Some gray musings on a gray day

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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.

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.

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.

"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.

Gray and rainy today - the park seemed quite empty. No one but us feeding the water fowl, only half a dozen or so dogs in the Nethermead, even the lake seemed empty. I'm already missing ice and snow a little bit. When the lake was mostly frozen, all the water birds congregated in the open water. Always a crowd. The middle picture stems from those days. Now they are scattered. One swan lives near the boathouse (see above photo on the right.) Others are in the island and river-like areas in the park. It's hard to believe that the entire park is man-made. The lake, the waterfalls, the creeks - all seem very natural and a great place for wild life to hide from us people. Very peaceful and serene, albeit damp today. Here in the Outer Boroughs, we don't feel like we're in the big, busy, chaotic, stress-inducing city, but it is still essential to feel like you can get away from the cars, loony drivers, rude people, lively children, stressed out friends that prevail, even here in the People's Republic of Brooklyn.
We did see that spring is coming - workers were out cutting and trimming branches that died over the winter - NOT trees, just branches. There was a cleanup crew clearing the paths of dead leaves, although they never seem to attack the trash. They're even repairing the park benches! I did see a unicyclist walking (cycling?) his dog, but he went too fast for me to get a picture. This is the last week that the ice skating rink is open, and three hardy souls were out in the rain this morning - doing some nice leaps and spins. Cayuga and Big Mallard and their Caramel duck entourage (better term than harem, I think) were in the southeast cove, arguing with geese about territorial issues. They seemed to reach a detente.

crack bag count: only 4. Maybe it's the weather? Maybe they're not so fiendish, and can stop when the weather is bad - bodes well for more community centers stopping people from using. Or maybe they're in stairwells, or mom lets them party at home to stay dry. Above: still life of crack bags and cigar wrapper, with shoe for size comparison. Note the bags come in clear and blue - blue much easier to spot.