??????? 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.

Rumors, innuendo, gossip and hearsay

Time for a bit of a reboot on this blog. The story of the dead geese is everywhere, the Times, Brooklyn paper, on NPR (Thank you Leonard Lopate), the Ditmas Park Blog. I feel like I have missed the boat a bit, since we were away for a week. Also (true confession) my leg has still been bothering me, so I don't always go to the park, but rely on Ber and JJ and their reports. Anyway, I'm getting plenty of 2nd and 3rd hand information about this horrible event. As a former lawyer, I really do think that hearsay is inherently unreliable. However, Here's a roundup of some of what I'm hearing.

The geese were rounded up at 4 AM on Thursday - under cover of darkness - then put on trucks and gassed with carbon dioxide, supposedly a humane kill method which does leave the meat edible. The Parks department immediately started lying about the lack of geese. "they flew away." Impossible since 1) they were molting and 2) the goslings can't fly yet - no wings, just fuzz. The goose with the arrow in its neck, which the parks Dept. was trying to save a short while ago, was included.

The claim is that geese were removed to protect the planes, to create a 7 mile no-fly zone around JFK. Prospect is more than 7 miles from JFK - more like 12-13 miles. Supposedly, the people who did the gassing were originally planning to kill the geese at Jamaica Bay (right next to the airport). The Gateway people wouldn't let them, so they came to Prospect Park, since they had all the equipment anyway. Again, THIS IS RUMOR AND HEARSAY, NOT PROVEN FACT.

Commentators in all the papers, blogs, radio, are having their say, often very strongly and on both sides. The geese must die - people are more important. The geese must live - anything else is murder. And everything else in between.

The real problem: the Parks Dept. cannot be trusted to tell the truth. Their decision-making is secretive and surreal. The geese had a definite fan base and will be missed. Yes, there were too many of them for the space, but surely there was a better solution, if only the Parks Dept. had bothered to look for it. That's really all I think I want to say on this.

The Good News: I finally went to a doctor (an orthopedist) about my leg. As my daughter tells me, the first step is to admit you have a problem. The second step is to put yourself in the hands of a higher power. the higher power in this case is a rehabilitation person. Since my leg has been hurting, I've been using my "good leg" more. Now I need to rebuild the "bad leg," then it will stop hurting. So I shouldn't worry ab out "overdoing" it and injuring myself more. Nice to know. So I'll be in the park more, and I think I'll stick to what I actually see when I'm there. No more gossip,l rumor, innuendo, hearsay. Opinions, yes. the fun of blogging.

What I saw in the park this morning:

We only went as far as the Peninsula. We saw 6 geese. Four in one group, looking like they are starting a tiny flock, and two others. There may be more in other parts of the lake. We saw two adult swans in the lake. Tomorrow we'll make it over the the Boathouse and check on the rest of the Swan family. The paths are looking fairly clean - many trash cans set out now. All the cans that FIDO bought that were being kept in the skating building are now finally out. However, the paths into the phragmites are overgrown and truly disgusting - people are using them as toilets - and I don't mean just the smell of pee. There is one disgusting photo. You are warned not to enlarge it if it will disturb you. The fishing line receptacles are all full. Will they be emptied? Inquiring minds want to know. And the ducks look quite happy to have the lake back.

I love Memorial Day

What a beautiful Memorial Day this was! The weather was perfect, and it was truly the start of summer. Our own BBQ was not in the park - we are lucky enough to have a beautiful backyard, and on Sunday we had about 40 people over for food and laughs and a general good time. Our BBQ's are multigenerational - our friends and our children's friends. One guy said it was his 15th. He was a teenager, now he's married, a serious grad student, and waxes eloquently on the beauty of urban management. Swan Princess and Knight came (their first time) and I was thrilled to become part of the Swan sisterhood.

The Park is the backyard for so many Brooklynites! It has its own rites and traditions. First someone comes early to get the "spot." There are some favorite and choice spots this year. Usually it's grandpa. There he sits, reading his paper, guarding all the chairs, tables, coolers, cooking equipment, balloons and streamers - all the accouterments of a special family gathering. Sometimes it's the teenage son. If he's alone, he usually looks cranky - not thrilled to be up early to sit in the park. When he's there with his friends, it's a different story - 2-4 guys, hanging out, drinking sodas, laughing and making all kinds of undoubtedly tasteless jokes. Being responsible and having fun.

This year, the BBQ Plaza is really popular. All the tables were reserved. One man nearby man said he's gotten their at 7 AM, but all the spots were already taken. 5 AM next year! By Monday, all the trash cans were full with about a dozen bags around each one. It's a shame the Parks Dept,. can't do a mid-weekend pickup, but a pleasure to see that people do seem to be trying to keep the park clean. All the re3cent publicity - in the News, Post, Times, Brooklyn Paper and Channel 11 seems to have done a good job of raising consciousness of taking care of the park.

Technically, it's still spring, but it really feels like summer has arrived.

War in the Park?

There was a N.Y. Times article about a war in the park in which Papa swan attacked and killed 3 goslings. Here's the link: Just want to say that I am definitely on the side of the swans. Here are the pictures to support my position. The geese are invading the swan nest and attacking it. There have been a lot of them in the swan nesting vicinity. At last count, we saw 17 live goslings in one day, and that was after we had seen some dead ones. The geese are the original invaders in Prospect Park, taking over the lake. There are so many of them! Apparently they have stopped migrating and have found the perfect year-round home right here in Brooklyn. This would be fine, but they seem to be overrunning the place. And now, the protective Papa Swan is desperately trying to take care of his little flock of four. And mama too. They both came right to the edge of the lake to hiss at Ber and JJ this morning, with their cygnets right in between them. (and note the delightfully full log of sunning turtles in the background.) I know that the swans are also an "invasive species," meaning that they are not native to this area, but there are only a few of them and they don't make messes on the grass like the geese do.

Of course, as I reread this, I realize I sound EXACTLY like those disgusting anti-immigration people, talking about hordes of foreigners coming to America. HOWEVER, this is about waterfowl. IT IS NOT ANY KIND OF ANALOGY TO ANY HUMAN ACTIVITIES WHATSOEVER.

We're not the only ones looking after the lake. there's now a Prospect Park Pond Patrol! This is a group of school children who took a trip to the park and became very involved. I am very hopeful about the future, with children like these. Will try to scan in their adorable brochure....managed to do it. First time scanning in something. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?

THIS ENTRY NOT FINISHED - MUST TAKE JJ FOR HER SUMMER HAIRCUT. BACK LATER WITH PICTURES AND MORE

JJ is at the groomers and will be unrecognizable with her summer shave. I'll put photos of her in her cool new look tomorrow.

FOUND IN PARK: what appear to be two turtle traps. This would explain the recent finding of what look like freshly eaten, decapitated turtles.

Tony, the FIDO president, was very upset. FIDO spent a lot of money buying specially designed trash containers for fishing line, to ensure that the lines stay in and do not get blown into the lake to strangle swans, geese, ducks, etc. They were given to the parks department, who claims that they were thrilled to get them. However, the Parks have not put them out. What are they waiting for? Everyone knows that these torn lines are a menace to the animals in the lake.

Lastly, look closely at the last picture. Can you spot the giant (live) carp? He was quite impressive, but the camera's eye is not as clear as the human eye.

A reminder: click on pictures to make them big and clear and, when appropriate, readable.

END OF ENTRY

Some of the pleasures of spring

Here are some of the pictures we took during the last two days. As usual, I haven't figured out how this program decides the order, so readers will have to use their common sense and analytical skills. Another lovely day. Two pictures of lovebirds in the park - one human pair and one swan pair. Big Mallard and Cayuga and entourage in their sunny little corner - just hanging out and basking in the glory of spring. There's a man who was either an undercover officer checking us out or a jogger approving of the photography or both.




And then there's more signs of spring. A Lone Duck checking out his domain. Little blue flowers, Big flowering trees - magnolias and another type. Oops, I forgot to get the magnolias - tomorrow. They are actually growing from a downed tree! And, saving the best for last - the phragmites regenerating. This is the place of the big fire a few weeks ago. The new green shoots are already about a foot high. Plus, it looks like some of the garbage has been taken away, so it really will be a fresh start.
We went all the way in to the Nethermead today - the leg is almost completely back to normal. Poor JJ had forgotten our routine! We did our usual splitting up and going on opposite sides, calling her back and forth. At first, she just stood in the middle, barking at both of us, as Border Collies do (she says, "Herd: You're not in your place!!") Then she remembered and ran back and forth. The water fountains are turned on now, including the ground level doggy fountains - it is really spring!

The really exciting news: The N.Y. Times came to the park to do a little story about the swans, dying animals, dumping, etc. There have been articles in the Brooklyn Paper - a nice local weekly that we Brooklynites read avidly, but almost no one else. Then there were items in the Daily News and the Post, the 2 N.Y. tabloids. The Post loves to muckrake about everything - should a teacher or a Democrat do something bad, they're on the cover for weeks. The News is similar, but a little more discriminating, since they're a bit more liberal and not owned by Rupert Murdoch. [All opinions are those of the blogger only.] But when the Times gets involved, that's serious. The Times considers itself a national paper, and only reports local news that they see as really important. Ed told us all about the visit from the Times and I really wish I'd been there.

A Times reporter met him and Ann outside the park, on time, with a photographer, to go look at the lakeside killing field, as we have taken to calling it. Ed describes the reporter as an Englishwoman, who seemed very intelligent. Being married to an Englishman, I assured Ed that all of us Americans think that of any English accent. Anyway, he took the reporter to see the killing field, and pointed out the spot across the lake, 200-300 yards away, where the water had been tested AFTER the lake had been drained for 3 days and refilled. She wasn't going to accept this draining thing as absolute fact until they were at the testing spot, and 2-3 black SUV's drove up, filled with men with wrist walkie-talkies and a park spokesman, Eugene Patron. Patron admitted to the draining, claimed it was "in anticipation of heavy rain" but wouldn't say so on camera. At approximately this time the reporter called her editor to say this was a bigger story than they had thought.

Patron admitted that they didn't do any clean-up over the winter (not on camera), but that the killing field had been cleaned up. They walked back to check. There were still chicken heads in the lake. One of the park people said, "that's old stuff from before." Ann fished a head out with a stick. Patron said that they didn't have the equipment to get that kind of thing out, and, as I understand it, Ann offered him her stick. So, let's see what happens next.