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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, MAY 12, 2019
Park stewards search for suspect
Prospect Park Alliance investigating disappearance of seven swan eggs
BY COLIN MIXSON
Call it a hard-boiled mystery!
The city is investigating the
disappearance of seven swan eggs
from Brooklyn’s Backyard last
weekend, and the meadow’s chief
steward is asking local bird watchers
to share any information they
might have in an effort to solve the
mystery of the missing cygnets.
“A key part of the Alliance’s
mission is to sustain our natural
areas as a habitat for wildlife,”
said Sue Donoghue, president of
the Prospect Park Alliance, which
maintains the green space. “Prospect
Park Alliance and NYC Parks
were distressed to learn about the
missing swan eggs, and are investigating
this incident.”
The mute swan couple made
their nest near the Lullwater
Bridge north of Prospect Park Lake
about three weeks ago, and Forestry,
Wildlife and Aquatic Technician
Marty Woess — who famously
saved a wounded swan frozen in
Prospect Park Lake last winter —
has kept a watchful eye on the doting
parents and their clutch of eggs
ever since, according to Deborah
Kirschner, a spokeswoman for the
Prospect Park Alliance.
But parkgoers noticed the
swans cruising along the surface
of the lake — and not guarding
their nest — over the weekend, and
Woess stopped by to confi rm that
their eggs had been nabbed.
Neither the Alliance, nor the
city’s Parks Department have identifi
ed a suspect in the dastardly
egg-napping, although — while investigators
aren’t ruling out woodland
predators — the tidiness of the
crime scene suggests that raccoons
are not to blame.
If sleuths from either the Urban
Park Rangers, the Parks Enforcement
Patrol, or the NYPD identify
a two-legged culprit, they could be
subject to misdemeanor animal
abuse charges as punishment for
the eggs’ theft, according to Parks
Department spokeswoman Maeri
Ferguson.
Had the eggs been left to hatch,
the fuzzy cygnets would have graced
the lake before the end of May, and
borough bird lovers were bummed
to hear they’d miss out on the spectacle,
according to one avian fanatic.
“Everyone loves the babies,” said
Brooklyn Bird Club member Stanley
Greenberg. “They’re so fl uffy
and cute.”
Mute swans are considered an
invasive species by the state Department
of Environmental Conservation,
which in 2014 pushed a plan to
eradicate the aquatic birds to protect
the state’s ecosystem, but quickly
abandoned the scheme in the face of
intense public outrage.
This isn’t the fi rst time wildlife
has vanished from Prospect Park
under mysterious circumstances.
A group of fi ve women were spotted
poaching turtles from Prospect Park
Lake in 2017.
Donoghue is asking anyone with
information on the eggs’ disappearance
to call 311, or email the Alliance
at info@prospectpark.org.
COLD-HEARTED THEFT: One of Prospect Park’s swans with her eggs, before they suddenly disappeared sometime last
weekend. Prospect Park Alliance
link