Swan in Danger!!

One of the two goslings who were born here and returned a mere two days ago is caught by a fishing line and lure. The swan, known as Ziggy, is swimming in circles and back and forth all around the lake, trying to loosen itself. It looks like the line, with attached lure, is wrapped around one leg. the bird can't come ashore for someone to try to save it. It has been reported to the rangers, and we have e-mailed whatever contacts we have in the park. Let's hope it can be saved. Ziggy was one of last year's goslings, and the only one who had never been wounded by the fishing line and hooks. It came close enough to shore so I could get some good pictures - note the red thing (lure?) right behind him/her. This is so disgusting, that we kill off so many birds and still can't look after the precious few that are left.

Anne is trying to teach me to identify individual birds. She pointed out that one of newly arrived geese has a white "eyebrow" on its face.
what an eye for detail she has!

There was a rumor that "something big" was floating in the water near the Lullwater - stay tuned for further info.

Bridge repairs moving ahead. Hope they replace the decorative metal piece that is sitting on the ground.

Other than the panic about our swan, it was a quiet day - Mondays seem to be. I guess people and their dogs skip the park and just go into work, having had the weekend. Speaking of which, someone used the Peninsula Meadow for a baby shower - what a beautiful spot! But maybe they could have taken all the evidence with them, rather than leaving the decorations to blow around on the grass.

On the subject of geese - it is more controversial than I thought, the idea of using them for food. A commentator pointed out some of the issues. I will do some more research and rethink this. But I would like to say that people often have a lot of emotional baggage about their food. Dogs and snakes are food in China, horsemeat is a treat in Quebec, Americans are horrified by both. It wasn't so long ago that oysters and lobster were so plentiful and cheap that they were common fare in prisons. Maine actually passed a law limiting how much lobster could be fed to prisoners, since too much was considered abuse. And of course, the ultimate mouth-watering feast in Dickens' "Christmas Carol " was ...GOOSE!!! Just saying.

They're moving in - there goes the neighborhood!

I counted 40 geese lined up at the edge of Prospect Park lake - just quietly hanging out. No one was feeding them, and I go the impression they are waiting...waiting...waiting...for food? more geese? I know it's hard to stop people from feeding the geese. There are other ways to keep the population down - plantings, laser lights, egg interference, border collies, and many many more. Just a voice in the wilderness for the humans side of things.

But the really exciting news was the arrival of three more swans. They look to be young. Swans leave the nest after 2 years, and these look just that age. Will they stay? Hook up with the Lone Male next spring? Looking forward to the next chapter of "Swans in Prospect Park." I admit. I like them much more than the geese. The swan family is happily ensconced near the boathouse. Here's a little video of papa hissing at me and being protective as I got too close. I was hoping to end the video with a giant leap in my direction, but no. I think he knows me, and/or senses that i am not really threatening.

Also new in the park today: we saw people actually working on the bridge repairs, and a nice family taking advantage of the incredibly beautiful day (a little cooler, sunny, perfect) for a family photo op.

And here's the youtube.com address of a funny little video of geese wearing Nazi helmets and saluting: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ1KRPjsbTo

Back to park watching

Back to the park today after a week in New Hampshire, where the lake is cool and delicious, and the last two days the weather was cool. What a shock to come back to 100 degree weather! Anyway, we got up and out pretty early, while it was still merely very warm.

The geese seem to be regrouping. I didn't count, but an article in the Times says there are 26 now, and I don't doubt it. They are playing nicely with the ducks and pigeons. The Times article also says that they want to get rid of about 2/3 of the geese in the Northeast. This seems excessive, to say the least. Hard to believe that in the 50's Canada geese were on the endangered species list. Apparently, people took the eggs to hatch them, and the geese laid a second time. Twice the number of goslings. Then, the taken eggs hatched but were not raised by geese parents, and didn't learn to migrate. So now, many Canada Geese do not migrate, just stay in one spot, breeding and pooping and becoming a nuisance. Also, feeding geese is very very bad, although everyone loves to do it. It just breeds more of them. Kind of like tribbles (from Star Trek).

I always tried to avoid feeding the geese in the park. My popcorn was always aimed at the swans and ducks, who always seem to need it and are not so invasive. Alas, the geese were very pushy and always got their share plus. Today, I saw people happily feeding the birds so much food that the lake edge was lined with crackers and bread crumbs. People like to feed animals. It's in our nature. Perhaps the Parks Dept. can come up with a way to accommodate this precept?

The Times article also referred to future goose killings as euthanasia. This is such a misuse of the word that I am appalled. This is the Times, after all. They're supposed to print good English! Euthanasia is mercy killing. Where is the mercy here? Absolutely nowhere. Let's use the correct word: killing, murder, or extermination. Maybe harvesting if the geese are to be used for food. But not euthanasia. The geese were not miserable and didn't need to be put out of their misery! Enough. I'm ranting.

The cygnets are growing beautifully. They are still living near the Audubon Center, swimming with the turtles.

There is actual repair work being done on the Lullwater bridge!! Nice to see!

Elsewhere in the park, the trash cans are not overflowing so much, a welcome surprise on a Sunday morning. I know there must have been a lot of people in the park on Saturday. And we found dozens of clean, new trash cans still in the Skating House. I wonder what they are saving them for? Wouldn't they be better out in the park, maybe COLLECTING TRASH!!!!!

Geese Memorial and swan family photo

Looked to be about 200 people at the Goose Memorial last night at the Gazebo. A few friendly police doing crowd control, and some politicians. The emphasis seems to be on preventing future exterminations, which I think is the absolute right thing to do at this time. There was a State Senator named Eric Adams there, who claims to have "no life at all," and is up at 3 AM reading his e-mails. He encouraged people to email him about this, at eadams@senate.state.ny.us. Way to go Senator Adams!!!!

Someone once very cynically described a leader as "someone who looks at where the crowd is heading and jumps in front of them." While there's undoubtedly a grain of truth there, what else is an elected official to do? Who on earth could have predicted that the geese in Prospect Park would become an issue like this? It is so outside the usual political topics of safety, schools, and taxes.

Anyway, it would be very nice if there could be some open, coordinated process to solve the geese overpopulation problem. Apparently, geese overpopulation is becoming a problem in many areas, and people seem to be inventing all kinds of solutions: border collies, red lights, fake eagles, mylar tape, nest prevention, egg treatments - google Canada geese, and you'll be amazed.

We got a nice family shot of mama swan with her babies, and of the lone sxwan chatting with a visiting friend. Lone swan seems to be coming out of his funk and getting sociable again.

Lots of equipment to repair the bridge, not no actual repair activity yet. Sorry about the double shot, but last time I tried to delete a photo, I ended up deleting the whole blog entry.

Lastly, yes indeed the other end of the lake is back where it's supposed to be.

Cool and gorgeous

Writing teachers say you should never start a piece of writing by discussing the weather, but today is special. The heat wave broke, it is a perfect sunny day, not too cool, not too hot. The last time I remember weather this fantastic was the day that two planes brought down the World Trade Center, but I think that was just a coincidence and do not expect massive tragedy today - except in the Gulf of Mexico, but that's been going on for months now. Anyway, the park is truly a spectacular place on days like this.

The swan family has found it's home in the sun, or rather in the Lullwater, where the delicious duckweed grows. They don't even mind photographers getting close.

The piles of wood chips waiting to be raked into paths are sprouting mushrooms. JJ was interested but decided they were not edible after all,. I wonder if they are edible for humans. Hard to know with mushrooms. We used to have a mushroom identification book written by someone who tasted them all. Fascinating descriptions of exactly how sick he got from eating some of them - very specific as to pains, bodily effects, etc. Sadly, the book has been either lost or misplaced - we have a lot of books, and they seem to get camouflaged on the bookshelves every so often. Anyway, those descriptions were graphic enough that I only eat mushrooms from stores.

There are more boards piled up under the bridge. Repairs? Still hopeful, although Anne says that machinery pictured previously was trimming trees, not fixing bridges. Love our network of observers who can enlighten each other!

Progress at the Park: The east end of the Lake has been dammed up with blue plastic and wood while they've been building the new skating rink. Looks like they are filling in the drained part over there, suggesting that the new rink and plantings might actually be ready soon. Of course, I'm being hopelessly optimistic. Probably stems from today's Yahoo news - a prototype of a flying car is being tested. When I was a kid, flying cars were ALWAYS a part of the future, so I feel the future has arrived.

Beautiful repairs about to happen.

Surprisingly, summer in Prospect Park doesn't seem to be as eventful as the winter. The park gets greener and greener, trash comes and goes. Comes on the weekends, gone by Tuesday. The water fowl swims around all over the lake, not just in one particular area. Lots of the best viewing spots (especially of sunning turtles) are so overgrown that you can't see them at all. Probably better for them, but not so interesting for those of us who enjoy photos of 7 or 8 turtles sunning in a line on a log. The birds are harder to see now that everything is fully leafed. There are more and more people and dogs early in the morning, now that the temperature is in the 90's and everyone wants to be in front of a fan or in air-conditioned splendor by midday. She swans are out for a gentle morning swim,. The cygnets are growing quite fast and look wonderful. I think they'll be adult sized in one year, but not white until the second year. Then they usually fly away to find mates and breed.

We are not the only ones rescuing turtles, not by a long shot. Ed and Anne do, of course, but there are others. This kind soul was returning a huge turtle to the lake. It's not exactly real wilderness in Prospect Park, and they do need our protection from time to time.

The biggest news is that it looks like the bridge is going to be repaired. This is the big cast iron bridge over the Lullwater. It's a beautiful piece of park architecture, put up in 1890. They closed it last winter, saying that it was unsafe. At least they tried to close it. They put barricades up so no cars could traverse it, which was fine. They also put up all kinds of signs, police barricades, warning notices, and fences on the two paths going underneath, to no avail whatsoever. Walkers, runners, boaters, fisherpeople, cyclists kept on going here. The rumor was that the Parks. Dept. had no intention of repairing it. Luckily, this seems to be no longer the case. There is some big machinery and supplies near it now. Looks like repair work. Hope it's not a false alarm, since I guess it could be a prelude to tearing it down or putting up a concrete wall. That would totally suck, so I sure hope I am just being paranoid about that possibility. Will continue to observe and report.