August 20, 1987 - Creeks: Aswarm With Life at Water's EdgePage. tOA/.The,SuffolkTimes /Atugwpt,2 ,,,19871
Creeks: Aswarm With Life at Water's Ed
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
The shallow creeks our area offers
could take a summer of weekends to
explore fully. We often feel that we
are trespassing when we go explor-
ing in other people's creeks but since
we leave our big boat offshore and
dinghy in, I don't think one could
Focus on
Nature
complain about our intrusion. After
all a two- horsepower engine on a
nine -foot dinghy has little impact on
the area.
We did just that this weekend in
the vicinity of the Morton Wildlife
Refuge, that pristine piece of land op-
posite Cedar Beach in Southold that
juts to the north. A good part of the
peninsula is off limits during the
nesting season because of the en-
dangered species found there.
I remember the area from years
ago when we stopped there on our
winter birding trips. There was an
osprey nest that a great horned owl
took over. It seems when the ospreys
left for their winter vacation down
south, the great horned owl would
move in the lofty nest left behind.
Our trip this weekend found us an-
chored off the east side. From this
protected anchorage we to6k camera
and other gear in our dinghy and
headed into the creek to the south. A
black - bellied plover was the first to
greet us. It was feeding along the
beach, fattening up on one of its
many stops along the flyway. I often
thought it would be interesting to
travel with some of these migrating
birds on their way south. What a
story would unfold from that hazard-
ous trip.
Snowy Egret Stalks Lunch
Further in, a snowy egret was
chasing its noonday meal in a
feverish rush from one place to
another in the shallows. I could just
imagine the frightened killies trying
to escape from beneath that pointed
yellow bill. The golden slipper bird,
as it is called because of its yellow
feet, has many ways of getting food.
The one I've just mentioned seems
to be used in the shallows where
small fish have moved in. In deeper
water, they do their expert stalking
like some perfected slow- motion
machine. One foot is slowly and de-
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
FIDDLER CRABS - -Often these busy feeders can water's edge of our creeks to feed on minute plant
be seen by the hundreds as they gather at the material.
liberately lifted out of the water andV
then placed in a certain spot in front
of the other without making a ripple.
Then the other foot goes through the
same deliberate movement until a
prey is sighted, then the head moves
out slowly and the bill lowers -- a mo-
ment of hesitation to make sure all
forces are in place -- and the strike is
delivered. And the fish becomes a
meal.
The third tactic, which is probably
the most interesting, is what I call
the dance routine. Here the bird
moves its feet up and down, almost
as if it were dancing. The result pro-
duces a cloud of muddy water much
like when you are clamming, draw-
ing in the killies and spearing. It's
then that dinner is served.
On the bank nearby a family of
crows explored the area for whatever
might prove to be a meal. It could be
almost anything: a berry, worm,
caterpillar, piece of someone's
sandwich left over from a picnicker
or anything at all, for scavenging is
their specialty. Gone were their
juvenile pin feathers. They now were
sleek and black in their new feathers
and patent - leather legs and feet. Ev-
erything about them looked polished
and new. Handsome fellows to be
sure.
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family of six cygnets paraded along
the shore showing off how well they'd
done. The marsh nearby was at its
peak. The tall grain heads of the lush
thatch grass, alterniflora, were start-
ing to ripen. When fully developed,
they'll drop and be moved about by
the tides. Hopefully they'll find a
spot to germinate next spring where
they'll expand the marsh and help in
its never - ending battle against land
erosion.
Food for Ducks and Mice
If the seeds don't germinate, they
might be eaten by ducks or mice or
some other animal that roams the
marsh. Should any remain they will
eventually decay along with the tall
grasses of the marsh and create the
nutrient factory so important to our
fish and shellfish.
Even the back marsh is heavy with
seed but here the salt hay, spartina
patens, is less obvious. Its seed, like
the grass itself, is finer and goes un-
noticed by most. They tell us, along
with many other signals, that fall is
not that far away.
As the creek narrowed even our
one - cylinder engine seemed out of
place and so we began to row. It was
good for now the water was getting
shallower. As we rounded a muddy
bank, we saw hundreds, perhaps
thousands of fiddler crabs feeding in
the low -tide area. Skillfully Barbara
edged the boat in closer so I could
photograph them. Like a miniature
panzer division they all moved in un-
ison when we approached so we
slowly backed off. Eventually they'd
all move back again.
Looking through my telephoto
lens, I could see them clearly. Some
were blackish like the mud they
lived in and others appeared sand -
colored with a tint of purple, match-
ing the sand their homes were in.
Most were males with their big
single claws held in front of them.
Perhaps the reason we saw so many
more males was that they eat only
with one small claw -- the big claw
being useless for eating and only
used for luring the females. The
ladies on the other hand had two
small claws for feeding and therefore
could eat twice as fast as the male.
Perhaps they had already eaten
enough and headed back to their bur-
rows.
How busy they were feeding. Their
little claws went back and forth with
bits of vegetable matter that lay in
the mud and water they were feeding
in. To get closer I finally got out of
the boat and started my own stalk-
ing. I had learned this approach from
the snowy egret. It was here I got my
closest and best shots in this army of
fiddler crabs.
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