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April 01, 1961 - Spring! What does this word mean to you?©rid Focus on Nature by Paul St°urenburgh Cutchogue SPRING! What does this word are place. Where t h e ing malady is eating away these mean to you? bravets that do this miracu- precious natural resources. I To the Long Island farmer, it . lous work keep themselves- during shudder to think what the next means long days of cutting seed the frigid weather, I do not know. 50 years will too to our country - potatoes and then planting time. To those of us who live near side. (Who sand 50 years? 10 or To the gardener, it means the a swampy area, the return of 20 will shock you! When t h e appearance of the snow drops fol- the Red -wing_ outshines all the marshlands disappear — the Re3- lowed by the crocus. To t he other signs of spring. wings will disappear with them. school boy, spring means getting All winter long mese h a r d y One of my many ambitions in out his bat and ball and glove birds have been vacationing in photography is to get- on colored or turning his -heel in soft ground the Sunny South. Some years we film this jet -black warrior with for a game of marbles, while to see the flocks of Red -wings re- ' his red epaulets displaying before the city dweller it means a hectic turning as early as February,` but his mate. What a handsome cour- week -end in. the country where the usual time is mid - March. The tier he is during the mating rites! he starts his annual battle against exception to this migration pat- Whether it be an aerial display the leaves. tern is when you see them oc- or one in which he `struts his Tq those bb us who take to the casionally through the w i n t e r. stuff' before the unconcerned fe- out-of- doors, one of the f i r s t Hardly a year goes by that they male, makes no difference, for signs of spring is the skunk cab- are not located for our Christmas when he acts his part, there is bage. I am told this plant actually Count. no equal. We who have seen this, generates its own heat so that These spring forecasters have have been well rewarded'. the surrounding froze0u,, area is come early for one, purpose only Spring is surely here,- fot the thawed out, allowing die green and that is I4 stake out a nesting Red -wings have returned. and brown leaves to feirce -their claim for ffii coming year. This FIELD OBSERVATIONS: way 'through the wintry ground, claim is a realistic one, for stud- Bluebirds (3) March 20 (L Er- I have actually photographed proved that there are nest) East Shinnecoek. Canal these coming through a blanket *'e i undaries to most nesting fellow Osprey (1) March 21 (P Stouten- burgh) of snow. Whit a miracle plant e be the who Indian -Neck,,.Peconic this is, for aC `this time the skunk intrttides into their domain, for Bald Elgle (1) Still at Carman's cabbage is actually blossoming these areas are jealously guarded River (P Puleston) and the wonders of pollination and. vigorously defended. Gannets — March 25 (A Cooley) - While photographing a female Montauk on a nest in Mattituck, I recall Piping Plovers (7) March 25 (a tl* harassing Jim Crow received Cooley) Moriches Inlet m*n he nonchalantly wandered White - Crowned Sparrow — March ini i one of these restricted areas. 25 (L Ernest) Southampton I am sure at that particular time Harbor Sells (3) March 25 (J he meant no harm, but to the Puleston) Harlequin Pt, Montauk Red - wings, there was no explain- Snow Owl (1) March 27 (W Luce) ing to be done. Our National De. Cutchogue Country Club fense could take at lesson from the attack they put up for in no time at all Jim Crow was well on his1way. The inconspicuous brown- streak- ed female arrives from the South two to thrde weeks after the male has located living quarters. She busys herself mainly with build- ing her grass nest and rearing her young. VAhle this is going on, our handsome male merely sits aloft, noisily announcing the ar- rival of any intruders. Sorry to say, many of our wet- land areas on Long Island are rapidly, diminishing. There is lit- tle regard in the public's eye for this type of habitat. Here we again find the balance of nature bein tipped by man's draining, dredging and filling. We are fortunate Nere on the end of . the island . 0 have vast marshlands, but this slow creep-