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April, 17, 1986 Nature's Necessity: Odd Nesting PlaceSECOND SECTION THE SUFFOLK TIMES Nature's Necessity: Odd Nesting Places By PAUL STOUTENBURGH Since this is the season for nest building, I thought it might be fun to go over some of the unusual housing units our wildlife have made use of here on the North Fork. One just brought to my attention this week was a mourning dove that built its nest on a friend's boat. For some reason the dove had selected to Focus on Nature build aboard the boat, which was being stored in one of our local boatyards, rather than the usual nesting site in a tree. The hustle and bustle of working about the boat never once budged the brooding bird from her chore of in- cubating. Even the noise - of "the sandblasting to take the paint off the bottom of the boat didn't move her. When I went to see the nest I could get well within shooting distance without disturbing her. All this is well and good but there is a problem. The boat is sched- uled to go in the water this week. Now the question is: Should the nest be left aboard while the boat is moved to her new berth? Or should a plat- form be built right alongside the nest- ing area and then the nest be trans- ferred to that platform so that when the boat leaves to be launched the dove hopefully will take to it? I suggested the latter, for I felt the bird would more likely return to the orig- inal nesting site than travel to the new berth. The bottom line is that the boat is going to be launched this week and a decision has to be made. It'll be interesting to see how it works out. I guess the dove's taking the nest- ing site on the stern of a boat is no different than a mallard duck choos- ing a lady's flower box under her win- dowsill for her brooding spot. I couldn't believe this lady when she told me, yet periodically she'd call and say, "I can go to the window and look down and there she is." Sure enough, the ducklings hatched and took off. It's hard to think how those tiny fluffy new baby ducks got down from the flower box without breaking their necks but believe it or not they just tumble out, bounce once or twice on the' ground and are off. Ducks never stay in the nest but a day or so. Wood ducks that sometimes nest in trees 20 to 30 feet up do the same thing. They just tumble out, bounce on the ground and take off to the nearest water. Speaking of looking through the DOVE ON BOARD - -Birds sometimes select the od- boat, a mourning dove sits fast, even though workers dest places to nest. Here on the stern of a stored and noise surround her. window, many of us have had a robin or a cardinal nest in a nearby bush so we can look out and see the family's goings on. One of the best ones I've heard was from a gentleman down our road who had a pair of chickadees nest in their hanging feeder not more than a foot away from their kitchen window. It was a wonderful experi- ence, they said, sitting at the table and looking in at the chickadee's daily habits. All these anecdotes remind me of the time my mother found a pair of "jenny" wrens nesting in a clothespin bag hanging on the line. Needless to say those clothes pins weren't used until family rearing was over. Funny part about house wrens is that they usually build three, four or more nests and use only one. Whether that's to discourage other wrens from nesting nearby we don't know, but it seems logical. At any rate, this wren filled all the bird houses up with fake nests and chose the clothespin bag for her real home. Many people report robins, spar -. rows and other birds nesting under their porch eaves or in the corner of the garage. One of the most unique nests was that of a barn swallow that built each year on the porch of a good friend of mine. From the date the . , . , 4 . K , swallow returned to build, that porch was off limits and all visitors had to use the side door. Many birds use the same general area or the same spot year after year. One oriole returned to the same tree to build its hanging nest in our front yard each year. Yet when the osprey comes each year and uses the same nest it sometimes creates a problem, for they add to the old nest, making it heavier and heavier and often breaking the limb the nest is on, spel- ling disaster for the osprey family. While we're on the subject of os- preys, if you've ever had a chance to observe an osprey's nest from a dis- tance with binoculars you may have noticed a small sparrow darting in and out from under the nest. Seems they've found the ideal nesting spot; good cover, good protection and no competition from anyone else. It's quite something when you think they are right under the eyes of the tower- ing big fish hawk above. `The bottom line is that the boat will be launched this week.' Another large bird that built a unique nest last year was the Canada goose I saw atop a muskrat's house just off Manhasset Avenue in Eireen- port. It was an easy place to see and I'm sure many people observed it. I assume all went well' Stories about birds building in odd places could go on and on, so I'll end up by telling one last tale about a raccoon who had its young in an ex- ceptionally odd place. We all know the stories about their building in chimneys and getting into houses but how about having their young aboard a boat? Yes, a man called me up and told me just that. A raccoon had had her young aboard his boat and he thought they were gone. But when he took his boat out into the bay, the mother raccoon surprised him by emerging from the cabin below, a bit unhappy. The man quick - mindedly pushed her overboard with the boat hook. Like most people, though, he was soft - hearted, and seeing the raccoon swimming in the middle of the bay, he got to thinking it might drown. So what does he do but get the big land - ing net out, scoop up the raccoon and bring it aboard, still mighty angry. It went into. a locker 'til he got home and then it was turned loose on land making both man and raccoon happy.