Showing posts with label prodigal swans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prodigal swans. Show all posts

Sunday, August 1, 2010

The Prodigal Swans




Another beautiful day in the park. Norana and her new dog Chewy came with Ber and JJ and me. We climbed up Lookout Hill! First time in a while for me, - the leg is definitely improving. The top of Lookout Hill is beautifully overgrown. and there were only 5 crack bags - 3 clear, 2 blue. No cute little unicorns.

It turns out the 3 "new" swans are not new at all. We ran into Anne and Ed. Anne has an uncanny ability to recognize individual swans. I'm trying, but in general they all look alike to me. Anyway, one of the three is the lone male that's been at the lake, and the other two are from the last batch cygnets - the ones who flew away in the Spring! You can tell they're not full grown because the beaks aren't orange yet - but they are red, which is halfway there. So the children have come home..to visit? to stay? I wonder when we'll see them interacting with the new swan family, and how they'll get along.

The new swan family swam quite close to me, happily feasting on the duckweed. Papa lingered back and didn't hiss.

Anne and Ed report a goose count of 53 today, but we didn't see them - they (the geese) were not at the usual breakfast bar on the lake edge.

Toppled porto-johns today. Is this really fun? And for whom?

Another article in the Times yesterday about the geese problem. Specifically, it talked about the possibility of using the exterminated geese as food. Apparently people in NYC think they might not be good to eat without being tested. A Chicago animal control person pointed out that these are the same geese that hunters go out and shoot. Well, some might be upset because they do occasionally put chemicals in the park. Of course, anyone who doesn't eat organic meat (which is most people) has been eating pesticides and herbicides in their food for years. Funny how it's only ok when you've paid someone for the pesticide-infested food.