Geese

 

Mallards

You can't really see the green headed mallards, but when I opened by BirdNET app, that's what it heard.

Wikipedia: Males (drakes) have green heads, while the females (hens) have mainly brown-speckled plumage. Mallards live in wetlands, eat water plants and small animals, and are social animals preferring to congregate in groups or flocks of varying sizes. The mallard is considered to be a species of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and, unlike many waterfowl, are considered an invasive species in some regions. It is a very adaptable species, being able to live and even thrive in urban areas which may have supported more localised, sensitive species of waterfowl before development.

I've seen a lot of spring flowers on social media, but these were the first I saw in the real.

Downy Woodpecker

 

We planted wildflowers on our walk to school today and then after I dropped Ruby off, I went down to the lake and planted some wildflowers by the lake: Cosmos, Crimson Clover, Blue Lupine, Baby Snapdragon, Lemon Mint, Purple Coneflower (Echinacea), and Perennials. I turned on my BirdNET app, and got something else besides a red wing blackbird, I got a Downy Woodpecker. I didn't see it. I meditated for 10 minutes, but it's not good with my shoes on and it's too muddy and wet for me to take off my shoes. 

Open!

I was really revving myself up to get angry to break the sign and tug at the chain and look at the fence to see if there were weaknesses I could break.

Instead I told the worker about the joy of being able to walk down to the lake.

I meditated for 17 minutes. I heard a bird, and I opened my BirdNET app and found out it was a red winged blackbird, from the passerine family. 

So many projects, I was going to read all of Thoreau's essays. And I see I've only read one. Next one is The Service, which wasn't published by Dial. 

I listened to the essay. It's so complicated, and doesn't flow easily. He's a contrarian, who sought the military model when others are pacifists. 

Still closed

Park still closed

So I talked to some workmen and they were saying that the pipes are gonna be sending drainage waste water to Whitestone where it’s processed and then released into the sound. The pollutants are taken out, and I asked him where they sent the pollutants and they said somewhere in Pennsylvania maybe.

I don’t think that’s why the park is closed. I didn’t even go and rattle the gate, it looked closed from a distance but now I’m thinking I need to go look again, make sure. When I write for the public, however unread this blog is, I feel an extra need to be truthful and right. Additionally I've been thinking truth is dead during the Trump years, so it's revolutionary to tell the truth in such an era. 

They said the project was for 2 years, so that's probably not why the park is closed. 

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.