01 January 27, 1963 - The Beach in Winter
The Beach in Winter
Exclusive Sunday Review Sketch by Dennis Puleston of Brookhaven.
Focus on Nature
GUEST WRITER:
JUDD BENNETT
I am always glad when Judd
Bennett contributes to our column
for be has the sensitivity that
few writers are privileged to
kindle. Perhaps this is more
easily understood when you know
that he has been schooled from
youth as an artist. I am sure you
can tell this as you read• over
this week's article concerning our
winter beaches. P' S
Beaches in the grip of winter
still have much of the charm that
is so attractive to those of us
endlessly fascinated by the world
of the tide lines. These shores
along with their flanking land-
ward bluffs, dunes and sweeping
low knolls — along with their
adjacent of - shore depths have
something altogethr dynamic,
vital and stimulating. Many of us
constantly and strongely feel an
urge to be down by the sea —
for even a quick scan of the
open colt] waters or for a short
stroll in the brisk calm or a walk
of many hours in the bitterest of
stinging winds.
Stinging winds — these espec-
ially, violent stirrings of air when
whipped up even to the force of
a gale and beyond are always
the most active and real part
of a winter born of shortened
days. They maintain the great
beauty of the winter beach. The
drama and action in the winter
storm - clash is all but ignored
by most of those creatures living ..
within these cold and apparently
barren miles. Herring Gulls soar
for hours, little concerned as the
raging winds tear over heaving
slush, ugly and heavy, in the surf
below them.
Many of us only visit the shores
in the best days of summer.
While other s often only feel
excitedly drawn there, the year
around, at the time of extremes
— of high tides and powerful
winds. Some of us like to be out'
in and close to this power and
danger for that surely is just
what the elements often become,
a force dangerous and destructive
during these highly dramatic
hours. The placid moments have
their strong appeal too.
The beaches in mid - winter,
when one makes but a brief and
hurried visit, appear forbidding
— in the extreme. They seem
forlorn and desolate and they are
when compared to the time, not
sd very long ago, when all was
sharply alive in a dazzle of
summer warmth. Now, in time
of winter, all seems without that
teeming stir of life, yet this is
somewhat of' an incorrect int-
pression. Much of life still goes
on as usual, seen and unseen,
in, over and on almost of all of
these lengthy shorelines.
With but an alert glance out
over the great bands . of gravels
and sands where the waters meet
the land any idea of its being
deserted quickly fades. There
actually are many creatures liv-
ing therein. Some, a part of those
birds seen, m a de a journey
southward halting puhposely right
here to await the return of Spring
to their own Arctic shores.
Strangely these polar birds are
possibly more than content to be
this far only into the southward
latitudes when frigid long nights
:hold their summer homelands in
a glassy frozen grip. They even
display a frolic - behavior in the
midst of the roughest turbulence
our winters bring..
These visitants are mostly the
birds of the sea but there are
others also here for the winter.
The little birds cause the most
wonder because of their size.
They make it, though, through
the months of cold except for the
stacking - up of occasional great -
er odds. One of the fascinating
details of this apparently uneven
struggle is ,the matching opposite
in an ex t r e m e temperature
spread. Only the thin coating of
feathers separates the degrees of
well over one hundred in the bird
and the zero difference just out-
side.
With a few possibly omitted,
a short listing of the smaller
birds to be found on the winter
beaches,, almost any day, are the
Myrtle Warbler, the Snow Bunt-
ing, the Horned Lark, the Lapland
Longspur, the Goldfinch, the Pine
Siskin, the Song Sparrow, the
Junco and the Chickadee. One
of the smaller rarities would be
the Redpoll.
Of the larger birds, all much
the tougher, found any . day, in
the air over the beaches, on the
nearer waters and just here -
ahouts in general on the strands,
are the Marsh, Sparrow and
Pigeon Hawk, the Short - eared
Owl, the White . winged Scoter,
the Common and Red - throated
Loon, the Horned Grebe and
some few others all quite often
appearing on winter bird lists.
The larger bird rarities would
be the Snowy Owl, King Eider,
the Harlequin Duck, the Gannet
and a few more, easily checked
out.
For wintertime even the -mater-
ial bulk of the beaches, the stony
shores, in particular, • change.
Each season has a typical form
-- in the summertime there is
a flatish and gently sloping beach
by Paul Stoutenburgh
with a shorter surf - line and
greater water depth — in the
wintertime there is a crowned -
up, steeply sloping and scooped
beach with an extended surf -.line
and lesser water depth. Many
tons of gravel are often drawn
well out under water. The sands
also pile up differently as they
form and reform under winter
winds. The flotsam is made up
of the brittle• rigid dead: What
lies cast on the beaches of a
day seems to vary more around
this season. It seldom as a whole
resembles the typical drift of
summer.
When tide - level water forms in
long pools which run along beach-
es just beyond the real water -
line many bits of the abundant
sea life float dead and dying on
the still surface. A short listing
of the somewhat commoner spec-
ies would include the Lobster,
tiny and fresh fleshed, but dead;
the little Rook Crab, the plumes
of Red Algae, the Hermit Crab,
the Common Periwinkle, alive
but only, after being roughly
scoured from rocks by ice; tons
of Rockweed and Kelp, some of
the Horny Sponges; including the
beautiful R e d be a rd Sponge;
Deadman's Fingers Sponge, the
little Horse Mussel, the Mantis
Shrimp; the Starfish, three — the
Blood Sea Star, the Purple Star
and the larger plain pale Com-
mon Star and, others. A rarity
would be the Sea Cucumber.
If a beach is made up of gravel,.
basically water - formed pebbles,
the storm - built crowns rising in
"mound- bands" just beyond the
tidal limits are beautiful features
fashioned by the surf pound of
winter. These bands run in great
long ridges which appear to swirl
gracefully around _the massive
boulders more than half smother-
ing the smaller and now and then
partially burying a hugh wet tree
skeleton, newly in as driftwood,
and now resting ignobly for the
moment caught tightly in an
embrace of the base - rocks and
millions of quartz pebbles.
The winter beach when heavily
covered with salt - water ice can
look very march like the all - white
beauty of Polar regions and some-
times feel as cold. Wintertime
beaches have strong, direct and
distinctive appeal — for where
but here is that rarest of mo-
ments — the spell of solitude still
found.
FIELD OBSERVATIONS
Lawrence Ernest reports:
Shinneeock - Jan 13 -15
Marsh Hawks (2)
Red - backed Sandpipers
Purple •Sandpapers
Great Blue Heron
Floyd VanWyck reports:
Plum Island - Jan 17- 18
Red - tailed Hawk
J Bennett and P Stoutenburgh
reports:
Orient - Jan 19
Harlequin Duck (3) .
Eiders (15)
Mrs Waiter Taylor reports:
Cutchogue -Jan
Purple Finches at feeder
-Dennis Puleston reports:
Southaven — Jan 19
Bled Eagles (2)
Ring - necked Duck (30)
Canvasback (200)
Snow Goose
Cutting Arboretum — Jan 19
Catbird
Patchogue — Jan 19
Gadwall (30)
Ring - necked Duck (120)
Shoveler (2)
Yaphank — Jan 20
Whistling Swan (2)
Wood Duck • (2)
Common Snipe