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!

Meditation

Three adults and two dogs to the park this morning. We got there early, before 8, and it was amazingly quiet. Only a couple of other dogs at the Nethermead, maybe because it's Monday, maybe because the clocks went forward this weekend, and people are adjusting. B and I did our usual circling the Nethermead, with JJ running back and forth between us. So silent and meditative and restorative, and all those other good things. N and Chewie played with the two sheepdogs who were there. They were amazing - one tiny Australian Terrier and two huge sheepdogs, all bounding and jumping on each other and having a great time. In another 1/2 hour the other 40+ dogs arrived, plus a police helicopter overhead and two large Parks trucks drove along. Still, it was nice to have the moment.

"You can never have too much snow."

So said the young men in the park today, after our not-so-short hiatus. My husband had some surgery, recovered, and is now complaining that his legs have gotten too skinny, so we have started back to walking the dog in the park. I have no such excuse for not going, except that I haven't felt like it. Too cold, too far, insufficient clear walkways, etc. etc. etc. Whine, whine, whine. Today: it's cold, but the sun is shining, and I put on my best mountain hiking boots to prevent slipping and sliding, and off we went. With two dogs. Ours (JJ) and Chewie, my daughter's dog. We ran into her outside, walking Chewie in her pajamas and complaining that it was cold (about 20 F), and took Chewie with us. We've been hearing that park hasn't been plowed, and it pretty much hasn't been. Looks like only car roads have been cleared, and the horse path. The park accomodates horses, not people? Hmmm.

However, the walking paths have been packed down fairly well, so we took the dogs to the Nethermead and let them run loose. On the way, we heard a great rumble of noise. Turned out to be snow-making machines. Snow-making machines? On top of the deepest snow in many years. What on earth was going on? So we stopped to ask. These young men had come south 600 miles to help NYC prepare for our Winter Jam this weekend by adding more snow. "Isn't there enough already?" I asked. Hence our title: "You can never have too much snow." What a different in attitude from mine and most of New Yorkers, who have pretty much had it with the snows of the last month or so. Well, they're from 600 miles north. Clearly Canadian and totally imbued with the niceness that our neighbors to the north seem to be born with. No bitching, moaning or complaining from them!!! I think I'll try it....I'm already smiling more!

Anyway, they seemed to be having a great time, were delighted to answer our questions (obviously NOT from the Parks Dept.) And it was quite beautiful to watch, especially with the sun coming through the snow-making mist.

Other observations: the Lake is almost completely frozen. Swans, geese, ducks, coots, gulls, etc., all cohabiting the small open space quite peacefully. Very crowded. Somewhat reminiscent of Pymatuning Park in Pennsylvania, where the the fish and ducks are so crowded that that they are known for the ducks walking on top of the fish.

Just an ordinary day

Fairly hot and humid in the park this morning. It was cloudy, and we thought it might rain. No such luck. Felt quite lethargic, so we just took JJ to the Peninsula and walked around, while she ran from side to side. Actually, I sat on a log for a while, enjoying the quietude, while Ber walked around the meadow. Ducks and swans and geese all quietly swimming around.

Saw Tony, the head of FIDO, who was also feeling lethargic, but he has many more reasons to feel lethargic than I do (health and age). It's always nice to see him and chat. He tells us that someone at the Coffee Bark has now nicknamed Anne Joan of Park. I like it better than the Swan Princess - much more dynamic, which she is.

Fun at the coffee bark!

Great time at the FIDO Coffee bark today. Norana and her dog Chewy came along with me and Ber and JJ. We met two adorable Pomeranians who had a great time with Chewy. One tried to walk him, the other was even more friendly. JJ has true dog instincts and kept close to her humans hoping for food. Which she got - there are little biscuits for the dogs. Chewy is not so food oriented (puppy mill result) but he does let me feed him now. We have to keep Chewy attached to his the leash because he still doesn't come when called, and he can run faster than all of us. Ber met a dog named Bear, and we hav e a portrait of the two of them.

I actually biked - did 7 miles in all today. Very good for the leg. I had to go in circles from time to time so the walkers could keep up with me. My balance is very poor at 3 MPH, but I hope to improve. Looks to be a huge party day in the park. There was a police car escorting in several cars setting up for a huge family reunion party in the Nethermead.

The bridge repair seems to be done. There's a wood lining under the bridge, over the paths, so no falling bricks will hit anyone. The metal plate is still gone. Hopefully it is being repaired and will be replaced.

Perfect, stunningly beautiful day.

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!!

It's My Park!

We had a really great day in the Park yesterday. It was "It's My Park Day," and we were two of the many people who volunteered to clean up the park from 9:30 to 2. Our group collected 54 bags of trash from our part of the lake front (from the Wollman parking lot to the southeast end. We met and were in the same group as Greg Mocker, the Channel 11 guy who's been the squeaky wheel that's gotten more action from the park. He and Karen, our Parks Dept group leader, both wore waders and were impressive walking around in the water. The rest of us had bags, gloves, trash-pickers, lake scoopers, and rakes. A car radiator, a trash can lid, a complete pair of shoes, what looked to be a family size bucket of chicken and biscuits, and bags and bags of blankets and clothes were some of the highlights. The weather was perfect, and the smells were horrendous as they stirred up the muck amongst the phragmites. I could use a camera with smell-o-vision. Ber and I are contemplating getting waders so we can go in the water next year.

I got a souvenir. What looked like an open can buried in the ground was hard to pull out, so I used a toothbrush (found in the phragmites, along with a razor and underwear) to dig it out. It turned out to be a large piece of hand made pottery! You can see the coil marks on the inside.The top was broken but otherwise intact! I wonder how many years it had been buried there.

We also spotted 2 groups of goslings. Nine in one group and 6 on the other. I am no longer worrying about their numbers. They are plentiful and doing fine. They are so funny looking, staying close together and trying to keep up with the adult geese.

Since we were so filthy and smelly after hard work and mud, we stayed in the park and went to our friend Vanessa's BBQ in the Nethermead, where Rigel, Norana and Austin, and JJ were, had set up a spot. Greg Mocker joined us and no one seemed to mind our post-cleanup condition. They had Purell, with which er were generous before touching food. Vanessa is in from California, where she now lives, and served (among other things) "California Dogs." Bacon wrapped around a tofu dog, with guacamole. She said she went to a Dodgers game and asked for sauerkraut on her dog, and they acted like they'd never heard of sauerkraut. My how the dodgers have changed since they left Brooklyn.

We also noticed that all the trees in the BBQ areas have ribbons wrapped around them with the phrase "charcoal kills trees." Hope this helps. I suspect people think charcoal is natural, and therefore good for trees. Not so! And the brand new BBQ Plaza is already being used.

No posts for a week - we are leaving for a week in a cabin near the Finger Lakes. Enjoy your park now that's it's spanking clean.

A little history as of March 10, 2010

For about six months now, my husband Ber has been taking our dog JJ to Prospect Park, here in Brooklyn, every morning. It's a wonderful large park, and dogs can run off-leash before 9 AM in 3 very large meadows (Peninsula, Nethermead, Long). Every day is a little different. At the beginning of this year, when I retired, I started to go with them. Not every day - the newly retired like to sleep in from time to time, just because they can. We climb Lookout Hill, the highest point in Brooklyn, and enjoy the view. We look around at the trash and do not enjoy the view. Until last week, the large pond was very nearly frozen over. The clear space was crowded with swans, ducks, geese, seagulls and pigeons. Sometimes we bring unsalted popcorn to feed them. We've met other people who come, feed the birds, and kind of keep an eye on things. I have started to bring extra plastic bags to pick up some of the trash.
Anyway, as I said, every day seems to bring something new. Last week there was a dead raccoon atop Lookout Hill. We kept JJ from eating it, reported it to the Park Police, and now it is gone. At the beginning of the winter there were 7 swans living on the lake. Now there are 10. One lone male arrived about 6 weeks ago, and a couple arrived the other day - swooping across the sky, making a noisy long landing on the pond to make their presence known. ("We're here, look out, don't bother us.") The swoop was yesterday. Today, we didn't see them, but the pond was almost completely unfrozen today, and the birds are distributed all over.
I'm going to try to make daily observations about what we see.
GOOD THINGS: There were a number of moms with children, all enjoying the gorgeous spring day. Ed and Anne (our swan-loving friends) were feeding the birds -One or two of the swans eat out of their hands. One of the swans has moved to another part of the lake - by Audubon House.
BAD THINGS: Today, there were some bloodstains next to the lake. Looks like someone might have beheaded a chicken or duck. Voodoo? Food foraging? The stains were on a tree root and on one of the square stone blocks that edge the lake. A few small white feathers nearby. Substantial trash on the steps up Lookout Hill. 18 crack bags today (8 yesterday, 13 the day before). The crack bags were all accompanied by beer cans and cigar wrappers. Mancave in the park??? The trash can that used to be at the top of Lookout Hill disappeared last week, so there's a big pile of trash. The trash can at the bottom of Lookout, where it comes into the Nethermead, has also disappeared, but I carried my big bagful to the center of Nethermead (one of the few remaining trash cans lives there). What is happening to all the trash cans? Hate to harp on trash, but it's such a beautiful park and it would be nice to keep it so.