April 23, 1987 - A Rare Bird AlertA Rare Bird Alert
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Without an inquisitive public that
calls to tell me about unusual aspects
of the world around them, my weekly
articles would lose some of their
spice. Recently two interesting sight-
ings were reported. One concerned a
varied thrush -- a close rleative of our
common robin - and the other, a vis-
itor from afar - an Egyptian goose.
Whether it's birds or a group of lady's
slippers in someone's back yard or a
rare and endangered salamander, re-
ports that continually pour in all be-
come part of the tapestry I weave
about what's going on in the natural
world about us.
Our common robin is a member of
the thrush family. We can almost tell
that from the wonderful song that
thrushes are endowed with and
there's no better time to hear the
thrushes of our area singing than
now. Just step outside your door al-
most any early morning and you'll
hear the joyous song of the robin
proclaiming his virtues to the world
and, of course, if you live in or near
some wooded area you might hear
the clear and beautiful call of the
wood thrush.
But watch out for the mockingbird
that is so common in our area and
has moved up from the south, for he
will try to proclaim his call louder
than all. This bird never seems to
tire from singing and ofteatime
mocks with such exact preciseness
the robin, the thrush or any other
bird that might be in the area it is
hard to tell them apart.
Thrush's Beautiful Song
We always seem to have a wood
thrush nesting in our woods and how
I look forward to hearing his song,
for it's the most beautiful of all. The
nest is not too hard to find. It's rather
bulky, something like a robin's but
without the mud. Often you'll find
bits of cloth, paper or plastic in it.
Of all the birds that are around our
place, I'm sorry to say, the wood
thrush seems to run into our picture
windows the most. Often they are
just stunned but sometimes they lit-
erally kill themselves. Evidently the
birds see the reflection of the woods
in the windows and fly towards them.
To stop this we have put decals of fly-
ing hawks in our big windows and
just recently I saw something even
better than that, I think. A lady had
used two long strips of plastic ribbon
from a flower shop tacked in front of
each window. The slight motion that
Focus on
Nature
almost any breeze would create
seemd to do the trick far her and I'm
going to try these. Hopefully these
ribbons will prevent our one or two
catastrophes each year.
The varied thrush that was re-
ported and finally verified after four
long sessions of waiting and watch-
ing comes from the far northwest of
our country. How it got here is any-
one's guess. It has never been re-
ported on the North Fork and very
rarely on Long Island. It was a first
for me and I was so thankful that the
lady called it in when she realized
she had something special coming to
her feeder. She was right in describ-
ing it as "big as a robin with a black
band across its breast ". I'm afraid it
will sing a long time before finding a
mate this far east from its homeland.
Wild Goose Chase
An Egyptian goose -- another rare
visitor -- was found on the North
Fork Country Club's golf course
among some Canada geese. Again
someone with sharp eyes knew there
was "something different" about this
goose, and called me. I'd never seen
anything quite like it and at first
guess thought it was a fulvous tree
duck from South America -- a long -
legged, gooselike duck -- but with the
help of other birders who rushed
down to see it, it was positively iden-
tified as an Egyptian goose. Once
again, how did it get here? It had no
leg band which might tell us it came
from someone's private collection or
aviary. Perhaps this is where it did
come from, but we'll never know.
Could it have come from across the
seas and somehow landed in Cutch-
ogue?
All this speculation adds to the in-
terest and excitement that the out-
doors can bring to any of us. As a
matter of fact, this kind of unusual
sighting has actually created a "hot-
line for rare bird sightings." All one
has to do is call the hotline number
to find out what rarity may be in the
area, triggering a whole network of
interested people who flock to see it.
I haven't used it lately, but it can
alert you concerning unusual sight-
ings. It's all part of the game of being
involved. Isn't that what life's all
about, anyway?
MANHANSET AVE. at STIRLING HARBOR MARINA. GREENPORT, N.Y.
Spanish Continental Cuisine
opening Friday,
Mav 1 st for Dinner
Call for reservations.
477 -1777
The Suffolk Times /April 23, 1987 /Page 9A
- Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
WOOD THRUSH - -This songster can be seen and heard in our nearby
woods now as he proclaims his territory for nest building.
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477 -9821 * 477 -1345