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. 

House Sparrow and Fish Crows

I was meditating, but I heard a weird bird I'd never heard before, so I downloaded BirdNET. It didn't pick up the bird I was hearing, but it did identify House Sparrow: "It is extensively, and usually unsuccessfully, persecuted as an agricultural pest. It has also often been kept as a pet, as well as being a food item and a symbol of lust, sexual potency, commonness, and vulgarity."

Reading a comparison query on Reddit, and it turns out BirdNet and Merlin Bird ID were both developed at Cornell. 

I've seen crows and pigeons, even saw a hawk flying around with another bird in its talons while it waited for the bird to quit trying to get away. 

Just googled whether a grackle was a crow, and it's not and both are found in NYC. 

I hear the chirp chirp chirp of house sparrows, and the caw caw caw of Fish Crows, according to Merlin Bird ID.

Penelope

I don't want to give it away, just watch the show on Netflix.

Composting

I've been fooled a couple times about composting, here's another article stating that "outreach" will begin in October in Queens. 

CBS News