Low Flying Swans!

So exciting! I finally got a video of some flying swans! This flying wasn't very high, and the landing not as impressive as the ones I'd seen before, but it's a start. Now I have to get my hand steadier and adjust the movement of the camera to align with the birds. Still I think it's a good start.

Right now we only see 5 swans on the lake. We think there are six - no longer 10. The visiting couple and the lone stranger from the winter seemed to have moved on, and of course one died. Remaining should be two grown females, two grown males, and two adolescent cygnets. One mating pair is accounted for - the nesting pen (name for a female) and the guardian cob (male). The second male was swimming on the lake today, but the second pen seems to be missing. Her cob was seen lately near the Boathouse, so I'm hoping that she has found a well-hidden nesting spot. Hopefully she will show up with baby cygnets in a few weeks, but of course I'm being wildly optimistic.

The Center of the World is still there atop Lookout Hill, but slightly re-arranged. The Grey Goose bottle is gone, so there will be no close-up. Nesting pen was napping on her nest. She lets the ducks get very close, but they stay in the water and don't go on the floating phragmite island upon which her nest is built. Another duck egg sits forlornly by the side of the lake. I'm considering bringing it home and cooking it, since it won't survive there anyway. Need to bring an egg carton to transport it safely.
Other park activity: a bit more police presence in his golf cart. The wood chips from all the recycled Christmas trees and downed trees are being spread by the lakeside. I think it will be much nicer to walk on, and keep the soil from getting so compressed. And a guy with a metal detector! He was turning the soil, so I asked if he'd found anything good - a penny! I think this is great, since I remember when you could actually buy something with a penny. Weather cool, overcast, perfect for long walking, 2 1//2 hours in all!

Birdsong

It is spring, mating season for so many animals, especially the birds. I've never really listened so much, but these days in the park you can't help but notice. So many different sounds, patterns, tones, notes, everything! I have no idea which bird is which but honestly, don't care. I just love the diversity of sounds, especially sounds that are NOT the usual noise of the city. The romantic imagination runs wild.

And I'm not the only one! Everyone enjoys the park in spring. I notice especially the improved quality of the detritus in the park. No longer just beer and crack vials and cheap wine, we now see Grey Goose Vodka! Sorry the photo isn't so clear - next time we'll try and do a better close-up.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Very exciting - I am back walking up to Lookout Hill, the highest point in the park, and in Brooklyn, two days in a row! The torn and pulled muscles have definitely mended - well, 95%. No stooping to pick up the crack bags yet, since I'm not back to touching my toes again. And a delightful discovery - the top of Lookout Hill is now the Center of the Earth! And I've got the picture to prove it. It's been weeks since I've been up there, although Ber went up on the days I decided to stay home and sleep in. He thinks that someone else is also picking up trash, since some of the beer cans he spotted have disappeared. We cleared up a few. Actually, the park in general looks much cleaner, at least on land. The water still contains all kinds of crap - the trash can, orange cones, mirrors. Apparently there was a TV new report about it last night, and the Parks Dept. says they don't clean it out because "someone will just put more trash in again." The logic here is....nonexistent? beyond me? unfathomable?

Also on the steps: the delightful message to someone and their mother. I heard two kids on the street arguing the other day, and one said 'F*** your mother and your grandmother!" And unto the seventh generation? Actually, my kids in elementary school didn't even need to say the f word. "Your mother" was enough. I tried. "He doesn't even know your mother, how can he be insulting you?" I would ask. Or "He's telling you how lucky you are to have such a wonderful mother." And when did this happen, this referring to one's mother as the ultimate insult? Hmmmmm.

Another triathlon in the Park today, also run/bike/run.
Wish they'd come with another third part. It offends my sense of language. TRI means 3, for heaven's sake. But it was a beautiful day and everyone seemed to be having a terific Sunday.

There was a nice little church group singing along to a tambourine. Great music! I was a little too shy/respectful to ask if I could film them, but just really enjoyed the joyful noise.

Also saw two vividly red cardinals, but they were not inclined to sit for their portrait. The color is such a treat for the eyes.

I have to say that I have never been as aware of my body and muscles as I have been the last few weeks while these torn and pulled muscles were healing. I'm going along just fine, and then I bend and there's that tiny little twinge when the bending angle is about 80 degrees that tells me that I'm pulling on the part where the hamstring is attached to the knee and I'd better stop, or change the angle, or something, before I really hurt. I feel like I'm obsessed with my body parts, and I really don;'t like it. It feels very self-centered and boring. Ber says that he's been trying to explain these kinds of things about his knee to me for a few years, but that I didn't seem to be listening. We agree that you have to have gone through something like this to understand someone else's pain.

But then there's the self-involved part. I have the same problem in yoga sometimes. When you're thinking only about yourself and if you're doing the position correctly, listening to yourself breathe and paying so much attention to that, it seems very selfish and self-centered.

The Dalai Lama says, "If you contribute to other people's happiness, you will find the true meaning of life."
How to reconcile this with this constant
monitoring of every muscle? Contrast
this with Socrates' statement
that the unexamined life is not worth living. Which I've always thought
was kind of condescending and patronizing, much as I admire Socrates. Where's the balance between dwelling on one's own mind, spirit, muscles, and thinking about others and the good you can do for them? Just wondering.

Live frog, dead turtle, another fire

Thia is actually a combination of yesterday and today. Is there anyone reading this who can enlighten me as to the protocol, if any, about blogging? Can one fudge the truth and attribute one day's actions to another? Or am I being ridiculously old school, caring about truth and accuracy and all those things that seem to have gone out the window lately? Anyway, yesterday we saw all three of the title things. Another group of phragmites, this time on the south side of the lake, was burnt. Could be deliberate or people partying. Don't know, don't care. Looks bad, smells worse. The dead baby turtle was nearby. The frog was on the other side of the pond. We weren't exactly sure if it was dead or alive, so I touched it VERY GENTLY with a stick, and he (she?) jumped about a foot, and startled the heck out of me. So good to see life!! Likwise, all the flowers in the neighborhood are blooming - the first red tulips are out, rhodies everywhere, and all the daffodils! Especially in front of the boarded up, foreclosed house - how poignant - life goes on.

In the park, we did see many live turtles besides the poor dead baby. There were five lined up, single file, on a branch in the water near the Lullwater Bridge. I got so excited! Made noise, scared them off before I could take a picture. I need to work on my "quietly sneaking up" skills.

Very exciting scene: Two park workers doing a great job cleaning up. Truly a start of spring! We chatted with them, told them I was one of those bitchy people who complained about the trash, and was thrilled about what a great job they were doing. I know this probably sounds disgustingly patronizing, but I really was impressed, as they explained the skill involved in doing it right.

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.

Prospect Park Mysteries

No mystery about the fact that it's a gorgeous day, park was surprisingly full for a weekday (course it is a school vacation week) and mostly looking good. Early morning pickup soccer has begun again at the Parade grounds, daffodils are sprouting all over, and a red-winged blackbird was singing joyfully from a treetop. I got pictures, but I need to work on being a better a photographer. I used to use a Pentax - very simple, had to learn to adjust F-stops and focal points. I finally did, and then the world went digital. I now have a digital that apparently do everything, if I could figure out how. It's coming along, but it's a slow process.


First mystery: the candle. We came upon a candle burning in a can with a tin foil chimney. No one around. Kids? Worship? Homeless person's stove? [no - no food inside the tin foil] We blew out the candle - unattended candles amongst leaves and phragmites are very scary. Is this how the 2 phragmite fires started? there was a little pile of yellow wax about 6 inches away, so this wasn't the first time.

Second mystery: the lake and the swans. More about the poor deceased swan. There were articles in the Post and the Brooklyn Paper, and the News may have something soon, but there's more to the story. So, the swan (a female, but known as John Boy by her fans) was very still next to the lake and taken away to a Wildlife Restoration Center in Nassau County. Apparently, the Center was never told 1) where the swan came from, or 2) that there had been about 5 other dead animals in the same location over a 3 day period. So no vet was ever called, the poor thing died, the death attributed to "swan on swan fighting. No necropsy (animal autopsy) was done. Then the lake was partly drained and refilled, so any evidence of some kind of poisoning would be gone. It is all very weird. I can only attribute this to that "Don't panic the public" thinking or a fear of copycats.

It is exactly this kind of behavior that leads to conspiracy theories - the black helicopter people and so on. I have to say that I think there are some conspiracies - No one will ever convince me that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. My problem with conspiracies is that rely on too much intelligence and perfect timing. They work great in movies and TV because everything happens
according to script. Real life doesn't work like that. In "Law and Order" the prints on the cigarette butt by the body invariably belong to the killer. If only that were true in real life.

Real life is much more like Guy Fawkes. In 1605 he tried to blow up the English Parliament. So of course he told his friend not to go to work at Parliament that day. So he was caught, and now every year on Nov. 5 the English celebrate Parliament NOT being blown up with fireworks, bonfires, burning dummies, and other such communal mayhem.

The point being: if people are being lied to, they will assume the worst, and why shouldn't they?????

Enough ranting. Still walking slowly. Took my hiking trekking poles today - don't know if it's better or worse. Nice to have something to lean on, but I tend to walk faster.

Is there a naturalist in the house?

It's possible that NO ONE is dumping intestines in the park. It is spring, and the intestine-looking things in the park may be toad spawn, aka toad eggs.

this site has been helpful
http://www.umaine.edu/WaterResearch/FieldGuide/inthewater.htm#eggs

and gives the following description :-

- long strings of hundreds of eggs together.
They seem to be suspended in jelly
What is interesting is that the eggs are suspended in a coiled helix shape.
They all seem to be attached or draped around the plant life, and only in about 1 foot of water...."

Interestingly toad eggs and tadpoles are poisonous to fish and most fish learn this
quickly but some fish are not that smart. So a dead fish nearby might not be so strange and horrible at all.

Doesn't explain the dead chicken heads, but it makes them into a smaller problem. So9metimes that's the best you can do.

Paradise with chicken heads

The 4 miles yesterday was a bit much with the aforementioned strained hamstring and bruised butt. Actually, I'm getting tired of the whole thing - the discomfort and the complaining about it. It's really not serious, just a pain (in the you-know-where). Anyway, no park today, but my delightful husband brought pictures of a dead fish and a bunch of chicken heads that Anne was cleaning out of the water. I think it was Anne. Anyway, hideous pictures. Truly, amazing contrasts in our beloved Park.

Here's a link to the Brooklyn Paper article with the hideous pictures. http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/13/33_13_sb_park_butcher.html

It was also a strenuous day because we went to my neighbor's funeral. Sharon Berman passed away. She had cancer 20 years ago and it was in remission, but it came back about 4 years ago. Six children, 5 of them adopted. Eight grandchildren. A rock for all of them. A lifelong fighter for truth, justice, and progressive causes. Truly a role model for everyone who knew her.
we will miss her.