Maybe calling the park ranger number helps. The park looked pretty clean this afternoon. Oh, the shopping carts, toys, etc. still lay in the dingles and the water is still choked with garbage, -so clean is a relative term.

It was upsetting to see and smell the charred aftermath of the burn on the north side of the pond, near one of the street ends. It went down toward the marshy area where I suspected a pair of geese staked out a nesting site. (My daughter and I watched them chase a pair of ducks away last month.) However, one of this pair disappeared a week ago, -and today the solo goose was missing.

Just returned from Van Horn and 4 days after the call, the street-side barrel was emptied of decaying flesh, etc. –Here’s the punchline: this next barrel through the gate is clearly visible from the road. It appears as though the maintenance crew picked up the complained-of can, drove up Armory to the north gate and emptied barrels on that side of the pond and quit for the day.

How do they miss this?

On Sunday (11 April), just inside the park gate, I encountered a cardboard box, a box top with holes in it and two sacks labeled animal pellets. Two shiny pennies lay on the ground. The open end of one bag was rolled closed and soaked with blood. Something was inside it, but I didn’t look.

I moved the awful stuff from concealment to the top of the trash barrel on Armory Street. I phoned the Park Ranger’s line (which is almost never picked up by a human being) and left a detailed message about the crime, evidence and my deep concern. I hoped fellow citizens would see it, be outraged and call, too.

On Monday (12 April), it all had been stuffed inside the barrel and no one casually passing would realize what it was. This act also filled the can. There is no more room for trash. The next can in the park is also overflowing, as it was missed by maintenance last week.

[Ironic aside: Last week, I addressed a guy driving  the tractor (his job is to blow trash off the road and into the vegetation so the asphalt looks clean). I politely stated that all the rubbish barrels desperately needed emptying. He had just ridden the 2 1/2 miles of park road and replied, "Oh, really?" --- In anticipation of this happy event, my daughter and I scrambled down to a grassy peninsula where we had seen two 5-gallon plastic buckets -just waiting for someone to throw them into the pond. When we got there, we had to fill them with detritus left by the nature lovers who fish here. Anyway, the trash had been emptied the next day, --except for the barrel we filled up.]

I left another message Monday afternoon. I tried a different phone number I got from  the Parks Department website. The recording was almost exactly the same. It sounded like the same guy.

Yesterday was Tuesday (13 April) and, guess what? No one has come and the rotting carcass reeks in the warmth of the sun.

The water's edge in springtime

Just came back from the walk on another unseasonably warm day (near 80F). Took the camera to record general conditions, as you see above. Other shots (I may upload later) include dumped shopping carts, a drug bag and an over-flowing trash barrel.

You’ll note the floating beer can and plastic garbage. I used a stick to pull out a semi-sunken plastic bag on the other edge, frightening a frog somehow surviving here.

Walked this morning to cope with unseasonable warmth, with a predicted high of 88 F. Greeted by honking of a number of Canada geese. I hurried through the gate and toward the shore to see that the birds weren’t being molested. (Sadly, this happens.)  Through the pines, I saw geese birds rising up from the water into the air – one hot after the other. The pursuer bumped the other goose in flight, forcing it down for a second into the tiny cove next to the street. The, both birds flew off, so I believe no harm was done. –I wonder what offense the ‘bad’ goose had committed to have been chased off?

I noticed two small tent caterpillar nests today on small bushes with only leaf buds. My recollection of last year is that one day the tents were everywhere at once, like cotton blossoms. Has the season’s warm, wet weather affected the insect schedules?

The red-winged blackbirds and Canada geese returned 6 days earlier than last year, as I check my notes. A few weeks of unseasonable warmth lured out painted turtles for a few hours of sunshine. A fish leapt in the small pond. Butterflies appeared (orange and black with yellow wing edges).

It cooled down about 10 days ago and we’ve had two rain storms accompanied by winds. The goose count went from a high of 25 (18 Mar) to only 5 yesterday (31 Mar). The mallard duck count plunged from 12 (6 pairs) to a single male.

Other happenings include mourning dove mating calls, robins returning in force, 4 wood ducks and chipmunks are awake and visible, or heard ‘chipping’ regularly.

However, nicer weather means more humans, dogs and gas fueled vehicles:
- Two fires have been lit behind Greenwood School, one on the asphalt near a bench. The other down in the dingle among logs where chipmunks play.
- People are tramping nesting grounds as they fish.
- One guy passed me on a motor bike.
- Two new shopping carts have been dumped.
- More plastic bottles, bags and refuse float on the water and accumulate at the shore every day.