I have not been able to bird the neighborhood this week, but here's an interesting tidbit about last weekend (Oct 18). Back in April I discovered that someone had dumped this blue recliner on the floodplain property near the end of Holbrook Street. Ever since construction started on the Lake Creek Trail, the county has been very good about placing boulders in spots to block access by cars or trucks. And this has cut way down on the dumping and off-road driving that used to go on back here. But there was a gap in the boulders nearby long enough for someone to dump the recliner, and it had been there ever since.Last weekend I was birding in the area and discovered that someone had set fire to the recliner and burnt it up. As you can see, it left a pretty big burnt patch around the chair and damaged the juniper tree it was next to.
Having the new trail has brought more people into the floodplain property which I think has cut down on illicit activity here. But obviously there's still some going on. My guess is this kind of thing is happening at night but that's just a guess. Hopefully there will be regular police presence on the trail. (At National Night Out a couple weeks ago NASWC gave the Williamson County Sheriff's Dept. a new mountain bike for patrolling the new Lake Creek Trail and other trails.) If anyone knows anything about this recliner burning I'd love to know more. Did the fire department put out the fire? With conditions having been so dry this could have been serious!
2 comments:
Someone left a black chair out in Yett Creek park where I bike, and there was a recent rumor/sighting of a cougar. So I was a little jumpy a couple of times when I saw it -- weird black shadow, turns out to be furniture rather than clawed death. So I agree that these upholstered squatters are dangerous and must be stamped out. But not by burning!
Wow, a cougar? Keep me posted! I wouldn't be very surprised by a bobcat, but cougars are pretty big! Who saw it?
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