Latest geese report

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!

Back from Baltimore

Back from a terrific 3-day mini-vacation in Baltimore, where there were leaves on the trees, warmth in the air, and Spring had definitely arrived. Three days of visionary art, crabcakes, and water taxi rides across the bay. There were some Canada geese in the harbor. I tried to persuade a pair to come back to Brooklyn with me, but they said absolutely not - seems that word of the Killing Fields of Brooklyn has made it as far south as Baltimore.

I do feel as if I brought spring back with me, since we now have leaves and flowers on the trees, turtles sunning themselves on every possible rock and twig, and tons of trash all about. Come on people, pick up after yourself!! Although Candleman's corner has no candles or any trash at all now. even my little sign has been cleared away.

Only about a dozen geese in the lake these days. Interesting, since there are many news reports about how they're going to oil the eggs and see what happens to keep the population down. Down to what? I don't think 12 are nearly enough. Okay, maybe 300-400 was too many, but it's a big lake. I think we can accommodate about 100 geese in all. that's the number we should be making plans for, instead of making plans to kill and destroy and reduce the population. Parks Dept: Write 1,000 times NATURE IS GOOD, NATURE IS GOOD, NATURE IS GOOD.

I'm sure I'm getting very repetitive and boring, going on and on about how important wildlife is in city parks, but B'berg went on the other day about making the city greener. How can he order the mass killing of wildlife and want a "green" city. The man has no clue. "Green" means more than energy efficient lightbulbs. He says he wants more parks - smaller ones - that no wildlife would find inviting. His ideal park is a concrete square with two trees. Such a far cry from the beautiful vision of Olmstead and Vaux, who gave us the gems that are PP and CP!

We have our own visionary art in PP - see the beautiful silver angel in the pine tree! The haze is smoke from someone starting up a fire in BBQ Plaza.

Some gray musings on a gray day

INSTALLING SPRING... ███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░ 44% DONE. Install delayed....please wait. Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error: Season not found. Season "Spring" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try again.

One of my facebook friends put this up, and it perfectly describes exactly how I feel this morning. Thought I'd share it, since I know I'm not the only one. Gray day, gray thoughts. We are seeing so few animals in Prospect Park these days, and I really miss them. There were so many last year!!It felt like it was their park as well, and I really appreciated their sharing their lives with us. Now they seem to be all gone.

The entire population of geese was, of course, eradicated. And for no good reason. And all the different excuses/reasons given sounded remarkably like the rationale for every genocide every committed. They don't belong. They're dirty. They're dangerous. And now, since these were resident geese, there are no more. A few migratory ones come in, stay only for a while, and leave. Goslings return to the place where they were born. And since all the little baby goslings were also killed, there are none to come back.

Then there is the lack of turtles. Apparently they've been sunning themselves in Central park for weeks, but none here so far. It could be that there haven't been that many warm sunny days, and the rocks in Central Park are a little more open and amenable to warming in what sun there has been. I certainly hope so.

PP itself seems to be getting much less natural and wild. Herbicides to kill off the "bad plants." The Lakeside Project concreting over large areas, with tame, manicured little gardens replacing large portions of fields and grass areas. Everything planned, predictable, safe, boring. The magic of nature and wildlife - gone, gone, gone!

So, on the one hand, I feel very lucky to have experienced the magic of wildlife in PP last year. I feel a little flicker of joy whenever I think about it. The geese flying overhead. The swans puffing up and trying to intimidate each other. The turtles - slipping into the water at the merest hint of sound. The rabbit we used to see. The many species of ducks. Even when the animals fought, which was only very occasionally, it was wonderful. Genuine wildlife!! Maybe not peace and love all the time, but at least when there is a fight it is fair and for a reason. Gee, I wish humans would learn from them instead of wiping them out.

Poor sad turtle

We've been eagerly looking for the first turtle of the year to come out of hibernation. Last year, we were thrilled to see so many sunning themselves on various tree branches and rocks all around the lake. They're especially easy to spot now, before the trees and shrubs leaf out and hide them from view. Well, sad story, we did see a huge turtle, and he was quite dead. Hope this is just a sign of an old turtle and not a harbinger of things to come. We found him in Candleman's corner. I know it's not legal to take live animals from the park, but don't know the law about dead ones. But I would like to have the shell.

Maybe it hasn't been warm enough yet for the turtles to come out. Certainly today it felt like winter was back - rough water and a stiff breeze off the lake. The dogs were very happy. So many this morning! Well, it's Saturday and storms are coming, so guess everyone got their dogs out while they could.

No signs of dead plant life on Lookout Hill, but there were 5 crack bags, 2 condom wrappers, and a quarter and a penny. Signs of spring, I guess, like the geese who are going around in pairs. Again, very few pairs of birds on the lake. Last year's swan nest spot does not look like it is reusable. I suspect the birds are all nesting at the other end of the lake, where it's fenced off for this Lakeside Project and people can't get in to see or bother them.

And a group of very energetic people practicing some kind of aerobic/kick boxing thing on the bridge near the Nethermead. Looked like fun!

First, they came for the animals...

And now they're coming to kill the plants today. Signs up all over Lookout Hill that the Parks Dept. will be spraying Roundup herbicide all over the hill, and we saw the trucks arriving. "If it's alive, kill it!!" seems to be the motto of the Parks Department. What is wrong with these people? Maybe my joke about building condos in the park wasn't such a joke after all?

Other than the threat of death and injury, it was a beautiful day. Lots of dogs, after several rainy days. A red cardinal swooping around a tree. Very few birds on the lake today, but we didn't walk all the way around. The whole lake feels way too empty.

No crack bags on Lookout Hill, but a single boot. Fodder for a short story, I think.

And there are now four truck tires in the Parade Grounds. Definitely looks like someone is using them for some athletic training.

Latest goose-killing news

The BrooklynPaper has an article about the Dept. of Sanitation hiring a biologist to manage/kill/whatever the geese. http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/34/15/dtg_goosekiller_2011_4_15_bk.html. Of course, the article also claims there are 193 geese in Prospect Park now. I don't know where they get these numbers or if they just make them up. I wonder if the rest of the article is as inaccurate. I am losing respect for the Brooklyn Paper daily. They don't seem to believe in fact-checking. Remember Woodward and Bernstein and Watergate? Their guiding mantra was to check each fact TWICE before they'd print it. Sadly, this seems to be a journalistic standard of the past. I think the journalistic standard is now the Wikipedia standard: Just print whatever you want, and if no one bothers to correct it, it must be true. Let's try it out.

NEW FACTS JUST IN:

1. The geese have been meeting in sleeper cells under the Audubon Bridge to plot a takeover of all of Brooklyn.

2. Extra-terrestrials landed in Prospect Park last week and have taken over the bodies of off-leash dogs while they study human behavior.

3. Long Meadow has been sold to a developer for high-rise, high-end condos.

If no one corrects me, these "facts" all must be true, and I am now a journalist!!!!


Everyone realizes these "facts" are a joke, right? RIGHT? Uh-oh.

Misty Morning in Prospect Park

So quiet and peaceful! Just a beautiful misty day, before the fog all burns off and the weather goes up to near the 80's. And some of the animals we saw, just doing their thing, minding their own business.

Ready for the fishing season

Here's Tony, the President of FIDO, getting ready for the upcoming season of fishing, fishing lines left on the ground, in the trees, and around the waterfowl. Net and grabber at the ready! Hopefully, we will lose no birds to hooks and line left by careless fisherpeople this year. I love that Tony cares as much about the birds as the dogs. There are FIDO people who hate the water fowl and birders who hate the dogs, and Tony can name names and tell you exactly who's who. We are united in the concept that the park is for ALL creatures.

I will do regular counts of the geese and swans, so we can keep track. Ducks and gulls as much as I can. As I said, the geese seem to be concentrated in two areas. It's awfully hard to walk around the lake these days - on part of the path you have to walk on hay bales around the Lakeside fencing. Pictures coming in the future.

Yes, I did see all 6 swans. The parents were hanging out south of what I'm calling the main beach. The main beach would be the area closest to Vanderbilt playground, full of nannies and children on nice days. To the south is an area that is a little more secluded and closer to the Park Circle entrance. I don't think the swans have nested yet. Remember, last year's clutch were born on May 21. Mute swans incubate about 35 days, which would mean it starts at April 17. But these numbers are not set in stone, and I think it needs to be a little warmer to lay eggs. As I recall from my farm years, ducks (we didn't have swans) lay an egg a day for a number of days before they start setting on them, and the weather has to be warm enough. I used to find the nest and take all the eggs but one, so the ducks would continue to lay in the same place and we'd have lovely duck egg omelets. (Pause to reminisce). Anyway, one of the cygnets does seem to be separated from the other 3. It's why I think there's one male and 3 females - one of them was always more aggressive, more inclined to spread wings, etc.

Today's goose count: 48 +- 2

Today, we circled the entire lake to count how many geese there actually are. We counted 48, plus or minus 2, since I'm not exactly sure I didn't count a couple of them twice. They are in two groups, one sort of at each end of the big part of the Lake. None in the lullwater or by the Boathouse. And of course, as mentioned previously, none in the Parade Grounds. There are actually more ducks then geese these days. About 40 ducks by the Boathouse, and a similar number in the big lake. Plus, there are the six swans and a blue heron. No sign of cormorants or showy egrets today, but I think they come in from the Gateway area during the daytime to eat, and are in the Park all the time.

The ducks are busily pairing off - numerous couples swimming around the lake, especially the mallards. Well, with the mallards it's a lot easier to tell that they are couples - the males so colorful, the females so brown and speckled. Ah Spring! Lots of other birds, very noisy, chasing each other among the trees, including some red-winged blackbirds, robins, and others. Gosling practicing flight across the lake.

Not so easy to walk around the lake. The whole east end is fenced off for the Lakeside project, with huge dirt mounds inside the fences. We know dog named Puppy, whose owner has a friend who lives on the east side of the Park and is eagerly awaiting the completion of the Lakeside Project. Glad to know some one is, but in the meantime, it's years of ugly, difficult walking conditions. I certainly hope it's worth it, but I am always skeptical of too much stuff being built in the Park. To me, it's always the more nature the better.

More signs of spring: the porta-johns/porta-janes are back, looking fresh and perky. The Snack Bar in the Parade Grounds is open for the season. By the way, the coffee is excellent! Chock-full-of-nuts, always a reliable favorite, and freshly brewed.

Note the interesting little rock monument, and nearby floral offering.

Miscellaneous spring stuff

There's a big, beautiful great snowy egret on the lake. I couldn't find my camera this morning, but daughter N got one with her telephone. Anne-Katrin had e-mailed me to watch out for it, so I'm sure I have the right name for this bird. I can understand how I got confused - it has the same beautiful long, graceful neck as the cormorants.

22 crack bags going up the hill, along with innumerable beer cans and sweet cigar wrappers. I'm not the only one who enjoys the park in spring. I did quite a trash pick-up job!

Candleman is keeping his area quite tidy - only one candle/can there, and it's not lit. My little note requesting a clean up is still there, but the thank you note is gone! N thinks someone just came upon and thought it was nice. I hope Candleman doesn't take it the wrong way and think I no longer appreciate his efforts to keep the area nice looking.

Nothing spectacular today, just a lovely day with the dogs in the park.

Animal behavior

The many, many geese that were hanging out in the Parade Grounds fields that wtill have real grass (not many) were all gone yesterday, and only a very few were there today. I wonder what's going on. Have they migrated back north? Have they moved on to Gateway? They couldn't have been killed, since they are not moulting and can't be gathered up. (They only get murdered when they are moulting, can't fly, and thus defenseless against the round-ups. SO not fair!) I don't think they moved to the park, because there aren't a whole lot of geese in the lake these days. Very curious.

JJ is 9 now and seems to be getting more and more cranky and set in her ways. She is part Border Collie, and is very protective and likes to keep her "herd" together. We once met an actual Border Collie breeder when camping upstate with JJ, who told us that if we don't give her a job, she'll pick her own. Which she did. Protecting us. I have mentioned how we use this to get her to run across any meadow we are at by splitting up and walking around. She goes back and forth, back and forth, trying to get her herd together. We never could sit down. Then she gets really protective and barks at anyone who comes near.

Problem is, now she acts like that when we are just standing around. She reminds me of some people who will never retire because they'd have no idea of what to do with themselves without work.. which got me thinking about work. Dogs don't go to "work." There is no distinction between what we see as their work and their lives. People used to be like that. When did the idea of "going to work" evolve? Was it the Industrial Revolution? Or the Agricultural Revolution, when surpluses allowed the creation of specialists (tool-makers, brewers, artists, etc.) Just some thoughts.

There seems to be no activity whatsoever at the alleged site of the Boardwalk empire filming. Disappointing. Well, the Ditmas Park Blog says they have several other areas in the nabe where they're filming. maybe I'll walk in the other direction later today.

4 cormorants 4

Actually, I didn't see them today (geese and ducks took over the log today), but I have been informed by my readers that they are in fact cormorants, not egrets. Thank you. I feel really bad about not recognizing them, since we saw many when we were vacationing on the Gaspe Peninsula last summer. Even went and used the free Internet in the Visitor's Center to learn more about them. Starting to worry about my memory. Oh well, I haven't put my keys in the freezer yet. Anyway, I do appreciate the corrections although, after this and the Lincoln/Poe incident, I probably should rename this blog the "Find the factual error" blog. Maybe offer a prize? Really, the satisfaction of knowing you have spread knowledge and enlightenment in the world is about the best I can offer.

I also made a semi-joking comment about hoping Bloomberg won't have them (the egrets/cormorants) gassed too. Sadly, it is no joke (thanks, Bonnie). Did some research. Apparently, cormorants have been considered a pest for years, especially in the midwest area of this continent. And why? BECAUSE THEY COMPETE FOR FISH WITH THE FISHERMAN!!!!!!! In 1999, American guides were actually arrested for killing over 2,000 cormorants near the American shore of Lake Ontario. And now I find that Canada has been "culling" (their word for killing) thousands of them for several years now, in spite of protests from their citizens and an organization called Cormorant Defenders International http://www.zoocheck.com/cormorant/?id=14. I found this absolutely shocking. Canada? Land of Nice? I have always considered America the embodiment of what I call the 'John Wayne School of Diplomacy" (Step 1: Shoot and kill). Sadly, it's not just us. Not to go off on too much of a tangent, there's a Canadian guy named Al who keeps sponsoring illegal coyote killing contests, and the authorities don't seem to do anything about it. Of course the prize Al gives away is a gun. Sigh.

On the more local subject of our geese...yes, I do think there were too many of them last summer. In my entries last summer, I kept referring to them as Nazis, partly because they had taken over the lake and driven the swans and ducks away to the Audubon boat house, partly to their habit of, well, goosestepping when they walked. These were supposed to be migrating birds who stopped migrating and moved in. There were about 5 flocks of them, and it really was too much. I didn't want them killed, but I did think we needed to limit the growth of the population in a humane way. Which is why I pretty much like the recent recommendations about the egg-oiling, plantings, no feeding, and occasional use of dogs

Today in the park

I actually haven't been in a few days. Two reasons. One: hubby had to go in for minor surgery, which ended up in a two day stay in the hospital. Two: weather was not conducive. Even JJ didn't want to go. Yesterday, I needed spring so badly I went to Macy's for the flower show which, by the way, was pretty nice and cheerful. Back on track today.

Sure signs of Spring: Clumps of daffodils everywhere. Big bike race. Also, the FIDO Coffee Bark, which has been moved slightly downhill to the Long Meadow, was very well attended. We walked all the way there and back, and even stopped at the Grand Army Greenmarket for some of Rick's Pick's low sodium pickles. On the way back, we saw a group of Girl Scouts gathering at the Asian Pagoda for a day of tree planting and gardening in the Park. Good for them! Also a group of young runners training to be Marines. So vigorous and proud! Couldn't tell if they were actual Marines or some kind of Junior ROTC, but they were doing great on this very beautiful day in the park.

Filming alert: Boardwalk Empire will be filming Monday, 6 AM to 8 PM, around the house with the big wraparound porch on the SE corner of the Argyle/Albemarle intersection. Cameras already in place.