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October 16, 1986 - Chores First, Tour SecondChores First, Tour Second By PAUL STOUTENBURGH Can you believe it -- we just picked our last raspberries on Saturday. They weren't the greatest in size, but they had that wonderful taste. There is something special about the de- lightful aroma of raspberries one never forgets. It seems there is always something to be done around the place in the fall. Leaves are coming down, which means someday I'll have to tackle that job. I did get to clean out under the big eaves of the garage which seem to accumulate everything from tractor parts to extra beehives and their assorted accessories. In one big garbage pail which I use for storing old bee frames, I disturbed a family of deer mice. One was braver than the others and leapt out of the top to safety amongst the de- bris. As I worked my way down into the barrel, I could see the other new members of the family running about with their big eyes and twitching whiskers. It must have seemed like an earthquake to them with their surroundings moving and toppling about. The young were half grown and quite capable of taking care of them- selves. As a matter of fact, the par- ents had left a good supply of hickory nuts and cherry pits to last until they started collecting on their own. It must be quite a sight to see a mouse carrying one of those big hickory nuts and getting it into the barrel. The house was made of tiny bits and pieces of paper and cloth they had chewed and put together in a sort of igloo- shaped nest. It was fluffy and dry and, I'm sure, warm as a down jacket. Now that the cooler months are upon us, they will be looking for warmer places to stay where there is a plentiful supply of food, and that could mean our homes. You can tell when these tiny little fellows are about by the little black droppings they leave as evidence. It seems no matter how good we are at closing doors and windows, they seem to find a way to sneak into our homes. They usually head for my wife's kitchen cabinets where there are all sorts of goodies, and each year we have two or three that must be eliminated or they'll be into every- thing. Trip on the Enviro -Lab Barbara and I did get out on the Enviro -Lab, an educational vessel of P. Focus on Nature the Long Island Sound Study Group that is working on environmental problems in the sound. Its aim is to find solutions to the problems facing the sound before they become ir- reversible. The invited guests served as crew and helped go through the various samplings that will be taken to make intelligent judgments about the problems and cures of the sound. The part I especially enjoyed was the sampling of the bottom to see what marine life was there. It was amazing what came up: Porgies, snappers, butterfish, skates, floun- ders, small squid, sand crabs, star- fish and others spilled out before us in a watery trough for our examina- tion. It showed how important the sound is as a feeding and nursery area and why so much energy is going into this study in hopes of pre- venting its loss. We even brought up a big, yellow sulphur boring sponge which is responsible for making all those tiny holes we see in oyster and other shells. We were told the sponge gives off an acid that eats into the shell, making a multitude of holes so characteristic of oyster shells. It was cold and windy out on the sound and we had to be back to the dock by noontime. We moved through the still and sheltered wat- ers to the dock at the head of the creek. All along were lush edges of salt marsh where, on the low tide, snowy egrets were stalking killifish in the rich shallow waters. We even had a great blue heron fly by and alight ever so daintily on the oppo- site side of a grassy bog. He will stand guard until something moves; a killifish, a bigger fish or even an eel will do. Schools of Bunkers Seen Bunkers, those herring -like fish that school by the thousands throughout our Long Island waters, were also present in the creek. We could see their snapping on the water surface. Probably they were chased in by big blues which feed on these rich oily fish. Proof of this was a proud fisherman's catch at the break- water. He had just landed a six- or The Suffolk Times /October 16, 1986 /Page 9A Photo by Paul Stoutentwrgh BORING SPONGE RESULTS - -The yellow sulphur sponge we find commonly throughout our waters attaches to shells and eventually dis- solves them by perforating the shell with tiny holes.,Without them the bottom of the sea would be smothered with empty shells. seven -pound bluefish and was jump- ing for joy. We passed an osprey platform that a group of us had re- erected last spring, and for the second year it has had its pair of osprey. Years ago os- preys nested all along our sound shore, but in the '50s and '60s they disappeared. We have them return- ing now at Mattituck, Goldsmith's Inlet in Peconic and, of course, out in Orient. Pesticides, as we all know, played a major role in their demise, but a shortening of their food supply also had much to do with it. Now with the return of the bunkers, one of their major food sources, we have hopes that once again they'll be nest- ing along the Long Island Sound shoreline. There are so many things in the natural world that have lost ground to man in past years, but there are rays of hope trying to break through the gloom of doom. The Long Island Sound Study is one bright sign. Here the hopes are that we'll learn enough to prevent doomsday in our local wat- ers. The increase in the osprey popu- lation is another indicator that we're doing right. Let's hope the day will come when the vast majority of people will treat the world as "fam- ily," for surely we are all part of this intricate and fascinating world.