Pat Dolan Trail Continues to be closed!

The unlimited time irks me "until further notice" I'm thinking about crossing the Van Wyck and the fence anyway, and it's time to start making phone calls. 

My friend writes from Portland: "...we learned all about a crazy plan to shoot 400,000 barred owls over the next ten years, because they are coming over from the eastern US and outcompeting the native spotted owls for food and habitat. The barred owls will eat anything and have less restrictive roosting requirements and the spotted owls keep a very limited diet and such and so they are unable to compete and are going extinct."

Mexican spotted owl:

There was a majestic fish crow cawing away above us on the walk to school today.

Reading Derek Goodwin's Crows of the World (1983), which starts:

"The crow family, Corvidae, is a numerous, diverse and successful group of passerine birds. It includes such familiar species as the Rook in England and the Blue Jay in eastern North America and also others, such as the Sooty Jay and the African Bush-crow, about which little is known. Corvids range in size from the little lark-sized Hume's Ground Jay to the Raven, which is the largest of passerine birds. Some are dull or uniform black in hue, others are among the most colourful of the world's birds."

There's a substack about birds that mentions crows. 

Flowers are coming soon:

Botanical sexism

Wikipedia: Botanical sexism is a term that describes the preferential planting of cloned male plants in urban areas because they do not produce fruits and flowers that litter the landscape. However, because males produce pollen, areas with only male plants can have high pollen in the air and, therefore, be inhospitable to people with pollen allergies.

Nice birding sub-stack.

The Pat Dolan Trail is closed

The Pat Dolan Trail is closed until further notice due to maintenance and repair needs. (source)

It's a bummer because I had to walk along the road with lots of cars. But it afforded me a view I don't usually have of my beloved lake/pond, and the connecting stream to Flushing bay. 

I walked to Forest Hills, and saw the high school where Simon and Garfunkel went, and my stepfather. I didn't look for a trail to connect with the lake because the walk was longer than I wanted it to be already. 

I stopped at the donut shop, now called Jerusalem Fresh Bagels and got an apple fritter and coffee. They have non-bovine source milks for your coffee. I forgot to ask until after the milk was already in the coffee, I just assumed they wouldn't. It's a Bukharian hangout, everyone shook the hands of one guy sitting there when they came in. I like tight ethnic communities, I think they're wonderful. I saw I'd walked over 5k, so the walk would end up being 11,666. About 4 miles. 

My destination was the one place I know that sells coffee beans at reasonable prices. My grocery store probably charges twice the price for whole beans. I've been thinking maybe less coffee would be good, but I do love freshly ground coffee. 

I haven't been down to the lake because it's been closed off, I'm getting older and it's a colder winter than past winters. I suppose if they're going to close it off they can do it during the winter when there's less use. I haven't wanted to wildcat it across the highway like I imagine the hobos and delinquents do. I do feel an antisocial anger towards authority, and the desire to go into the one space that has lots of trees and birds. 

Pruning trees

 

 

Mall to home

I need to walk more, and I succeeded in getting 14.5k steps. I'm down about a thousand steps from last year.

I walked along Queens Boulevard, looking at the places I used to go when I lived in Rego Park and the new buildings. In Forest Hills, I took the route through Willow Lake. I'm usually on the other side, so this is a fun photo for me. 

I ran into 4 people from the Flushing Bay Conservancy group Guardians of Flushing Bay. They were testing the water. This is the source in Willow Creek, not sure where it starts, but there were minnows in the water. 

Felt a bit tired so only did a 5 minute lake meditation. It's gotten colder, and for some reason the cold is getting to me this year, I'm getting older. 

It's a beaver supermoon tonight, it coincides with the moon's closest approach to Earth in its orbit, known as perigee. As a result, the moon will appear larger and up to 30% brighter than usual, creating a captivating visual spectacle.

Columnar sweetgum

Asked on plant identification of trees Reddit.

My phone said it was a pear tree, but the wise people of Reddit said it was Columnar Sweetgum, which Google redirects to this post.