Loading...
January 03, 1985 - 110 Species, Count 'Emo'.`, ,r �4 e 1, �The Suffolk Times/ Second Section Jnw.i e'C 110 Species, Count 'Em By PAUL STOUTENBURGH Another year has swung full circle and the annual National Christmas Bird Count that Audubon conducts throughout the 50 states has taken place. There are four counts on the East End of Long Island, three of which I am involved in. Each of the counts covers a 15 -mile circle. The Central Suffolk count is in Brookhaven, and the territ- ory I cover in that one is Eastport and East Moriches. The Quogue -Water Mill count I do not participate in because I am on Gardiners Island helping to cover that part of the Montauk count. And then there is our own Orient count, which I head up. This 15 -mile circle runs from about Peconic east to Orient Point and south as far as Sag Harbor, including all of Shelter Island. This year we had 50 participants in 11 differ- ent areas. Never before have we had such a mild day to do our Orient count. Tempera- tures in the mid -60s was quite a con- trast to the bitter cold wind, rain and snow that previous counts seemed to present to us. An example was the Mon- tauk count this year where we had wind and rain that soaked us through and did its best to try to discourage us. Then on the Central Suffolk count, it snowed practically all day leaving a mere half - inch on our North Shore while on the South Shore we trudged through three to four inches of snow. Snow and rain are our worst enemies, for they not only obscure distant vision but get on the binocular lens giving us a blurred view until cleaned. This al- ways seemed to happen just as you saw some flitting bird you wanted to iden- tify: Identification is the name of the game. The more species you get, the higher the count number, and this is what the competition becomes with other areas in the country: Who can get the highest number of species? We also count individuals giving us some indi- cation of the variation of bird popula- tion. This counting in the same area ' each year helps us to see the overall picture in species increase or decline. High Orient Count This year we had our second highest count on the Orient area since I took it over in 1967 -- 110 species. We had hoped for more, but since the. weather was so mild the birds were widespread instead of concentrated in their usual cold weather habitat. Yet we had some interesting finds. A bluebird was found on Shelter Is- land along with a king eider duck, which is a northern visitor and not very common in our waters. The eider duck and its related species are where the best down comes from for down jackets. A wood duck was found in the Sag Harbor area. This is the most handsome of all our ducks. We missed the famous peregrine falcon this year but got sharp shins, Coopers, red tails, marsh hawks (N. Harrier), pigeon hawks (merlin) and, of course, our common kestrel or sparrow hawk, as it used to be called. This handsome small falcon can be seen almost anywhere along our roadside sit- ting on a telephone wire looking for his favorite dinner of mice or voles. We missed wild turkeys at Mashomack on Shelter Island but found them on Gardiners Island. To see these jumbo blimps flying is really some- thing. It is remarkable how well they do in the air. Through the cooperation of the Orient State Park people we were able to locate some of the lingering shore birds that should have been vacationing in South America by now. We found turnstones, sanderlings, dunlins and black - bellied plover. Speaking of shore birds, at the end of Orient Point we were able to pick up two purple sandpipers on the rocks just offthe end. These small winter birds somehow exist on the mi- nute crustaceans and worms that lie among the debris at the high and low water mark on the rocks. They are the one winter shore bird that stays around through the winter. How they exist when it really gets cold and windy is truly a miracle. Off shore, we picked up with our scopes the small white flutterings of the Bonaparte gull in the Sound. Here is another bird that makes it through the winter feeding in the icy waters. Those who take the Plum Island ferry each day to work often see these small white birds fluttering above the water in what appears to be an impossible task of feeding. Owls Lured by Tape We missed the barn owl but got the great horned owl, our largest bird of prey in the owl family. It's large enough to carry off a full -grown rabbit without any trouble. Many screech owls were located by using tape recorders in the dim hours of early dawn. Playing their call will usually bring them right up to you. It's something to see, and adds quite a bit of excitement to birding. On the windswept beaches at the end of the State Park we found one of winter's loveliest of birds, a flock of snow buntings. Those black and white birds with their undulating flight were a joy to see. Some people call them "snow birds" for they, like the four - horned larks we found, visit us only dur- ing the winter months and eke out a living from seeds that have dropped to the ground where only their keen eyes can find them. A flock of cedar waxwings were found eating berries of last year's harvest on a hawthorn tree. There were many others too numerous to tell about here. Joseph L. Townsend INSURANCE Commercial - Personal - Yacht 216 Main Street, Greenport - 477 -0153 l� Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh BRANT - -This black- necked goose is much smaller than the Canada goose we see here on the North Fork. It was seen in the southern tip of the Orient count area on the south side where it was foraging on its favorite food, eel grass. A solitary vireo almost unheard of was found in the East Marion area, and jumping from the North Fork to the Central Suffolk count, I even found a snowy egret, that beautiful white bird we see in our marshes in the summer- time. That was surely a late straggler. It is probably best just to list all the birds we saw rather than speak of each. It was an exciting day from before dawn to after dark. When it was all over we met at the Spates' spacious home in Bay View for a delicious spread of food and drink. As the evening wore on, it took quite a bit of prodding to get the par- ticipants out of their comfortable chairs after an all -day walk, a warm house, delicious food and drink and the friendly atmosphere that prevailed. Some, I'm sure, could have drifted off to sleep with very little coaxing where they would probably have dreamt of rare and exotic birds that could have been added to the count. As it was, we all wearily thanked our host and hos- tess and went to our cars and home, some going as far as New Jersey, all with the hopes of seeing each other again next year and breaking our re- cord of 112 in 1976. ORIENT COUNT Red - throated Loon, Common Loon, Pied - billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Great Cormorant, Double - crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Black - crowned Night- Heron, Mute Swan, (White - bellied) Brant, (Canada) Goose, Wood Duck, (Green- winged) Teal, American Black Duck, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Canvasback, Ring- necked Duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Oldsquaw, Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, White - winged Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Red - breasted Mer- ganser, Northern Harrier, Sharp- shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Red- tailed Hawk, American Kes- trel, Merlin, Ring - neqcked Pheasant, Northern Bobwhite, Clapper Rail, Virginia Rail, American Coot, Black - bellied Plover. Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Purple Sandpiper, Dunlin, American Woodcock, Bonaparte's Gull, Ring - billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black- backed Gull, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Eastern Screech -Owl, Great Horned Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Red- bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern (Yellow shafted) Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Horned Lark, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Blac- capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White - breasted 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, Cedar Waxwing, European Starling. Yellow - rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Palm War- bler, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Cardinal, Rufous -aided Towhee, American Tree Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Vesper Spar- row, Savannah Sparrow, Sharp - tailed Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White - throated Sparrow, White- crowned Sparrow, Dark -eyed (Slate- colored) Junco, Snow Bunting, Red- winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Rusty Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown- headed Cowbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Solitary Vireo, King Eider, and House Wren. Frohnhoefer Electric An Extensive Selection to Choose From Eastern Long Island's Largest Lighting Showroom. Main Street, Southold 765 -2100 The Suffolk Times/ Second Section 110 Species, Count 'Em By PAUL STOUTENBURGH Another year has swung full circle and the annual National Christmas Bird Count that Audubon conducts throughout the 50 states has taken place. There are four counts on the East End of Long Island, three of which I am involved in. Each of the counts covers a 15 -mile circle. The Central Suffolk count is in Brookhaven, and the territ- ory I cover in that one is Eastport and East Moriches. The Quogue -Water Mill count I do not participate in because I am on Gardiners Island helping to cover that part of the Montauk count. And then there is our own Orient count, which I head up. This 15 -mile circle runs from about Peconic east to Orient Point and south as far as Sag Harbor, including all of Shelter Island. This year we had 50 participants in 11 differ- ent areas. Never before have we had such a mild day to do our Orient count. Tempera- tures in the mid -60s was quite a con- trast to the bitter cold wind, rain and snow that previous counts seemed to present to us. An example was the Mon- tauk count this year where we had wind and rain that soaked us through and did its best to try to discourage us. Then on the Central Suffolk count, it snowed practically all day leaving a mere half - inch on our North Shore while on the South Shore we trudged through three to four inches of snow. Snow and rain are our worst enemies, for they not only obscure distant vision but get on the binocular lens giving us a blurred view until cleaned. This al- ways seemed to happen just as you saw some flitting bird you wanted to iden- tify. Identification is the name of the game. The more species you get, the higher the count number, and this is what the competition becomes with other areas in the country: Who can get the highest number of species? We also count individuals giving us some indi- cation of the variation of bird popula- tion. This counting in the same area each year helps us to see the overall picture in species increase or decline. High Orient Count This year we had our second highest count on the Orient area since I took it over in 1967 -- 110 species. We had hoped for more, but since the. weather was so mild the birds were widespread instead of concentrated in their usual cold weather habitat. Yet we bad some interesting finds. A bluebird was found on Shelter Is- land along with a king eider duck, which is a northern visitor and not very common in our waters. The eider duck and its related species are where the best down comes from for down jackets. A wood duck was found in the Sag Harbor area. This is the most handsome of all our ducks. We missed the famous peregrine falcon this year but got sharp shins, Coopers, red tails, marsh hawks (N. Harrier), pigeon hawks (merlin) and, of course, our common kestrel or sparrow hawk, as it used to be called. This handsome small falcon can be seen almost anywhere along our roadside sit- ting on a telephone wire looking for his favorite dinner of mice or voles. We missed wild turkeys at Mashomack on Shelter Island but found them on Gardiners Island. To see these jumbo blimps flying is really some- thing. It is remarkable how well they do in the air. Through the cooperation of the Orient State Park people we were able to locate some of the lingering shore birds that should have been vacationing in South America by now. We found turnstones, sanderlings, dunlins and black - bellied plover. Speaking of shore birds, at the end of Orient Point we were able to pick up two purple sandpipers on the rocks just off the end. These small winter birds somehow exist on the mi- nute crustaceans and worms that lie among the debris at the high and low water mark on the rocks. They are the one winter shore bird that stays around through the winter. How they exist when it really gets cold and windy is truly a miracle. Off shore, we picked up with our scopes the small white flutterings of the Bonaparte gull in the Sound. Here is another bird that makes it through the winter feeding in the icy waters. Those who take the Plum Island ferry each day to work often see these small white birds fluttering above the water in what appears to be an impossible task of feeding. Owls Lured by Tape We missed the barn owl but got the great horned owl, our largest bird of prey in the owl family. It's large enough to carry off a full -grown rabbit without any trouble. Many screech owls were located by using tape recorders in the dim hours of early dawn. Playing their call will usually bring them right up to you. It's something to see, and adds quite a bit of excitement to birding. On the windswept beaches at the end of the State Park we found one of winter's loveliest of birds, a flock of snow buntings. Those black and white birds with their undulating flight were a joy to see. Some people call them "snow birds" for they, like the four - horned larks we found, visit us only dur- ing the winter months and eke out a living from seeds that have dropped to the ground where only their keen eyes can find them. A flock of cedar waxwings were found eating berries of last year's harvest on a hawthorn tree. There were many others too numerous to tell about here. Joseph L. Townsend INSURANCE Commercial - Personal - Yacht 216 Main Street, Greenport - 477 -0153 r Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh BRANT - -This black- necked goose is much smaller than the Canada goose we see here on the North Fork. It was seen in the southern tip of the Orient count area on the south side where it was foraging on its favorite food, eel grass. A solitary vireo almost unheard of was found in the East Marion area, and jumping from the North Fork to the Central Suffolk count, I even found a snowy egret, that beautiful white bird we see in our marshes in the summer- time. That was surely a late straggler. It is probably best just to list all the birds we saw rather than speak of each. It was an exciting day from before dawn to after dark. When it was all over we met at the Spates' spacious home in Bay View for a delicious spread of food and drink. As the evening wore on, it took quite a bit of prodding to get the par- ticipants out of their comfortable chairs after an all -day walk, a warm house, delicious food and drink and the friendly atmosphere that prevailed. Some, I'm sure, could have drifted off to sleep with very little coaxing where they would probably have dreamt of rare and exotic birds that could have been added to the count. As it was, we all wearily thanked our host and hos- tess and went to our cars and home, some going as far as New Jersey, all with the hopes of seeing each other again next year and breaking our re- cord of 112 in 1976. ORIENT COUNT Red - throated Loon, Common Loon, Pied- billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Great Cormorant, Double - crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Black - crowned Night- Heron, Mute Swan, (White - bellied) Brant, (Canada) Goose, Wood Duck, (Green - winged) Teal, American Black Duck, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Canvasback, Ring - necked Duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Oldsquaw, Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, White - winged Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Bufllehead, Hooded Merganser, Red- breasted Mer- ganser, Northern Harrier, Sharp - shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Red- tailed Hawk, American Kes- trel, Merlin, Ring - neqcked Pheasant, Northern Bobwhite, Clapper Rail, Virginia Rail, American Coot, Black- bellied Plover. Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Purpie Sandpiper, Dunlin, American Woodcock, Bonaparte's Gull, Ring - billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black- backed Gull, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Eastern Screech -Owl, .Great Horned Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Red - bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern (Yellow shafted) Flicker, Eastern Phoebe, Horned Lark, Blue Jay, American Crow, Fish Crow, Blac- capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, White - breasted 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, Cedar Waxwing, European Starling. Yellow - rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, Palm War- bler, Common Yellowthroat, Northern Cardinal, Rufous -sided Towhee, American Tree Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Vesper Spar- row, Savannah Sparrow, Sharp- tailed Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White - throated Sparrow, White- crowned Sparrow, Dark -eyed (Slate - colored) Junco, Snow Bunting, Red- winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Rusty Blackbird, Common Grackle, Brown- headed Cowbird, House Finch, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow, Solitary Vireo, King Eider, and House Wren. Frohnhoefer Electric An Extensive Selection to Choose From Eastern Long Island's Largest Lighting Showroom. Main Street, Southold 765 -2100 f.