Latest geese report

Beautiful sunny day in the park actually it's been gorgeous for a few days, since we managed to miss the rain and thunder. JJ has her new summer cut - I am posting before and after pictures. She now has a velvety smooth coat and is much friskier. Less fur to carry plus she stays cooler. Met a woman who has had Border Collies or at least part Border Collies. Border collies get out a lot, and there are a lot of "parts" out there. Anyway, she says Border Collies are generally hardy and quite long-lived. this is a relief to hear. JJ is now 9. Our previous dog, Lucy, a Golden retriever, only lived to be 11. I know that big dogs don't live as long as small ones, so we were getting sad in anticipation. She said the longest lived dog in the world was a Border Collie who lived to be 27! Wouldn't that be grand!

Anyway, to get back to spring in the park...Sprucing up the cruising boat outside the Boat House. Port-a-john still topped over, lots of ducks, turtles out sunning everywhere (how silly of me to have worried!), 3 cygnets in sight, only 1 lone goose that I could see. HOWEVER, I did see Martin from Prospect Alliance about to go out in a boat, and had a chat with him.

First, the good news: the swan parents are nesting at the other end of the lake - not the same nest as last year, but a new one. They are doing fine. He says there are about 30 geese at the lake, all nesting.

The bad news: He has addled all the goose eggs he has found. He says he hasn't done anything to the swan eggs. We had a warm (less than heated, but with some passion) discussion about this. We agreed that killing all the geese last year was bad, and that it was not the Parks Dept. who decided to kill. That's the baseline of agreement. He says they are addling the geese eggs because they don't want any resident geese in the park, since that would eventually lead to an overcrowded situation and inspire someone (mayor? Feds?) to come and commit genocide again. Migrating geese passing through would be fine. I said that I thought wildlife was important, and that wildlife management meant keeping a small (50-100?) resident population of geese in the Park. And Martin, should you happen to read this, please feel free to comment and correct if I have misstated your position.

Anyway, the Brooklyn paper has an article and a video of one of their reporters following Martin to addle the eggs. Well, they don't actually addle the eggs, they just go and visit a pre-addled nest, and you get to see how upset and protective the father goose is. The reporter was totally gleeful about the whole thing, while I was not. Very disturbing that anyone can be so happy about killing wildlife and potential wildlife. Here's a link:http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/34/18/web_gooseaddlevid_2011_5_6_bk.html

Martin has not seen the 4th cygnet, the one that I think is male. No sign of him, living or not. It is quite likely that he has flown elsewhere, maybe to Gateway or another swan habitat. Let's hope.

My husband, who does try to get me out of my dark, angry moods, pointed out how nice it was to see the migrating geese this year, that it would be a nice cyclical thing by which to measure the seasons, etc. Hmph!

Edgar Allen Poe Overseeing the Deconstruction of the Ice Rink

NEVERMORE, NEVERMORE, cry the poet and his ravens as they watch the demolition of the Wollman Rink. There is a huge area now being fenced off around the Lakeside project. Maybe a 1/2 mile of 8 ft. high chain link fence being put up, making the whole area from the east side of the lake to the road completely inaccessible, looks like for years. This includes the parking lot and the BBQ area. It took over a year to do the little bit they did last year, and this is 5 times as much space. "Lakeside is coming" the sign reads - resonating like "The British are coming" of "The Martians are coming," and sounding very threatening. The picnic tables and BBQ stuff are piled up in one area. Wonder if they'll be thrown out or re-used? And I think I spotted the little area of 8 shrubs that hundreds of geese had to die to preserve.

On a cheerier note, we went along to check on the old swan nest from last year, and, surprise, surprise, Mama and Papa were there, doing the exact same thing! The nesting area doesn't look like much, maybe because the water level is high, maybe because the phragmites have not started their spring growth, which does give a sort of solid floor effect.

Another nice sign of spring: TWO soccer games plus the Ultimate Frisbee game going on this morning! The soccer players were less wrapped and showing a little leg, a nice harbinger of spring.

And speaking of the Parade grounds, 132 geese grazing on the one-and-a-half remaining grassy fields. (the other 2 1/2 are covered in plastic astroturf.) So, if they're not in the park, does this mean they will not be massacred? Or will they cover the rest of that green, natural, edible growing stuff with beautiful, slippery, nasty astroturf and call it an "improvement."

The Lullwater is still quite frozen, and there are still big patches of ice on the walkways. Some genius decided to throw the rescue ladder onto the ice, just to make sure that it's useless. I kind of hope that person does something clever, like walk out on the ice, and learns the consequences of stupidity. Like those Republicans who bitch about Government regulation, and then whine hysterically when some corporation spews toxic waste in their backyard and their children suffer.

The Kids leave home

Today, it wasn't just the sulky teen-aged swan that is keeping away from his family. The other 3 cygnets have also found their own place. There are more areas of non-contiguous open water, and the 3 have moved into their own area - no ducks or geese or coots there, just the three of them.

Previously, I had noticed that one of the cygnets did more displaying of aggression than the others - flapping its wings, lowering the neck, etc. So I think that there is one male - the first one to move out, and now his 3 sisters have followed suit. Don't know if I'll ever find out the truth about it, but it makes perfect sense to me.

If Mama and Papa nest again this year, it will be in another 4-6 weeks. A good time, now to get the young 'uns off to a good start. I just hope that neither the geese nor the Parks Dept have messed up last year's nest, since I believe they (the swans) tend to re-use nests. Very recycling conscious. Not to say anything bad about our beloved geese, but last year, after the cygnets were born, they did kind of rampage through the nesting site. And nobody knows what nonsense the Parks Department will do in the name of "management."

No dead animals today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Both swans were off the nest this morning! It seems a bit odd, since the sun is NOT shining and warming the nest. Could it be that the cygnets have hatched? We could hear no noise, nor see into the nest, even when we climbed a tree a bit. I really need to get some kind of periscope. Could it be that the water is a bit higher, and the swans wanted to take some weight off the nest? Could it be that Mama got really, really hungry? Tomorrow we'll try to climb up higher in the nearby tree to take a look.

Cayuga and entourage are back in the main part of the lake. Obviously the mini-lake provided insufficient real estate. We call the entourage caramel ducks, but that isn't their official name. They don't have an official name. Our friend the Swan Princess told us that on the official Bird Counting Day, the overseers didn't even want to count them. They're a crossbreed, between two different kinds of ducks - hence the unusual coloration. Swan Princess, like myself, believes that any census must count EVERYONE or it is useless, so they got counted as caramel ducks.

Tree down near the peninsula, blocking the road. Curious - there was a storm last night, but it was not super windy, as it was during the last big storm when so many trees went down. Many of the trees in the park are quite old - 100 years or more, so I guess there are always some on their last legs, or roots, as it were.

Nice picture of egret flying across the lake, thank you Ber. He (Ber) came around a corner and there was the egret stock still within a few feet of him. Of course by the time he got the camera ready to shoot, the bird had flown. Still, it's a pretty good and close shot.

I've been informed that last week's dead duck was a mallard. No dead animals spotted today. How nice!