Brooklyn Nature, part one:

[urbpan]

Most of these Brooklyn Nature post pics are going to from Prospect Park, a nearly 600 acre Olmsted landscape, of which I explored a few hundred square feet. Alexis and I first looked at very early on Sunday morning, before the wreckage of Saturday night festivities had been cleared away. Here's the base of a planter, delightfully overgrown with moss and weeds.




There was apparently a big catered party in the Oriental Pavilion the night before, and the animals were helping themselves to the leftovers.


I was pleased to see rats among the wildlife memorialized in the statuary.


Also memorialized: wicked gnarly dragons.


I'd like to think this depicts the horrible toll that domestic cats take on songbirds. A friend I showed this to thinks that the predator isn't a cat but some other real or imagined animal.


There was a lot of this plant along some of the more overgrown paths. I have never seen it before--anyone know what it is? It's a tall rangy shrub.


A yellow waterlily pokes up above the duckweed in the Lull Water. A little wasp drinks from the blossom.


The duckweed makes the Lull Water as green as the Lull Water Bridge.




Over in the landscaping mulch, who else but our friend Fuligo septica, the dog vomit slime mold.


I thought I heard music, so I drifted over to the Cleft Ridge Arch (the first concrete arch built in the US) where a man was playing a mbira to the clear delight of a mother and child. I sat on a nearby bench and felt such a release in the moment that tears were rolling down my face. I couldn't explain it, but I clearly needed it. I spoke to the man later, and he described himself as a musical healer. Absolutely.


The arch is functional way through--even the garbage trucks use it. Just fits!


I think this is one of many "rustic shelters" along the water. This one is dripping with Virginia creeper.


A tiny spider rests on the surface tension of the water.

Comments

[viridian5.livejournal.com]

Cool. I didn't realize Prospect Park had sculpture scenes similar to some I've seen at Bethesda Terrace in Central Park.

I've been sharing your spider photos with a friend I know who's a spider fan, and she enjoys them a lot.

[anais2.livejournal.com]

I carved my name on a tree here when I was 12, and often thought I'd go back to look for it! Dumb kid I was.

[roaming.livejournal.com]

nice stroll through your visit, thank you for sharing

[elainetyger.livejournal.com]

If I had known you'd do an early morning nature walk in Brooklyn, I so would have gone. :( Great stuff, love the picture of the garbage truck in the tunnel, and the story just before that about the musical healer.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

I was never confident we were even going to make it! And once we got into town I had no internet access to contact you. :(