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January 07, 1999 - Crane takes star turn in bird count32 • The Suffolk Times • January 7, 1999 Crane takes star turn I*n bird count During the winter the big day for birders is the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. I've been doing these counts for almost 50 years and they are an exhilarating and challeng- ing adventure. These dawn -to- FOCUS dusk marathons are a cooperative ON venture of small NATURE groups of indi- viduals who by Paul work specific Stoutenburgh areas within a designated 15 -mile circle. Some groups even go out before dawn to try to hear owls. Others venture by boat to reach areas that cannot be covered by foot. All keep meticulous lists on every bird seen as to species and numbers. Then these reports from throughout the country are tabulated in a mammoth volume that describes every count. Besides it being a friendly competitive game of who gets the highest number of species, much of this information is used by scientists who monitor bird populations and in turn give us clues as to the health of the world around us. The first count I was on this year was the Montauk Count and our area was on Gardiners Island. That ex- traordinary island falls within the 15- mile circle of Montauk and is one I especially look forward to. Three of us covered the windswept south end that includes the long, thin, two -mile neck- lace of sand called Cartwright. I was first introduced to this low sandy strip by Gil Raynor, who was one of Long Island's finest naturalists. In those early days we were banding gulls and terns that nested there. The south end is not known for its land species but more for its attraction to shorebirds such as sanderlings, turnstones, dunlins, knots, sandpipers, etc. plus its winter duck population. Then, of course, sometimes we get lucky and spot snowy and short - eared owls that hunt the marsh and dunes for voles and mice. Besides these birds and others, I always have to check on the seals that gather on the rocks along the east side of the island, just below Tobaccolot. I counted 16 this year. They look like tightly packed sausages that somehow balance deli- cately atop the half - submerged rocks on that side of the island. We traveled to and from the island on the Captain Kidd III, a speedy lobster -type boat that left at dawn from Three Mile Harbor. On Dec. 27 I worked with a group of five covering the East Moriches - Eastport area for the Central Suffolk Bird Count that takes in parts of Riverhead, Southampton and Brookhaven. Of all the areas I've worked, this bay -creek area has seen the greatest upheaval in population. Where once bean fields grew, hous- ing developments with dredged -out creeks and filled wetlands now sprawl. Where once duck farms flourished, now rows of condomini- ums with their mani- cured lawns have sprung up. In between, wildlife — as I remember it — has been squeezed out. One -time polluters Yet it's not all bad, for there was no greater polluter than the old - fashioned duck farm that had huge pens of ducks, right on the creeks and bays of Eastport and Moriches. Today most of the duck farms have fallen into decay and the remaining ones can no longer put their ducks in open water. I knew this area well so we were able to seek out the few remaining spots that still yield good birding. There is a lot of fresh water — ponds, streams and lakes— around the area and it is here we get the freshwater ducks that we seldom see in our count area on the north shore: ducks like canvasback, widgeon, pintail, shovelers, hooded mergansers, ringnecks, redheads and others. We even found five greater yel- lowlegs, a type of shorebird that should have gone south long ago, in one of the backwater ponds where it hadn't yet frozen over. It's interesting to note that year after year we can go to certain spots and be pretty sure of finding the same type of birds that were there the year before. A perfect example is a certain clump of cedars where we can usually flush out a roosting barn owl or a great horned owl, or even a sleepy night heron that each evening tries to find a few kitties in some unfrozen spot of the marsh. The combined number of species recorded for the Central Suffolk Count tallied up to 134, possibly the highest in the state. Arctic air raced over the whitecaps of the water. It was an eerie sight, one that blew the water out of my teary eyes and tingled my nose, making me turn away from the coldness of that white, windy, wild scene. Yet right at the edge of the surf, amongst the churning water and drifting mist, 20 or 30 ring - billed gulls were find- ing something to feast on as they dipped and fluttered above. Some sat for a few seconds on the churning sea, only to snatch a morsel and then be off, scanning and hunting for whatever it was they were feeding on. It was a wonderful, wild experi- ence, one of the rewards of getting up in the dark and stepping out into a world few will ever expe- rience. We counted ev- erything from ducks to geese, from chickadees to robins. We even chased out a great horned owl from our favorite evergreen spot that never ceases to pro- duce these hunters of the night. At one point atop Browns Hills I stepped in the lee of a summer cottage and took out my scope and set it up so I could scan the great expanse of the churning Sound below me. A few red - breasted merganser ducks were the only birds I saw and they spent most of their time below, out of the cold and wind searching for food. Once I thought I had something but it turned out to be a lobster buoy — no points for that. Then I spotted something white far off in the middle of the Sound. I thought it was a black- backed gull, but I checked it out anyway. I found the white bird had black wing tips: a gannet searching for its morning meal. These birds are ocean birds but occasionally we find them in our bays and Sound. It was a lucky find and one that would be rein- forced later when we spotted another from further out on the point. The focus for everyone, including all the parties that worked in the Orient sector, was trying to spot a sandhill crane that had been seen a week or two before the count. This is so rare, not only here in Orient but to see one any- where in the state, that it brought peo- ple from all over. The day before our Jan. 2 count it was still spotted in Orient, so our hopes were high for see- ing it and to add this bird to our list. Yet our hopes were fading as we met for lunch to compare notes. No one had seen the bird, even with trip after trip to the area where it had been seen previously. But there was hope, for we still had the afternoon before us. Sure enough, persistence came through, and two parties saw the elusive bird in two different locations. This was the bird of the year, and it was found on the Orient Bird Count. The final total of all parties was 118 species of birds, one of the highest records so far. I'm sure Roy Latham of Orient would have been proud of that total; after all, he was one of the pio- neers of the Christmas Bird Counts. Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenbu'gh A sandhill crane, like this one photographed In Florida, was recent- ly spotted in Orient. The crane stands four feet high and has a wing span of six feet. Once before, Orient had a visit from a sandhill crane, In August 1984, when one was seen at the Dan Latham farm. OrientChristmas Red- throated Loon, Common Loon, Pied - billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Red- necked Grebe, Northern Gannet, Great Cormorant, Double - crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Black- crowned Night Heron, Tundra Swan, Mute Swan, Snow Goose, Brant, Canada Goose, American Black Duck, Mallard Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American Widgeon, Canvasback, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Oldsquaw, Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, White - winged' Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Common ,Merganser, Red- breasted Merganser, Ruddy Duck, Northern Harrier, Sharp- shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Red - tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Ring- necked Pheasant, Northern Bobwhite, Virginia Rail, American Coot, Black- bellied Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Purple Sandpiper, Dunlin, Common Snipe, American Woodcock, Bonaparte's Gull, Ring - billed Gull, Herring Gull, Lesser Black - backed Gull, Great Black- backed Gull, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Eastern Screech Owl, Great Horned Owl, Long - eared Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Red - headed Woodpecker, Red - bellied Woodpecker, Yellow - bellied Sapsucker, The last count I was on this year was our Orient Count. Three of us cov- ered the section from the causeway north of Route 25 to Orient Point. We all knew it was going to be cold but none of us were prepared for the bit- ter eight degrees that was pumped in by a 20- mile -an -hour wind out of the northwest. One section of my area was along the Sound. It was like some- thing you see only a few times on these especially cold winter mornings. The Sound looked like some huge boiling pot, except it was missing the heat. The Sound literally steamed with windblown vapor as the chilled C o�unt tally Bird Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern' Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Horned Lark, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Black- capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Red - breasted Nuthatch, White- breast- ed Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Carolina Wren, Winter Wren, Marsh Wren, Golden - crowned Kinglet, Ruby- . crowned Kinglet, Eastern Bluebird, Hermit Thrush, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Cedar Waxwing, European Starling, Yellow- rumped Warbler, Common Yeliowthroat, Yellow- breasted Chat, Northern Cardinal, Rufous - sided' Towhee, American Tree Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, "Ipswich" Sparrow, Sharp - tailed Sparrow (salt marsh), Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, White- crowned Sparrow, Dark -eyed Junco, Snow Bunting, Red- winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Rusty Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown- headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole, House Finch, Pine Siskin, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Sandhill Crane. Count week: Ring - necked Duck, Orange- crowned Warbler.