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June 01, 1989 - Zooming In on Birds for a Close Up014 The Suffolk Times • June 1, 1989 Zooming In on Birds for a ClosewUp By Paul Stoutenburah There was a time when binoculars were an expensive item to own and not too many people had them. But today with the influx of Japanese optics a fairly good pair can be purchased for less than $50. With this availability it seems to me that anyone interested in Focus on Nature the outdoors should invest in a pair. We've accumulated two or three pairs, keeping one in the car, so no matter where we are our glasses are at hand. We had to go to Southampton the other day and on our return we dropped down along Dune Road to see if anything was about. What we thought would be only a short "look see" lasted until 6:30 that evening. Of course we had to pull up to the parking area that overlooked Shinnecock Inlet to watch one of the fishing boats come in. That's a rough passage and we were glad to see he made it without any problem. Terns were working along the beach so that meant they were probably starting to nest on some of the islands in the nearby bay. What was nice was to see the least terns, the smallest and rarest of our terns working the beaches. This little diver of small fish is running into difficulty because it nests on beaches that man uses in various ways. There's a big movement to alert the public about these endangered terns by direct contact with people who are using the beaches. Horned Larks Found After looking over the inlet we drove down and around the big parking lot to the north and found homed larks feeding in the sandy area in the circle. They were after tiny seeds and, look as we might through our binoculars, we couldn't see what they were getting but they were busy as chickens at their early morning feed. Few people have seen Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh HORNED LARK ON NEST —These small birds are found in sparsely vegetated areas and open fields. One place they nest is Orient State Park. these lovely little land dwellers for most of the color is sandy -grey, which blends in with the beach and sand beautifully. There is some pale yellow on the face which showed up clearly through our glasses. The bird gets its name from two black tufts of feathers on its head that, when raised, look like horns. After we left the busy inlet area headed west. I remembered only too wen about a year or so ago the ocean broke through this uninhabited area and flooded the very road we were driving on. What we were looking for were the mud flats and ditches that lay to the north of Dune Road. It was here that we stopped to check on the shore birds that still lingered before heading north to their nesting grounds. While we sat there scanning the outer flats a clapper rail slipped out from the marsh edge and let us get a good look at him. It's not often you have the privilege of seeing this bird; although we hear him, he's very secretive and shy. He has a long bill we're told is for probing worms and fiddler crabs that lurk in their deep caverns in the mud. There is a saying, "Thin as a rail," and it is about this bird's ability to slip through the reeds because of its thinness without making a disturbance. True to its name, it slid back into the reeds and disappeared before our very eyes. Mr. Muskrat Performs As we watched, a muskrat waddled out of the ooze and made his way to some of the new marsh grass that had just come up. We could see him chomping away like someone eating a stalk of celery. How busy he was. First he would cut off a single stem and then Goldsmith's et ready 138 Main Street, Greenport 477 -0466 rfor summer just arrived - • Pool and beach toys, floats, boats and boogie boards • Golf balls and other sporting goods • Radio - control cars, boats and airplanes • Car shades 110 •.� i Stop in and see our new electronic showroom 4 • Cordless phones, answering machines, marine electronics, CBs, scanners, stereos, speakers, Zenith TVs, VCRs, Whites's metal detectors, radar detectors and lots more. move away to finish it off. The world was performing beautifully for us and with our binoculars it seemed as if we were right there beside Mr. Muskrat. Another move and we stopped at a mosquito drain that opened into the bay. There were dowitchers working the soft mud probing their long bills. Sometimes even half their face would be submerged as they poked about for worms. A little past the dowitchers we came to an area that had been dug parallel to the road probably years ago to get fill to build the road on. In it we could see movement and occasionally a back would come out of the water. Was it turtles? We got out of the car and to our surprise we saw horseshoe crabs by the hundreds trapped in the long, narrow lagoon. The tide had gone out and stranded them. Evidently they had come in here to mate and lay their eggs and were now hopelessly marooned until the next tide. It was a sad sight to see. For the next hour and a half we moved and stopped, always probing with our binoculars. Great three- feet -tall white egrets stood like statues guarding the marsh. Snowy egrets like some slow - motion machine stalked the killies before them. Turnstones poked and prodded for horseshoe crab eggs wherever they'd come ashore; bright orange - billed oystercatchers called their wild call as they celebrated their arrival; a great blue heron jumped into the air and slowly beat his way across the bay, head out front, feet trailing behind. Two black skimmers slipped into a mirroreC. pond and left their wake where their bills cut the water in hopes of catching some unsuspecting morsel. The willets with their white patches flashing and their cries of alarm greeted us all along our journey. The sights of birds never left us. There were few cars that passed us on the road. The day - trippers had gone. The weekenders had not yet arrived and the summer folks were yet to come. We had Dune Road almost to ourselves. How lucky we were.