Rat Poison is Bird Poison?

Bartlett Park, my favorite little not-sure-what-it-is place, is full of birds of prey. Of course, they hardly stick to the park--it's deep, but not wide, and they have to hunt elsewhere.


The park is right behind a shopping center full of restaurants and grocery stores, and therefore, lots and lots of food waste. Rats, of course, like food. Store owners, understandably, are less than enthusiastic about rats.

A while back, I posted a pair of pictures (1) of the resulting contrast: Wildlife sanctuary (of sorts) on one side, rat poison on the other. I idly wondered whether the poisoned bait might be hurting the birds.

From this article in Nature, it looks like the answer may very well be "yes," and not just birds of prey, though it apparently varies from bird to bird just how much.

The question, then, is "Now what?" Store owners and shoppers (including me!) aren't going to get any fonder of rats, nor is anyone whose house and backyard has ever been invaded by the creatures. Alternate poisons are one possibility, but any poison is going to have some effect (and almost certainly some unexpected effect).

I have no idea, incidentally, what specific poison the folk around Bartlett Park are using, nor can I swear the traps are still there; I'm no longer living where it's easy just to run across and look. It's just something to think about.

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(1) Not this particular pair. These were taken at Bartlett Park on a different day. It's been an ongoing concern.

Another Look at Bartlett Park, Huntington Beach

I can't decide if Bartlett Park is the ugliest beautiful park or the most beautiful ugly park in the neighborhood.

Bartlett Park at Dusk

More rain means more water for Bartlett Park, Huntington Beach. It looked fairly dark and foreboding in the evening light, but the local wildlife did not seem to care. The ducks show no sign of leaving their new home, and a blue heron still hoped for an evening's snack.

A large raptor watched the proceedings from a tree down in the valley. I think it was a white-tailed kite, but it was too dark to see for sure, and I was not able to get a good picture. Hummingbirds and sparrows were also plentiful.

Bartlett Park, Huntington Beach, a new angle

I discovered a new entrance to Bartlett Park the other day. I've been approaching it from the Albertson's parking lot and just learned that there is an opening from Adams. I knew there had to be other openings, of course, but for some reason I never looked for them.

Anyway, the Adams entrance takes you to the bottom of the valley and leads to a nice, smooth path. There are dog walkers here, too, but most of them seem to actually pick up after their dogs, so it's a more pleasant experience.

Anyway, there are also entrances on Coldwater Lane. Some of the kids were using it as a way in for their dirt bikes and the shovels that seem necessary for making bike paths.

Bartlett Park, Huntington Beach: Small Stuff

I visited Bartlett Park again the other day. To be honest, it's had better days. Despite the recent rain, the water in there is mostly left over from last year's rain, and it's getting a bit scummy-looking. There's still some water primrose growing in places (at least, I'm pretty sure that's what it is; I have not actually climbed down to look), but the stand of reeds in the deepest area has browned, and the receding water has left a lot of dead vegetation. In addition, the park service has mowed recently, leaving the top of the hill bald and desolate looking.

The local fauna, however, was not complaining. There's still at least one duck living down there (and I've never known a duck to actually be alone, so I'm willing to bet there were others in the reeds). There were dozens of dragonflies, all busily darting around just out of camera range, and I saw a couple of Marine Blues, plus a few other sorts of butterfly and moth I couldn't identify. And, of course, there were lizards, lots of lizards, a shiny black wasp, and at least one bird of prey (Kestral?).

Oh, and crows. Definitely there were crows. Probably the big hawk was around somewhere, too, but I didn't head over to its usual territory.

Bartlett Park, Huntington Beach, Again!

Big, scraggly ugly weeds at the edge of Bartlett Park.

Yet even they have flowers. The bees like them, and I've seen any number of ladybugs on them.

Bartlett Park, Huntington Beach

Yup. Rain suits Bartlett Park:

A glamor shot of Bartlett Park in the sunshine.

It is full of all sorts of grass and buzzing with life. All sorts of little creatures hopped and flew, and several larger ones skittered around, just out of sight.

A crow surveys one of the drier areas.

Bartlett Park, Huntington Beach

Rain really does suit the park. Even the raggedy big weeds at the edge have flowers.

Bartlett Park Again

Bartlett Park, some more

On one side of the wall, birds of prey hunting other birds and rodents.

On the other, rows and rows of garbage containers for the stores and rows and rows of rat poison.

Bartlett Park

Rain agrees with Bartlet Park.

Bird Battles

There is a single dead tree overlooking Bartlett Park that is much loved by the crows; my guess is that they like being able to survey their domain.

Unfortunately for them, there is also a hawk who likes the same tree, and no sooner had they settled down for an evening of gossip than the hawk (a red tail, I think) arrived to spoil the fun.

They chased him away, clear over to the Albertson's parking lot, where he settled briefly in the palm trees. They didn't like that, either, so they kept on heckling him.

Whereupon, he turned around and flew right back to their tree.

Then the whole process had to be repeated, with single crows diving as near as they dared and cawing their alarm until the rest joined in, the haw flew off, they settled, he came back, and so on.

Of course, there were times when all the bigger birds were gone. The smaller birds then took advantage of the peaceful interlude to settle down on the tree themselves--and start quarreling over who got to sit on which branch.

Photographs of Bartlett Park in Huntington Beach

 

Bartlett's Park aka Hidden Valley has been mowed now and is considerably less wild-looking--and also freer of broken bottles and dried dog poop than when I last visited. 

Every bird in the city seems to love it. I spotted at least two different kinds of hawks (one of these days I really am going to learn to identify them) and a number of small songbirds as well as the usual crows and pigeons.

The park still amazes me; it's such an oddity, tucked in there between the shopping center and the busy streets.

More on Bartlett Park

A few months ago, I noticed tree-cutting equipment and bulldozer-type stuff out in the park and wrote about that. Later, I saw it after the rain and the valley floor was one big mud puddle. No pictures--I do occasionally try to protect my non-waterproof camera from the elements--but it did finally get me to call the Park Services to ask what was going on.

The next day, I got a message on my phone explaining that Bartlett Park is a flood plain and part of the flood control system in the area, so the Park Department isn't allowed in that often but has to get special permission to go in and only goes in about once a year for "weed abatement" and for removing dead trees.

Interesting, though it raises more questions--like what, exactly, is a "park" anyway? Why can the general public go into this one any time the please (albeit at their own risk--and, honestly, that is why most of the pics here are taken from the edge), while the Parks Department can't? And one of these days I may actually phone and ask. Really, the only delay is me not getting around to it--any time I have phoned the Parks Department, they've been perfectly willing to answer questions.

Anyway, whatever a "park" is the plan of the moment is to leave Bartlett Park as it is, which should make the people who bike there happy.

Right now, I can't really imagine anyone wanting to go in--it's pretty jungly and most of what is growing there seems to have spines. There are some interesting bugs, though.

The weeds on March 14.

By March 22, the weeds are even bigger.

And they all have spikes.

Would you walk this path?

Neat bugs, though.

Followup on Bartlett's Park (1)

Ok, a careful search turned up a Drainage & Storm Water Quality report (or minutes of a meeting? Somesuch) for this year, and the city authorized an "Evironmental Assessment and Conceptual Plan to determine

e possible uses and development of Bartlett Park for passive, recreational use, preserving native habitat and vegetation."

What that has to do with cutting some of the trees down, or why the park has been left an almost-entirely unsupervised mess, or how long it has been this way (at least 10 years, from searches), I don't know. I may actually have to call someone and ask. Imagine that!

What's Happening with Bartlett Park?

So does anyone know what is happening with Bartlett Park/Hidden Valley? I was down there a while ago, and there was a lot of tree-cutting type equipment. I visited again a few days ago, and, sure enough, several of the trees had ben reomoved. On the other hand, so had the heavy-duty machinery, and the park looks just as ragged and unkempt as ever, and still has all the "Unpatrolled" signs and a rather battered bit of paper saying that a year ago the Boy Scouts did their level best to clean the place up. Web searching has turned up nothing--just some old posts by BMX bikers.

And I'm curious.

It could be a really beautiful park, if anyone cared--a pocket nature reserve--but no one (except perhaps the bikers)does care, so it retains in its messy, abandoned lot look, with dog poop left in piles and pieces of glass everywhere.

And, no, I'm not starting a campaign or doing anything about it myself, I'm just wondering--what happening with Bartlett Park?