January 05, 1995 - ...And Maybe a Partridge in a Pear Tree4A • The Suffolk Times • ,JaRuary,5,.1995,
...And Maybe a Partridge in a Pear Tree
By Paul Stoutenburah
The weeks around Christmas are ac-
tive ones for most as they prepare for
the holidays. Squeezed in between these
busy days are the many Christmas bird
counts that go on throughout the United
States, Canada and other countries. I,
myself, have been involved with them
for over 40 years and it's been a tradi-
tion that many of us look forward to
even though some of the days are any-
thing but "bluebird days" for birding.
Nevertheless, each 15 -mile circle that is
covered has its followers that run from
30 to 100 participants. Throughout the
country there are 43,000 participants in-
volved in 1650 counts. I participate in
three: the Central Suffolk, Montauk and
Orient counts.
Of course, each count requires a fair
amount of preparation, seeing you will
be out on your own for the full day that
starts before sunrise and only ends at
sunset. The preparation for food, cloth-
ing and equipment takes some doing but
by now I've got that routine down pretty
well, including an extra pair of socks
and boots should I slip into some muddy
mosquito drain or marsh while trying to
raise an elusive marsh bird.
Dec. 17 — Our section on the Mon-
tauk count covers Gardiners Island. We
leave from Three Mile Harbor in the
dark. Shadows of people, only half -rec-
ognized in the poor light, assemble
equipment of scopes, lunches and extra
clothing for the day. In no time we leave
the security of the land and are churning
our way across the bay into a raw east
wind. There's comfort in the now -warm
cabin but few retreat to it for the rolling
was and smell of diesel keep stomachs
on edge. Most prefer the outdoors where
they scan for early sightings of ducks. I
chat with the young skipper I have
known since he was a child. The green
flips of the radar show up well in the
dark of the ever - moving cabin and I
hope Lion Head Rock shows up on the
screen as we plunge through the dark-
ness.
Once docked, we waste no time and
are soon whisked off in an open truck to
the south end of the island, which we'll
cover for the rest of the day. The biting
cold tries to penetrate our clothing as we
Focus on
Nature
drive along the gravely road to the
landing strip on the south end. Our gear
is taken off and we are left alone in the
grey dawn with its raw wind. Our desti-
nation is the long sand point that leads
to what was once known as Cartwright
Island, which, by the way, through the
years has changed shape and joined the
main island in a long sand spit. Our
plans shift for the tide is not right and so
we retrace our steps and work the brack-
ish ponds on the west side of the island.
We've already counted the loons, old -
squaw, scoters and mergansers offshore
and have seen flocks of black ducks
moving to the north.
We concentrate on the upland birds.
The sparrows in this early morning light
are almost impossible to identify. Forty
meadowlarks fly up and need no special
light for their flight pattern gives them
away. We approach the ponds cau-
tiously for we can see ducks dabbling in
the water at one end. The light was still
poor with the overcast but with patience
we were finally able to spot a white
wing patch on the rear of the wings
identifying them as gadwall, a duck
very similar to our black ducks in ap-
pearance. Then we're discovered and
the birds are spooked and up and off. As
we watch through our binoculars we see
a small, fast -flying bird amongst them, a
blue - winged teal. Our list is growing.
We walk and walk. We trip and trip for
the area is laced with low- snagging
blackberry and grape vines.
Heading South
By now the tide is out and we start
our long walk to the south along the
sandy spit of Cartwright. We could see
gulls and ducks ahead and with the
scope we could even see some shore-
birds. We had to get closer. More walk-
ing. Now as we look through the scope
we can see sanderlings, hundreds of
them, as they feed busily at the water's
edge. Now turnstones and dunlins show
up. The raw wind plays havoc with my
eyes as they water and blur my vision.
i wV m ■ wwL niw Im
75 Years Ago
Jan. 2, 1920
New Theater: Work was started Monday excavating
for the foundations of the handsome new moving picture
theater to be erected by the Riley Amusement Company on
Main Street, opposite the Long Island House in Riverhead.
About 50 laborers are employed on the job at present. The
building will be of brick, two stories high, with an auditori-
um and gallery seating about 1,000. The land, building and
furnishings will cost about $90,000.
50 Years Ago
Jan. S, 1944
Army Plane Crashes: As we read and hear of the
tragedy of war with its pain, suffering ad loss of human life,
it makes comparatively little impression but when some
tragic accident within a few miles of our own home occurs,
it brings it to our attention with a vivid significance. Such
was the case on Dec. 29 when 11 men perished when their
plane crashed a short distance west of Mattituck village.
At about 6 o'clock the sound of a plane was heard and
dimly through the blinding blanket of snow could be seen a
large plane flying at a low altitude. The plane passed over
the villages of Southold, New Suffolk and Mattituck. At
about 6.22 the plane exploded and caught fire.
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT — Throughout the country over 43,000 men
and women participate in counting every bird seen from dawn to sunset.
Getting closer and with more patience
we were able to pick up purple san1-
pipers. Our walk was worth the effort
for we expected to find these elusive
shorebirds to add to our overall list. By
now the light was better and we could
see the birds moving, a hundred at a
time, to a new spot along the shore.
On our way back with our heads into
the wind we picked up a lone black -bel-
lied plover flying just offshore. Our list
wasn't great in species numbers but we
had gotten what we came for. The other
people on the island would do better
with the land birds and when added up
The tragic accident occurred on the farmlands of Dwight
Reeve, south of Sound Avenue and west of Aldrich Lane.
The plane, a B -24 type of Army training ship, was on a
training cruise from one of the airfields in Massachusetts.
25 Years Ago
Jan. 2, 1970
Wickham on Master Plan: John Wickham,
chairman of the Planning Board for the Town of Southold,
will describe and explain the Master Development Plan for
the town at the Greenport Rotary Club meeting next Thurs-
day at Mitchell's Restaurant.
Winter Comes to Southold: That "weather" is
always a safe topic is evidently meant only for conversa-
tion, at least according to the Southold Town Highway
Superintendent's definition of last weekend. "It's the worst
ice storm we've had in 22 years," said Raymond Dean.
Tides and gale winds played a part in the exceptional
weather conditions, with flooding occurring from one end
of Southold to the other during the high tide period last Fri-
day, Dec. 26. Passage was difficult across the Orient -East
Marion causeway, Front Street in Greenport was flooded, as
was Ackerly Pond Road west of Southold and Bay Avenue
in Nassau Point. And there was a "layer of ice" that crystal-
lized in 15 minutes on Friday, according to Mr. Dean.
would run well over 120 species for the
Montauk count.
Dec. 27 — Central Suffolk count is in
Brookhaven and my area for this count
is along the bay from Eastport to Center
Moriches. We rendezvoused at dawn
with other members and set out a course
for each to play. It's an area that has
changed from farming and duck farms
to condominiums and big -house devel-
opment; as this change takes place the
wildlife habitat shrinks to a point that
there is hardly a place where you are not
in someone's backyard. We started at
dawn in Eastport where there's a big
freshwater lake right off Montauk
Highway with a swamp between the
road and the railroad tracks. At the lake
we counted canvasback, ringneck, lesser
scaup, shoveler, widgeon and pintail. In
the marshy area we found snipe but no
kildeer or woodcock. Perhaps they'll
show up in another area.
We can usually pick up one or two
red - tailed hawks here for the hunt club
at the head of the lake supplies the
hawks with enough pheasants to keep
them around. We were even able to
spot, through the scope, three night
herons that had finished their fishing
and were now resting in the low
branches near the open water where it
was still warm. One of our parties added
a clapper rail out in the salt marsh
which was a nice bird to add to our list
as the marshes are shrinking as man's
development encroaches.
Dec. 31 — Our Orient count came on
a perfect day. We couldn't believe it.
No wind. No rain. Nothing but clear
skies and a mild temperature. Here, too,
we found land birds in few numbers but
surprisingly we were able to accumulate
a total species list of nearly 100. Some
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