Friends of Palmer Lake Park - Fall Cleanup

This Saturday I saw the realization of what had previously been just a daydream of mine -an actual organized park clean-up day! Though I'd been tossing the idea around in my head for quite some time, I credit a couple of other park-goers for giving me the motivation to finally act on the idea and see it through. So by just a few conversations, emails and by word-of-mouth, a small group of citizens came together on Saturday morning to help clean up Palmer Lake Park! We started bright and early at 8:00am -with the temperature only around 35 degrees and thus a few winter hats coming out of storage early. Prior to the clean up day, I'd contacted the City of Brooklyn Center, simply just to inquire about picking up the collected trash afterward. Not only did I learn they were more than happy to do so, but they would also even loan us garbage-grabbers, as well as supply bags, gloves and vests if needed. The people with the City were all around great to deal with; extremely helpful and informative, making our goal that much easier to accomplish. I checked out a total of ten garbage grabbers which ended up to be just about right -as my own personal grabber completely broke apart only 1/4th of the way around! As I hiked back to our starting point to switch out my grabber, I ran into another member of our group who was focusing on a particularly problematic area of the park, the south western corner. I was so happy to see this amount of effort and care taking place. Others in our group continued around the entire perimeter of the park all the way back to the south side parking lot. Upon returning and meeting up with the rest of the group here is when it really hit me just how big of an impact our small group had made on the park. Accounting for a few bags that were left in receptacles on the opposite side of the park, I counted a total of 14 bags full of trash that were collected in just 4 hours! In my opinion this was a huge success -especially given that it was really a "first attempt." I can't thank enough the people who volunteered their time this Saturday morning. Our collective efforts have helped beautify and preserve a much under-appreciated natural area. Spread the word -there will be more cleaning efforts to come!!!

Turning colder in May

It's steadily gotten more cold and damp in May which is really strange considering the very warm April we've had. It was easy getting used to 70 degrees in April but extra hard adjusting to mid 40's again in May! Tonight was a little better and the sun had finally popped out showing how green everything has become. On the west side I sidetracked into the woods to retrieve some garbage when I noticed this rather large and colorful snake. I'm sure it was just an everyday Garter Snake but it was close to three feet long with bright specks of orange on it. I got in real close for a picture and it got kind of pissed at me and looked like it might lunge at me. Later I spotted a Bald Eagle perched way out across the park in some dead tree tops. I've been seeing him here for the past few visits but never seem to get close to him. I'm also seeing about 9-10 deer almost every visit lately which is really unusual. It's much harder to catch pictures though now with all the tall grass and foliage. I'm also noticing a lot of them with "nubs" lately which is pretty cool. I'm pretty sure that the majority of young ones in the park are actually bucks. On the south side near the very spot I saw the Coyote last week, I watched this family of geese for a bit. The young ones, still yellow and fuzzy kept walking up underneath the female and she would kick them away with one leg. I couldn't figure out what they wanted until she sat down. Then all of them came barreling into her from behind and tucked themselves under her feathers for warmth.

Palmer Lake Cleanup Day!

This morning I finally accomplished my own little Lake Palmer Cleanup Day! Last year my workplace introduced a "Spirit Day" initiative that let's you take an extra day off to volunteer. This was the perfect fit to let me clean up all the trash I see everyday. It was a fantastic day to do so and I even got 3 personal "thank you's" from strangers out for a morning walk or a jog. It was a great feeling and went at least a little ways towards relieving my disgust about the grossness of my task. As I set out just after sunrise I encountered quite a few deer -eight in total. Here's one of 2 does seen not too long after setting out. I wanted to take at least one pic of my trash-grabber in action so here you go. Who in the heck ditches a bottle of lemon juice in the local park? Right as I was topping off my first 40 gallon trash bag, I heard a huffing noise coming from the other side of the trail. When I peaked out of the woods there were 2 does that must have been upset that I was standing on their trail. I quickly dropped my bag in favor of my camera and caught this video of the none-too happy doe. After that I got the heck out of there. As I was filling my second bag I came across two otherinteresting sites. The first were these odd, white berries and the second, a Great Blue Heron. Lastly is a picture of my two full bags of garbage hauled out of the park.