The other day whilt out picking up some sandwiches at Quiznos I noticed something very strange out of the corner of my eye as I passed Second Lake.
In my little home town, we have a series of small lakes that are mostly surrounded by parks and walking paths. The lakes came about when water filled in the clay quarries around which the town formed. First Lake is the largest of the lakes and is also the deepest. Cars that accidentlaly drove into the lake would likely not ever be found again.
Second Lake is smaller than First, but is shallower. In the winter when it freezes over kids use it as a hockey rink. In the spring and summer, geese migrate in for the bread feedings by park visitors, which is now outlawed by town ordinance and carries a hefty fine.
It was in Second Lake that I first saw it. I didn’t really believe it - I thought I had imagined something while driving by. But then I saw more in First Lake, and I had to stop to see what was going on.
What you see here is a picture of the crocodile I saw in First Lake.
Now, logic is going to beg that these are not real crocodiles. After all, it’s February in Pennsylvania and Crocodiles are cold-blooded, right? So there’s no way we’re going to see crocs in the Lakes. Yet, there they are.
As it turns out, this seems to be the plans of the borough government to get rid of the geese menace. The geece see the crocodile decoys and they refuse to land. It’s kind of like how they put decoys of pirds of prey on rooftops to keep pigeons from perching on the edges and fouling up the place.
I suppose that this method of goose-deterrent will only work for so long, though. Geese are not entirely stupid, and it just takes a few of them landing by accident to realize there is no real danger. Still, I was initially fooled by it. Maybe the geese will be, too.
Still, I am amazed at these little croc critters. There are many more of them than I would have suspected would be required to deter the geese from landing. And they all float out there with their little croc heads spinning in place with the current, tethered to the lake bed by some unseen line.
This morning while driving to work, I noticed that the regular contingent of non-migrating geese had moved to the boathouse on the Brandwine across from the park. So maybe it is having some practical effect.
