February 27, 1986 - Feathered Predators In the SnowFebruary.27, 19.86 .Tbe, 814AJimes Pa&13
Feathered
Predators
In the Snow
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Busy at the table by the big sliding
doors, I happened to look out just in
time to see a puff of bird feathers drift-
ing down to the snow below. I knew im-
mediately what had happened, for I'd
seen this drama played out before in
Orient.
That time, I saw the culprit. We were
traveling along Narrow River Road and
had stopped to check the creek for ducks
when a flock of snow buntings flew by.
Seemingly from nowhere, a hawk came
rushing in and snapped up one of the
buntings right out of the air. It all hap-
Focus on
Nature
pened so fast -- for a moment we didn't
realize what was happening.
The impact of the hit produced the
same puff of feathers I saw out my win-
dow the other day. Needless to say, the
day we watched it in Orient there was
no need to explain the feeding habits of
the sharp- shinned hawk after that
dramatic display.
This small hawk and the larger
Cooper's hawk were once common
throughout the island. Like other
hawks their populations have dropped
for many reasons, with man's actions
at the base of all of them. These two
hawks are notorious small bird hunters;
many people have been horrified to see
one zoom into their backyard and play
havoc with their feeder birds.
Small birds and mice are the natural
food for these bandits of the woods and
when we attract birds to our feeders in
good quantities, occasionally one of
these hawks will show up. Capturing
small birds isn't as easy as it sounds,
for the hawk misses more times than
he scores. Then bird or mouse is the
wiser. Lessons in survival are particu-
larly hard on those who let their guard
down.
The snow coverage we've had makes
bird hunting more likely, for the mice
and voles have tunneled beneath the
snow looking for food and are therefore
out of sight of the owl and hawk.
Snowy Owl Sighted
A report of a snowy owl by the War-
ners in Riverhead was the only excuse
Barbara and I needed for an outing. A
quick lunch was packed, the snow
scraped off the windshield and we were
OIUU111D
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
BRANT - -The smaller cousin of our Canada goose shallow -water feeder and vegetarian. Look for him
is seldom seen on the North Shore since he is a on the bays and flats of the south side.
off. How beautiful the countryside looks
when there is a fresh layer of snow. We
viewed the farmland as if we had never
seen it before.
Every chunk of white that poked
above the field or stood out in the dis-
tance, we tried to make into a snowy
owl. We even checked a group of crows
in hopes that they were harrassing our
owl. But nothing showed up. We dou-
bled back over our tracks and rechecked
the area where he was last seen. It was
all in vain. Our owl was not there.
We often go out on such chases and
don't find what we are looking for, but
that is part of the game. No matter. We
just kept on going and headed for the
south shore at Shinnecock. I couldn't
help wondering as we drove along if the
owl that was reported in Riverhead was
the same one I'd seen in Orient on our
Christmas Bird Count. It well could be,
for these are roving birds in a strange
land and there just aren't that many
snowy owls about.
By the time we reached Shinnecock
it was getting time to eat, so we pulled
up to the parking lot that overlooks the
inlet at the edge of the ocean. We pulled
out our peanut butter and raspberry -
peach jam sandwiches (made on Bar-
bara's homemade German rye bread)
along with a can of V -8 juice.
Gulls Having Lunch Too
As usual, there were gulls feeding in
the inlet. I'd love to have known what
they were feeding on as they dove up
and down in the wind. What we had
hoped to see here was one of the Arctic
gulls that sometimes come down to visit
our area. They are called white gulls,
for they lack the black of the black -
backed and the grey of the herring gull.
They are the glaucous, Iceland and the
ivory gulls. Keep an eye out for these
white wanderers among our common
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gulls and some winter's day you will be
rewarded with this unusual sighting.
We again missed out, for all we saw
were common gulls. We did see a nice
flock of brant. These are smaller than
our Canada geese, much darker in color
and not as abundant. We hardly ever
seen them on the north shore, for they
love the shallow waters of the south
side. Like their bigger cousins, the
Canadas, they are vegetarians and love
eel grass and other water - related plants
and algae. In Shinnecock, they were _
eating the green algae on the rocks
along the breakwater.
Along with the geese we saw scoters,
scaup, mergansers and a small group
of common eiders, a sea duck from the
north. I'd walked out to the end of the
jetty to get a better look and by the time
I got back I was frozen through and glad
to be back in the heated car.
We then took Dune Road to the west.
The highlight there was not the new
buildings going up along this fragile
ocean frontage, but the handsome pin-
tail ducks feeding in a small protected
area of open water right alongside the
road. If ever there was a duck that
looked as if it came out of a hat box,
newly painted and everything just so,
it's the handsome male pintail. The
lines and colors are exquisite and the
way it carries its tall head and tailor -
made suit makes this duck a worthy
sighting.
In all, we spent six hours riding and
stopping and looking. Sharp and wintry
outside, warm and comfortable inside
the car, we arrived home just in time
to feed the chickens, put fresh water
out for the cows and then jot down some
notes for the article. It was a good day
to be out.
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