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August 08, 1985 - The Many Joys of GunkholingPage 12A The Suffolk Times The Many Joys of Gunkholing By PAUL STOUTENBURGH Have you ever gone gunkholing? For those not familiar with the term, it means exploring all the little nooks and crannies off the beaten track of every- day travel. You can do this almost any- where, but it takes a kind of person who likes to do the unusual and is not afraid of running aground or perhaps even coming home empty handed without se- eing anything special. Nine times out of 10, though, if you get in the spirit of things, you will be more than rewarded. Whenever we go anywhere by boat we take along our small, battered din- ghy. This is an ideal craft for such ad- ventures, because of its shallow draft, YELLOWLEGS Focus on Nature and it can either be sailed, rowed or motored, depending on your mood. Just recently, Barbara and I took such a trip around one of the harbors of the South Shore. We motored at slow speed with our little 2hp motor along the shoreline until we hit a meandering creek. Being so small, I knew it wouldn't have too much traffic and therefore might afford us a look see into some wildlife habitat. As soon as we entered the lush wet- land -lined creek, a family of baby ducks scurried across in front of us. This was a late brood, for the young were still very small. Perhaps the first setting had been lost to a high tide or even a raccoon, in which case they renested or perhaps it was just a late nester. After all, it happens to the best of us. By now Barbara was calling softly, "Cut the motor. Cut the motor. I'll row," Well, there is no better way, except by paddling in a canoe, to see what is around you without disturbing the area than rowing. Further up and on the right two snowy egrets were quietly stalking together at the water's edge. How dare we disturb their peaceful feeding, they seemed to say as they flew quietly off, trailing their yellow feet be- hind them. Surely the golden slipper bird is an appropriate name for them. Inside the tiny creek, the wind was gone completely and we drifted on the glassy surface surrounded by high Allstate Update: Homeowners Insurance "Before you write another check for homeowners insurance, compare. It could save you money!" Paying that home owners premium gets to be a habit. But now, lots of folks are comparing rates and finding out they may be paying too much. Our office is nearby, so it's easy to call or come in and compare your homeowners policy with Allstate. I'll try to help you save some money. You're in good hands with Allstate. AliStillu 0 Allstate Enterprises, Inc. & Subsidiaries Northbrook, Illinois Charles G. Tangney, CLU. 44055 Main Rd. Southold, N.Y. 765 -1859 trees. Along the banks in certain places, fresh water oozed from the gravelly banks and here no salt grass grew. A kingfisher dropped from a tree limb, where it had been surveying the water's below for an early morning meal of some unsuspecting killie or minnow. His rattly call drifted away as he headed out into the harbor proper, where I'm sure he found another one of his favorite lookouts. Cattails and Swamp Azalea By now we had worked ourselves up to the headwaters of this grassy, bog- ged -edge waterway. Immediately alongside the banks were occasional clumps of cattails, pepperidge trees and swamp maples, and if I looked close I could see the brown dried flowers of the white swamp azalea. We were entering the freshwater end of the creek. Most of our creeks, if you follow them far enough up, will have this freshwater ending. This, plus all the seepage and underwater streams from the upland, makes our creeks very brackish, which in turn when put together make our bays less salty than the Sound and the ocean. This is the reason why clams and oysters are found in our creeks and not in our Sound and ocean. True, we do have clams in the ocean, but they are the big skimmer clams that are adapted to that high degree of salinity and will not grow in our bay. It's why we don't get black mussels in our creeks, but rather get the ribbed mussels. Each to his own, as the saying goes. After an hour of slowly poking our way here and there, we left this little gem and went farther along the bay. Here we passed the long peninsula of dune and marsh with a long winding August 8, 1985 SNOWY EGRET waterway behind. It was alive with birds. Glossy ibis, with their peculiar long down - curved bill and characteris- tic flight, probed the bog for fiddler crabs. They surely have the bill for it. Both species of white herons lifted their heads from feeding to check us out. How much larger the big common egret is compared to the small snowy. Then a great blue heron flew up. He was about the same size as the big, white common egret. Great blues do not nest here on Long Island, so he must have been one of the non - breeders we occasionally see in our wetlands. Right along the water's edge on the exposed sand just inside the creek was a lone yellowlegs. This is one of the most hand- some of our shorebirds. It stands on long, yellow legs and poses a most characteristic shorebird silhouette. The long legs and white rump make for easy (continued on next page) "Unpaint" your house with You know the sinking sensation of noticing that the paint on your house is starting to peel. Then you have to decide whether it has gotten bad enough to repaint. As if you didn't have enough to worry about. But now you can make just one decision that'll mean you'll never again worry about whether your house needs painting. You can let us unpaint your house with Gold Bond Vinyl Siding. It's Gold Bond /Go /d Bond Bui /ding Products beautiful, tough and resilient. The color goes all the way through. And it doesn't crack, flake, chip or blister. Resists dents and won't show scratches. What it does is add permanent beauty and value to your home. The limited warranty is for 50 years. And it's transferable should you sell your home. What's more, Gold Bond Vinyl Siding pays for itself. Because you'll never have to pay for repainting again. NESCONSET =STAXEN e& WADING RIVER e92265 8888 ke STAMEN IUMW �uTERws Sound ANe. IRIr 25A) August 8, 1985 The Suffolk Times Page 13A 75 Years Ago August 6, 1910 Chauffeur Put Owner Out: While Mrs. Geo. W. Elder, of Brooklyn, a weal- thy woman well known on the East End, was out riding in her automobile one day last week, her chauffeur got angry because she asked him two or three times to drive slower and ordered her from the car. Mrs. Elder and her maid were forced to get out when the man stopped. He got in the car and drove away. The weal- thy woman and the maid had to walk about two miles to the Quogue depot, where they took a train for South- ampton. Mrs. Elder's husband and son are stopping at South Jamesport. Mr. Elder hired a car that night, as soon as he heard of the affair, and spent half the night searching for the man and the car, but he returned without getting trace of them. Eggs and Bread by the Pound: Hereafter eggs and bread are to be sold by the weight in New York City in con- formity with an ordinance passed by the board of Aldermen. It will be easy to adjust the size of loaves of bread to a certain weight, say the pound, or half pound, but we doubt as to the hens being so particular as to adjusting their prod- uct to the markings of the scale. It will be a nice job to figure out the fractions of a pound or ounce, but probably not more difficulty in getting at the exact selling price of beef or ham or fowl which very rarely register just on the pound notch. One result of selling eggs by the pound will be to do away with the sale Fo'i s .. (continued from previous page) identification of this migrant. Probably the bird was tired from flying this part of his journey from the far north to even- tually South America, for we could move up to him without his flying off. In the background, turnstones, another shorebird species, were rustl- ing their early morning brunch from the wet sands. Their bills were busy probing and flipping shells and stones over in hopes of picking up worms, sand fleas and other crustaceans. Least terns and common terns flew back and forth, some feeding right alongside of us. Every once in a while, one would plum- met into the water, sometimes catching a fish, and then promptly swinging over to the shore to feed a fledgling young. Rarest Bird Seen The rarest bird we saw was the black tern. I'd seen this bird twice before when we visited the area this year. Black terns are a bit smaller than our common terns, but act and fly about the same. They'll dive bomb you when you enter their nesting grounds, which I found out many years ago when I was going to college up along the Great Lakes. It was about the only time I ever remember Barbara refusing to help me with my photographing. I had to wade out waist deep among the debris to the floating nests of these terns in a pond that made up this oozy, wet area. I needed her help to carry some of the equipment and she asked me if there were any snakes around just before she stepped in, for water snakes were com- mon in such places and I said I hadn't seen any. Well, you might have known as soon as she got knee deep in the pond off slid a big water snake. That was enough for her! She backed t, at and said, "No way!" The beauty of gunkholing is that it is all about us. It costs nothing. You do no harm and you can have endless hours of pleasure looking in on nature's own backyard. Try it and I'm sure you will agree there is no better way to spend a few hours. Let's Look Back of bantam eggs and with the keeping of any fowl that lay small -sized eggs. Selling by the weight is the only fair and accurate way of selling eggs. It is necessary, however, that the scales should be honest; also the man behind them. Now that we are approaching the time of diminishing peach baskets it is time that the size of those receptacles was regulated by law also. A strict watch is being kept upon apple and potato barrels and they must come up to standard measure or run the risk of being confiscated by the active Clement J. Driscoll, Commissioner of the Bureau of Weights and Measures. 50 Years Ago August 9, 1935 Swim to Shelter Island: On Friday of last week, Lester Y. Clerke, and the Misses Helen Stewart and Doris Allen, residents of the summer colony at Sandy Beach, swam from Sandy Beach across the Bay to Shelter Island. Fair at Riverhead: For the eighty - third time in Suffolk County's history, farmers, merchants and housewives will gather the fruits of their labor to- gether in one proud harvest, the Suffolk County Fair, to be held at Riverhead for five days from Aug. 27th to 31st, inclusive. It's the same old fair that has fasci- nated farmers and society folk, oldest inhabitants and summer visitors for al- most a century, but this year, the new features are bigger and better than they ever were. For the first time at the fair the biggest and most complete Better Home Exhibition ever held on Eastern Long Island will be shown. Mercer W. Sweeney, whose exhibitions at Hun- tington and Babylon were great succes- ses, will be in charge of this division of the Fair. There will be countless prizes for flowers, jellies and cattle, rabbits and needlework. The Fair Grounds have been improved and enlarged. Ten events will be on the trotting and pacing card, one of the outstanding fea- tures of the annual Fair. Whitney Hubbard of Greenport is judging the Fine Arts. 25 Years Ago August 5, 1960 The 13th Was the Lucky One: The old tradition that the number thirteen is unlucky especially among fishermen proved to be untrue on Sunday of this week when S. Brandi, proprietor of Brandi's Shoe Store on Front Street, was the high hook out of a crowd of thirteen anglers. The fishing party, to which Village Trustee Oscar Goldin acted as the host, consisted of relatives, friends and busi- ness acquaintances of Mr. Goldin. The party of anglers were aboard the party boat "Stranger" owned by Cap- tain Theodore Reiter. Mr. Brandi, who is an ardent fisherman, was as much surprised as were the rest of the crew when he hooked and successfully landed a fourteen pound five ounce fluke while fishing off Green Hill. The fish, which was 33 inches in length, was taken to Arthur White's fishing dock at Greenport and registered in the 1960 Jacob Ruppert's fishing contest.