December 25, 1980 - A Special Reason for Celebrating Christmas 1980SECTION TWO DECEMBER 25, 1980
A Special Reason for Celebrating Christmas 1980
What a joyous time of the year! Every -
where you go there is a special feeling of
excitement and expectation. The true
beauty of all this is that the closer the
family ties, the higher the joy. There's
something that transcends the menial and
brings out the best in all of us.
Of course, we in our family have
something special this year that puts us all
on an extra high. We have our first
grandchild. There's nothing in the world
that brings us to our knees more than a
newborn babe. As time passes some of the
sparkle fades but the event of a birth is
supreme.
Yet with all its wonder and joy I . Jw
my daughter Peggy would have been a bit
disappointed if this event had curtailed her
Christmas. She is one who never tires of
Christmas carols and the anticipation and
preparation for the holiday. Perhaps we
all have that inner feeling but show it
differently. Society has created so many
pressures on us that few if any act truly in
their own manner. The only ones who
escape these pressures are the very young.
Knowing there would be little time for
pre- Christmas activities after the baby
came Peg and Bob had most of their
shopping and decorating done with the
exception of getting the tree. Our family
like so many others usually puts it off until
the last minute when it's always cold and
miserable. This year we went Christmas
tree hunting on a perfect day. What a
pleasure. Our trees are always bought
locally so we went to our special person
who has never failed us. Luck was with us
and there was a good supply for the trees
were just cut the day before. What a
marvelous smell as we walked up and
down, standing them up, turning them
around, examining them from all sides
and then not satisfied trying the whole
procedure again. Up and down we went.
One even had a bird's nest in it.
I remember how important that was
years ago to our kids. That year their
choice was made because of the nest alone,
never mind the shape, size or price.
We have a small car and I never realized
just how small it was until we put two
Christmas trees on top of it ... one for Peg
and Bob, and one for us. Back home our
tree was put in the garage to wait until we
were ready for it.
One year, we left our tree out and it
snowed. What a mess when we brought it
in. It melted and dripped. Live and learn.
Our tree holder is nothing fancy. A wide
bucket that the tree is put in and a lot of
tightly fitted big stones pressed around the
trunk hold it in place, then water's added. I
have an old piece of plywood that hangs
around the garage all year and this goes
under the bucket. Next comes a white
sheet to cover all this and we're all set. My
Orient Bird Count Planned
For Monday, December 29
The selected date is Monday, Dec. 29 for
the Orient (Southold, E. Marion, Orient,
Shelter Island and part of the south shore)
annual Christmas Bird Count, which will
be one of 1360 similar counts taken from
Hawaii to Labrador, and from Alaska to
Venezuela, during the period Dec. 20 - Jan.
4.
This year marks the 81st anniversary of
the original Christmas Bird Count, taken
on Christmas Day, 1900, by an intrepid
group of strollers in 25 locations, mostly
around major northeastern cities. Since
then the annual event has grown from its
original 25 to its present 1360, and the total
participants from 27 to an estimated
34,000.
This year every Canadian province,
every American state, many Central
American countries, and numerous West
Indies islands will submit their results to
the National Audubon Society, which
supervises the affair, and publishes all the
counts in its journal, American Birds.
The count itself is undoubtedly the big
birding event of the year, and for some
groups, it means days and weeks of
strategy, planning, and logistics in trying
to amass, in a single calendar day, the
biggest possible list of birds in the
designated area. By tradition that "count
area" is a circle (which cannot overlap
another count circle) of 15 -mile diameter,
or roughly 177 square miles.
Within this circle of land and water,
count organizers attempt to field as many
competent birders as they can, who are
grouped into "parties ", each with a
section of the circle, or points on the map,
which they alone will search. There is no
limit to the number of participants: last
year Oakland, California fielded 213, and
there were 23 counts with 100 or more
participants.
There seems almost no limit, either, to
the numbers of birds Christmas counters
can find in their designated circles.
Obviously, at the Christmas season, the
warmer climates hold an enormous ad-
vantage, as do all counts near salt water.
In 1979, the count in the Atlantic area of the
Panama Canal Zone scored highest with
320 species; the highest U.S. counts in 1979
were Freeport, Texas, and San Diego,
California, tied with 217. By contrast,
Bethel, Alaska at 26 °F temperature, found
only 4 species. No less than 55 of 1152
counts in the U.S. listed 150 or more
species, almost all of them in the balmier
climes of California, Texas and Florida.
All this information will be gathered,
edited, and published in the July 1981 issue
of American Birds ($7.50 ppd) whose
editors organize and run the annual
extravaganza. Apart from its attraction as
a social, sporting, and competitive event,
the annual count sheds much light on the
early winter distribution of the different
species of our native birds: where they
are, and what number.
All counts are open to competent bird-
ers: for information on your nearest count,
contact Paul Stoutenburgh -- 734 -6605.
one problem is that year after year the
stones get put back along the old wall and
should it freeze I have trouble getting them
out when the time comes. Nevertheless the
system always has worked.
Each year we cut our shrubbery around
the place to give us greens for decorating.
This was an old tradition in my Dad's
family. I can remember everywhere
there'd be the scent of pine and of course
his big spray of holly in the middle. All this
would be set off with beautiful tapered red
candles. Christmas Eve always had to
have burning candles. What activity
around the house! What an air of wonder-
ful living! It's funny how our mind always
keeps the good of those old times and puts
them into one wonderful word -- Christ-
mas. It's an accumulation of all the good in
the world.
Christmas has another meaning for me
for it's the time of year when people
throughout the whole country go out on
their annual Audubon Christmas Bird
Count. This year I'll be involved in three
different counts. Dec. 20 -- Montauk
Count , Dec. 26 -- Central Suffolk County
and Dec. 29 our own Orient Count.
These are grueling dawn to dusk surveys
of all the birds seen within a 15 mile circle.
Of course we can't count every bird but
seeing our groups cover the same area
each year, we get some rather significant
records.
Each count is in competition with the
other and each count tries to break the
other's record. This will be my 28th year
with the Central Suffolk bird count. These
counts, by the way, come up with well over
100 species of birds and literally tens of
thousands of individuals.
And so this is a busy and exciting time of
the year to be around. I hope each of you
who have been so faithful in following my
column will have a joyous and merry
Christmas and may the New Year be your
best.
Many thanks to all of you who have
written or called concerning Focus on
Nature. Your messages are truly apprec-
iated. Some of you write from as far away
as Arizona, Texas and North Carolina and
some just as important from right up the
street. Thank you one and all.
PAUL STOUTENBURGH
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