Prospect Park 11/13 / The Gowanus Canal

I was going to go the salt marsh near Marine Park today, but this being a weekend and this being New York, it was virtually impossible to get there by public transportation since all of the train lines I could have used were out of service due to the endless reconstruction of the tracks and signals.

Instead, I went to the park, and getting there was not easy either since the late lamented B71 bus went out service, the only way I could get there, other than by foot, was to walk down to Boro Hall and take the 2 to Grand Army Plaza.

Normally I don't like to go the park on the weekends because it is too full of people who scare away the birds, but I thought if I got there early enough and kept to the quieter parts of the park I might have a decent day.

I again found the siskins mixed in with a flock of goldfinches near the Three Arches Bridge and during the course of the day I found 6 species of ducks including the 3 Wood Ducks and the hen Ring-necked Duck I found yesterday, but this time diving for food on the Lower Pool instead of the Upper.

Near Three Arches

As often happens, I ran into a another birder I know and we spent  a while birding around the lake, Lookout Hill and then the pools. It was there we came across a fine looking Red-tailed Hawk sitting on a log. Next to it was the eviscerated carcass of a squirrel.   It had finished eating the critter about 15 minutes before, according to a fellow who was was standing by the fence watching. He and his friend knew it was hawk but they didn't know what kind. Soon more people stopped to look. My friend was taking dozens of pictures and it seemed like everyone else was taking photos with everything from SLRs to iPhones. I didn't take out my little digital camera because I already have pictures of a Red-tailed Hawk--how many do I need? And also because, truth be told, I'd be embarrassed to take photos with it when all that high tech equipment was around.

There was lots of oohing and ahhing about the bird--a women said to me how you never see them in the park.  "You never see them," I said, "We see them all the time. Saw two yesterday." I've seen people walk right under a branch that a red-tail was sitting on not 10 feet above them. Meanwhile, had any of them noticed the beautiful Wood Ducks, the most beautiful bird in North America, right out there on the pond? Very few did.

The crowd was building up and I was thinking that this was exactly why I don't like the park on weekends. Plus I think all the people were making the bird uncomfortable. Perhaps I was projecting, because they were sure making me uncomfortable. Finally, as my friend changed digital cards in his camera, I told  him I was going to look for the ducks, our original intention in going to the pools. I found them, along with my FOS Fox Sparrow.

By this time it was after 1 o'clock so I decided that 5 hours of birding was sufficient unto the day.
List:
Prospect Park
Number of species:    36
Canada Goose    40
Mute Swan    5
Wood Duck    3    Drakes, Upper Pool
American Black Duck    1    Lake
American Black Duck x Mallard (hybrid)    1
Mallard    50
Northern Shoveler    60
Ring-necked Duck    1    Hen, Lower Pool
Ruddy Duck    200
Double-crested Cormorant    2    Lake
Great Blue Heron    2    S. Lullwater & f/o Upper Pool
Cooper's Hawk    1    F/o Lake
Red-tailed Hawk    1    Back of Upper Pool, sitting on a log, digesting a squirrel
American Coot    20
Ring-billed Gull    100
Herring Gull    25
Great Black-backed Gull    5
Rock Pigeon    30
Mourning Dove    9
Red-bellied Woodpecker    3
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker    1    In pine tree near Upper Pool
Blue Jay    10
Black-capped Chickadee    8
White-breasted Nuthatch    3
Carolina Wren    1
Golden-crowned Kinglet    2
Hermit Thrush    1    Peninsula
American Robin    1
Yellow-rumped Warbler    1    Peninsula
Fox Sparrow    1    Behind Upper Pool
Song Sparrow    4    Vale
White-throated Sparrow    6
Dark-eyed Junco    5
Northern Cardinal    1    Lullwater
Pine Siskin    5    Near Three Arches, Ravine side. 
American Goldfinch    10
House Sparrow    9
I decided to walk home from the park instead of walking all the way back to Grand Army Plaza and then walking back here from downtown Brooklyn. It's probably the same distance in walking and certainly faster.

As I was walking down Carroll Street, between 5th & 4th Avenues I heard the distinctive raucous cry and then saw the green blur of 4 Monk Parakeets fly above a workman's head on the roof of a brownstone. He seemed oblivious to them.

GOWANUS CANAL

Looking north toward Union Street Bridge

Ever since I have lived in Brooklyn--astoundingly (to me) it's 40 years--I have heard plans to make the Gowanus Canal the "Venice of Brooklyn."

Reflections

Someone always has big plans for the glorified ditch that it is. Recently, Toll Brothers bought up a lot of land surrounding the canal and announced an ambitious condo development. The city administration was very happy--think of the taxes when rich people moved in! I never, for one second, took the idea seriously when neighborhood activists started to complain about gentrification. I knew in my bones, after all the false starts, that this would be one too.

Instead of the Venice of Brooklyn the Gowanus Canal is now officially a Superfund site. I will be long gone from this earth when gondolas finally pole up and down the sparkling waters of Gowanus.

Looking south--picture the gondolas!