and SW corners, but nothing along the c. 1 mile in between. This is the piece that parallels Parkside Ave.

I tried to get a clear picture of the interesting white bird in the lake. Perhaps I need a tripod. any ideas as to species?

Other than that, nice summery day. Dogs and owners have moved to the shady spots, and they are busy fixing street signs on church Avenue.

Am explanation: Some people I met who read this say it is confusing about "where the Haitians hang out" vs. "Drummers Circle. Shall try to clearly explicate. Drummers Circle is on the E side of the park, near the SE corner, between Ocean Ave and E. Lake Drive, across from where the Parking Lot used to be before they tore it all up. For the geographically challenged: the SE corner of the Park is near the Parkside Q stop, the SW corner is at Park Circle, near the TD bank. The "place where the Haitians hang" is along the South side of the Park, next to the Rustic shelter and the fencing around Lakeside. There was once a beautifully carved old tree trunk there - a lion's head. Totally artistic and fabulous. Alas, it got burnt and destroyed over the years. Now there's a painted rock, not as fabulous as the lion but not bad. Benches are in a circle around it, and I have been told that Haitians use it for communal activities. I think I'll call it the Haitian Circle from now on. Hope this clears everything up.

Our love and best wishes to Tony, who is having some medical work done today.

Weekend review

Another beautiful day. Loads of bugs (Thank you, wet spring), but they seem to be keeping to themselves. Well, I say that, but they seem to go after my daughter a lot. Diet? Genes? Who knows? I certainly eat my share of sweets, and more, but I also eat a lot of whole grains, which supposedly contain all those great B vitamins that make you less attractive to insects. Nice to know I'm doing something right with my menu.

All of the geese seem to be at the Western end of the lake. Didn't notice gosling, but I didn't look too closely either. Busy picking up trash from the weekend, as was everyone else. Two day weekends are not QUITE as bad as 3 day weekends, but the day after is still pretty bad. There was a nice looking family group at BBQ Plaza yesterday, which might explain why the trash was prettily neatly packed. THANK YOU!!

Turtles out already - at 7:30! Lets you know what a nice day it is.

Dear Anonymous: You asked if the gosling + family could have walked from Doggie Beach area to the Lake. Probably not, but they could have swum. The waterways in the park are so wonderful, that most people forget that it is a totally fake system, and one system only, starting from the general area near Doggie Beach. The geese could have easily swum, walking around the various waterfalls. For a more detailed explanation, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Park_%28Brooklyn%29 This is part of Wikipedia, which I normally HATE, HATE, HATE, because of its frequent subjectivity and slants, but this article seems pretty clear and objective.

1 gosling, about 25 geese

So we had a lovely walk around the lake today, looking for geese and other assorted birds. N and her husband and the dog (Chewie) decided to have a nice Sunday morning lie-in instead of 7 AM off to the park. What could they be thinking (:) ? Anyway, since JJ is not so nearly as playful as Chewie, we all enjoyed the walk.

Anyway, there was a flock of about 12 geese in the Southwestern part of the Lake, near what I call the beach. Another small flock, about 11, was by the Southern shore of the lake, just past the three islands. And there, just before the little communal space that the Haitians use, was the nice young goose couple with their one gosling that daughter and hubby saw the other day. No idea if the gosling is in good health. at first, it was just sitting on the grass, but then it got up and walked around and ate. And that was it. No other geese that we could see.

There were also 4 strange looking birds in the trees of the three islands. They looked larger than cormorants, maybe vultures. We are not good at bird identifying. Anyone know what they are?

Swan family was happily swimming in the Lullwater, eating lots and lots of weeds.

Very interesting that the geese were all in their flocks at 7:30-ish when we arrived, but had separated by the time we were leaving at a little after 9.

We also had a great time later in the day at a Petanque (aka Boule) tournament in the Parade grounds. Wonderful throwing techniques, friendly people. There's a photo of me with the President of the Petanque Club!