News about Jamaica Bay

Just to take a little break from Prospect park today, there's a great article in the NY Times today about Don Riepe and Jamaica Bay, "the only National park reachable by subway." Don Riepe (REE pee) is a retired naturalist and one of the founders of the American Littoral Society. "Littoral," by the way, rhymes with "literal" and refers to the part of the beach between the upper and lower tide levels. We met Don and the Littoral Society about 2 years ago, when we went with them for a walk on the beach there to see the a particularly low tide and the newly-revealed plant and animal life. Saw loads of animals, birds, plants, ruins, etc., all kinds of stuff, and had a great walk. There are hundreds of different birds living there.

Anyway, Jamaica Bay has been deteriorating, diminishing, etc., recently. Now there's an agreement with the city to control the nitrogen levels in the water, which should help to restore the Bay. The article explains it far better than I can. Here's a link: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/nyregion/jamaica-bay-a-wild-place-on-the-edge-of-change.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=jamaica%20bay&st=cse

Sit back, enjoy your Sunday, read the article, and be amazed that all this stuff exists right here, and people are trying to save/preserve it.

Busy busy park

Huge crowd of dogs at the Peninsula today. Maybe because it's Saturday, or the weather was fairly cool this morning, or it rained yesterday, but there were many large dogs, all jumping and swimming in the lake. A couple of fights, one with JJ (Shame on her!) over one of her sticks or perhaps a ball lying there. Anyway, we decided JJ had enough freedom and put her back on the leash. A young dog owner thanked us for being responsible dog owners. It was so sweet!

The boathouse pond is completely covered with duckweed. Nice for the swans and ducks, but we need more boards to keep control of it.

In Manhattan yesterday...ballet dancing in the street, at 7th Ave. and 58th st. Beautiful.

Ah! the power of fans!

We've been going to the park, but for some reason I've not been able to sit and write about it. Then, today, some people asked me why I hadn't written about some of Wednesday's activities. Cured whatever mini-writer's block I was having.

So, Wednesday morning was cool, clear, perfect. I'm not the only one commenting about the weather. Someone told me it is 80% of the e-mail conversations these days (rumor, not fact). Anyway, it was so nice that everyone was out. Two of my neighbors - 1 watering, 1 reading the paper - at 715 AM, We talked with both and had to tear ourselves away or we would never have gotten to the off-leash hours. Many, many people in the park, all enjoying the beautiful morning and catching up on talking and gossip and news.

The news:

1. Latest goose rescue: One of the geese was spotted looking quite ill. David, Mary Beth and Rina (from FIDO and For the Love of Geese) managed to catch it, and drive the bird to the animal sanctuary out in Riverhead. They sent me some adorable pictures of the goose on the road trip, which I shall try to post here. Bird arrived safely. Today, we learned it probably had botulism, from bad food thrown into the lake. Nice rescue, and it's great to see people working co-operatively

2. Fish poacher was actually arrested! He'd been caught before, dumped his bag of 3o-40 fish into the lake and ran off. A few days ago he was caught again, and actually ticketed! Again, with 30-40 fish in a bag. And with botulism in the lake!! From what I heard, the park police might have let him ago, but he got nasty. Good. I hope he is fined the thousands of dollars that he should be, and stops poaching. And that the case gets lots of publicity. One article with a lot of misinformation in the Brooklyn Paper so far.

Trying to be stern. It's hard. If he only had 1 or 2 fish, I'd be sympathetic and concerned that the guy was just hungry. But 40! I wonder if he sells them. I wonder if he makes other Brooklynites sick. Then, I was thinking back to my lawyer days at Legal Aid. If I was assigned to a Prospect Park fish poacher..... I think we all would just have laughed so hard. The view is so different no that I spend a lot of time in the park.

3. Park looking great. The lake had been dredged and cleaned the day before. Not perfect, but much better to look at and smell. Vive Emily Lloyd!

The Wimps are back in town.

Husband had a great Dr's appt. last Tuesday - everything is fine. So we got up at 6 on Wed. AM and ran away from home. Off to NH to our friend's and their lake. It was only in the 90's, and we sat in the shade under their trees lakeside, going into the lake every hour or so to cool off. We must have thrown sticks into the lake for JJ to swim out and fetch 100 times! It was so great!!! This was the same place we went on 4th of July, only now it was just the 2 friends, son and mom, and us. Occasional trips to town - shopping, farmer's market, dinner, them back for another swim. We didn't see the wild turkeys with their babies, probably because the little field had been hayed, the grass was short, and it felt unsafe for them.

It is the most beautiful spot! We are so lucky to have these people as friends, and they are so lucky to have this spot. Grandpa bought it, and the two branches of the family share it. Our friends have July, the other side takes August. Not that they don't get along, it's just easier, and everyone can have loads of guests when they want to. The only bad part is that Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's 8 years ago. She had been deteriorating very slowly, but in the last year or two it seems to have speeded up. She used to be a college professor - sharp, intelligent, political, funny, all the positive things you'd want in a mom/woman/teacher. Almost all gone. She's quite happy most of the time, so it keeps us happy, having endless conversations about how beautiful everything is. And JJ adores her and vice versa.

So when the weather changed on Saturday, we decided to head home. Imagine our surprise when it was still 97 in CT! So, we got a bit of the ultra-hot, although daughter laughs at us because we missed the heat index of 115. Oh well, tomorrow will be in the 80's - perfect park weather for wimps like us.

Too hot, bad air

So: we were not up at 6 today but a little after 7 - our regular time. We barely made it to the park. Poor JJ was cooling off in the lake twice before we even made it to the Peninsula. No running around at all, the poor old thing. The air felt so thick that it was like cutting through it to walk. No Hill, no running today. It's about 2 miles for us just to go to the park and back, so I can't say we did nothing, but it felt like so little ans was exhausting.

The cormorant is back on his perch today. Maybe he had trouble flying in this air. I notice last year's cygnets are no longer gray at all, but their beaks are still not bright orange, so they are still not fully mature.

I think its time for an air-conditioned movie today. I hope the Harry potter early show is not too full up with a zillion kids. I suspect they're more the "after lunch" crowd - we'll see.

Earlier and earlier

Hate to go on and on about weather, but it does seem to b e a big part of my life these days. We were up and out early, a little after 6, to avoid the humidity and heat that we expected later. Worked like a charm. Lots of energy going up Lookout Hill. NOT A SINGLE CRACK BAG!!! Lots of bottles and cups and those sweet cigar wrappers, which I did pick up. Nice young man sitting on the steps contemplating the morning or his life or whatever offered to help and did. We commiserated on whay can't people take their trash to the cans - they're at the top and the bottom, not so far away.

Four people on the top of the hill doing morning exercises! Not a group, just four individuals having their morning routines. It is such a beautiful location, being the tallest spot in Brooklyn and all.

Almost no other dogs out - maybe 3 in each meadow that we visited (Nethermead and Peninsula). They started arriving in bulk as we left, just before 8. No geese in sight when we arrived - they don't sleep near the beach. And no beautiful cormorants this morning.

Panic near the Boathouse - we saw only one big, gray, fuzzy cygnet! Looked all over, finally spotted the rest of the family coming towards the lone, independent early riser. What a relief!

A Cleaner Park!!!

It doesn't feel like the heat wave is back, but NO ONE wanted to go to the park this morning. I slept late, and JJ insisted on turning around and coming home after a block or so - never even got to the block of Argyle between Church and Caton which we refer to as The Buffet - an array of food for JJ from one end of the block to the other - ribs, chicken, veggies in sauce - a doggie's heaven. VERY short leash on that block, although she usually manages to get something.

Luckily, we went yesterday, which was another beautiful day. This is kind of a boring blog message, but what can you do? I must say, the Park does seem to be looking cleaner (although we don't look under the toilet shrubs. They've gone from 1 to 2 and now 3 Dumpsters next to the Nethermead! Not totally gorgeous, but they keep the place much nicer. At one time they asked Tony to clean up there. Tony's also a Park volunteer, and regularly (along with a few others) keeps the Peninsula clean. Were they kidding? I think not, but Nethermead is at least 4 times as big as Peninsula!

Only 1 crack bag and one bottle on Lookout Hill. I wonder if there's someone else picking up trash besides me, because it had been a fabulously beautiful night the evening before, and I'm sure that many many people were hanging out., partying, etc. in the park. An extremely fit man doing Tai Chi at the top, very silently. So we were silent too, in order not to disturb him. 32 geese at the beach, and all the swans look fine.

bird and dog pictures

So glad the 97 degree heat has taken a rest, though it's supposed to be back next Monday. Maybe we'll head back to NH for a couple of days, check out how the turkeys and their babies are doing. But today was fantastic - perfect temperature, blue sky, slight breeze. But my husband mentioned that he doesn't remember such a nice day since 9/11. Hmmm. Almost 10 years ago, seems like last week. Anyway, all the birds seemed to be enjoying the day as much as the people.

Saw Anne and Ed and Martin. One of the goslings (I only saw 25 today) has a fishing hook in the side of its face. Poos thing! There was a cygnet with a hook in its leg a couple of days ago - the 3 of them caught it and freed it, and it's fine now. There was a nice photo in one of the papers. But this hook is in a gosling, and Martin said he couldn't catch it. The face is swelling up, and Martin says he'll keep trying, though the bird is extremely quick and active. He does this frequently - maybe once a week or even more. These are always the illegal, barbed hooks, and they don't come out by themselves.

Earlier and earlier

So, with a 2 day heat advisory in store, we were up and out at 6:30 to get all of our great outdoor time in while we could still enjoy it. Only 7 crack bags on Lookout hill (4 yesterday). We walk up, picking up trash, then sit on the nice stone wall at the top to give our huffy-puffy selves a little rest. We wear shorts and light tops. then we met another huffer-puffer, but this man was in a hoodie and long pants, with plastic around his middle and an aluminum headpiece. He's trying to loose a bunch of weight. He was 300 pounds, now is 265, wants to loose about 30 more. We had a nice chat, mostly about these young 'uns who run up and down Lookout Hill without even slowing down. At least we've started and are doing something!

B says he has heard of this method of trying to loose weight. In fact, the Army recommends it for people who need to loose 5 - 10 pounds to be ready for a weigh in. To me, it sounds like just water loss, and not really good. But I guess that if it helps you feel good about the process, than it can be a big help.

The early, the very early, and the unbelievably early

We get to the park at about 7:30, which we think is pretty early. Only a few dogs and people. But there's a man carrying his not-so-small pug. So of course, I made my my usual friendly-but-slightly snarky comment about whom is exercising who [or it is who is exercising whom?] Anyway, THEY have been in the park since 6, and the poor dog wouldn't walk any more. I was certainly impressed.

I was noticing that the people in the park when we arrive are definitely different from those in the park when we leave, at about 9. When we arrive, it's lots of single people - especially in a morning like this, when it's going to be pretty hot later in the day. They're doing different things - fishing, doing a puzzle, reading, napping, tai chi, drinking coffee, just watching the lake and the birds, taking pictures, but all on their own, enjoying the morning. Two separate people at the BBQ Plaza reserving for two different parties ( I asked - probably didn't need to, cuz I noticed the tablecloths were different.) All gone by 9. Then it was groups, usually with kids. Team Frisbee players, families, hikers, birders, groups of exercisers, all out in the shade. Sunday in the Park Day!!

Large bird in a tree by the Boathouse. Seemed content to sit and watch the swan family, as did we.

They've added a Spanish "No BBQing" sign in the Peninsula, along with the English signs. Not quite as pretty as the English sign, but it gets the message across, I guess. No signs of BBQing in the Peninsula since the signs went up, although I helped Tony pick up trash there today - there was a seat from a car in the bushes!! Darn, I forgot to take a picture, but it's in the dumpster now.

By the way,. Tony [FIDO] says the Parks Dept. (or the Alliance, I forget which) told him in January that the no BBQ signs were ordered and expected soon. SOON? Six months? Seems like a lot, but then there's a tot lot on the end of my block that took three years to fix up. And yet, a "New York minute" implies speed. Hmmm,

Back in the park...

After a week in New Hampshire and 3 days of sleeping late, it was great to get back to the park today. Up Lookout Hill and all the way over to the FIDO Coffee Bark in Long Meadow. We did maybe 5 miles, huffing and puffing most of the way up the hill, but it was an excellent workout. Amazing how these days I need to keep it every day or I feel like I haven't moved in weeks. I did swim back and forth across a lake in New Hampshire, but it wasn't enough to keep me in shape. Not that I'm in such great shape, but not so bad either. I remember reading that when Margot Fonteyn, the great ballerina, was in her 40's, she had to train 4 hours each day just to keep in the same shape. And she actually did it!

30 geese and the three cygnets happily swimming in the lake, near the beach. Fabulous weather, and a good crowd at the Coffee Bark. There are nice "No BBQing" signs at the Peninsula, and a lovely little bit of art - orange feathers in a few trees. Pictures included.

There were wild turkeys and their chicks all around the house in New Hampshire where we stayed. Note: the pictures of the turkeys were taken in NH.