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October 31, 1996 - Seals and Other Signs of the, SeasonOctober 31, 1996 • The Suffolk Times • 5A Seals and Other Signs of the, Season As the sun moves farther south each day and our days grow shorter, the world around us reacts in a thousand different ways. Most obvious are the changing temperatures along with what seems like darker mornings and evenings. Then, of course, the changing fall colors give off the last hurrahs to those warm days we've all been used to. One of the lesser- FOCUS know !i signs of our world that tells us On we're slipping slowly into winter Nature is the return of seals to our outer eastern by Pahl waters. The best Stoutenburgh place to see these torpedo- shaped lovers of water are on the rocks. My son told me there is already a fair number of them around Gardiners Island that have moved down the coast to the happy hunting grounds of our East End waters. These are our harbor seals that come in an assortment of colors: iron gray with brown spots, brown with gray spots or just plain gray or ivory white. seals come in all colors, that's for sure. Harbor seals grow to about five feet in length and weigh up to 125 pounds. They can show up almost anywhere from the far north to the Carolinas. We even see them in our inland bays sometimes during the winter. In the material I've read, someone speculated that Robins Island got its name from the Dutch word for seals be- cause in colonial times seals would have used those long sandy points off the is- land for sunbathing, and sunbathing they really love to do. Usually, though, today we see them doing their thing on rocks rather than sandy beaches. That's why Plum Island and Gardiners Island are so popular with these fish- eaters. Here they can waddle up on rocks and sleep away the day in the warm sun. If they do sleep during their basking hours, they must sleep with one eye open, for I've never been able to sneak up on them without being detected. I can tell when I've been seen for soon the head goes up and I know the game is over and it isn't long before Mr. Seal slips into the water, only to surface some distance away to examine me with his head above the water and his big black eyes checking me out. Yet seals are curious and often swim along the shore a safe distance away to investigate the beachcomber. Sea Ducks Arriving Other winter visitors that are starting to show up along our shores are the sea ducks. The ones I observed this past week were mostly surf scoters or, as the duck hunter would call them, skunk heads, for they have a white patch on their forehead and a larger white patch on the back of their head. Up close they have a bright orange, white and red bill that makes this large diving duck quite handsome. We saw flocks of five to 10 of them off Orient on Sunday as we headed out to go fishing. Ahead of us were hundreds of gulls milling about the water where bluefish were feeding. These were the usual herring gulls and a few black - backed gulls, but the majority of birds were the smaller, sleeker looking laughing gulls, ones that always seem to show up in the fall to take advantage of the bluefish orgies. Amongst the gulls were a few Bonaparte gulls. We see these hardy little white gulls more during the winter and this was the first I'd seen of them this year. Another sign the year's moving on. I hate to admit this, but we didn't catch a fish. The worst part of our fishing trip was that we were alongside a party boat that was pulling them in one after another. They hauled in beautiful blue- fish from five to 10 th pounds. Then to add to our misery, they threw back half of what they brought up. We had come with casting rigs; they were jig- ging, which meant we were outclassed. We could see them drop their jigs down and reel them in as fast as they could and that system was really working for them. Other boats saw their success and came around but few had the luck they were enjoying. It looked like a mother hen Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh LAUGHING GULLS —At this time of the year the bluefish are in and you might see the surf fishermen lined up trying their luck. Good fishing can usually be guaranteed if you see birds off shore feeding over thrashing blues. (party boat) with all her little chicks (small boats like ours) all around her as she knew the tricks of success. But the day was gorgeous, calm and warm and so we really couldn't complain. My wife reminded me we'd not said a word about the great northeaster that raced through here on the East End. I must agree it was the closest thing to a hurricane I'd seen in a long time. We lost two trees. One huge hickory that was probably the biggest and most beautiful tree on hate to admit the place blew partially over, yet it didn't com- �S, but we didn't pletely give up to the catch a fish.' high winds and rain but Lifted up a great chunk of earth and is listing over so much it will have to be cut down. The other tree was one we've been expecting to go down for the past 40 years. It's an unusual tree called the shad, one of the first trees to blossom with its snowy white flowers each year. Usually they only grow into a small tree with trunks three to four inches in diameter, 75 Years Ago Oct. 18, 1921 Vote on Sunday Movies: The proposition of per- mitting the presentation of movies in Riverhead after 2 p.m. on Sundays will be submitted to a referendum vote at the general election on Nov. 8. There has been considerable sen- timent in that village for some time in favor of Sunday movies. There are many supporters of the proposition who contended that it is much better for people to attend a good, clean movie show on a Sunday afternoon in a theater, where pictures of an educational character are shown, than to spend their time in other diversions that are more harmful to the morals of the community. 50 Years Ago Nov. 1, 1946 SI Chamber to Form ?: A sizable group of Shelter Island business people and others met in the Town Hall last Friday in an effort to find out if sufficient interest existed to support the creation of a Chamber of Commerce. The group unanimously and enthusiastically favored doing so and proceeded to set up organizing machinery. William Hall was elected temporary chairman and Algwynne Collins temporary secretary. The gathering then discussed various objectives which such an organization could achieve to make Shelter Island a more prosperous and attractive community. Agreement was finally reached to call a meeting of all interested people for Friday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. At that time it was proposed to elect permanent officers, officially organize, and to map out a plan for civic improvements of various kinds. 25 Years Ago Oct. 28, 1971 Huge Weakfish Catch: There was excitement in Greenport Tuesday as John Rempe's recently launched modern fishing boat, Billori, steamed into Stirling Harbor bearing a huge catch of weakfish. "It's the largest I've ever seen," said Rempe, who has been a trap fisherman for the past 13 years. The haul, 7,550 pounds, or 151 boxes, took seven men three hours to unload. Corchaug Youth Program Discontinued: For the first time in something like 17 years, the youngsters of Cutchogue and New Suffolk will not participate in a Halloween parade and party. They will also miss out on skat- ing parties, Saturday movies, basketball and soccer games, crafts and other activities organized for them at various time through the winter by the Corchaug Youth Program. The program has been discontinued for lack of interest, announced Tom Roslak, who has been president of it for the last 10 years. A meeting to plan the year's events drew only five parents, he said, not enough to fill a slate of offi- cers and heads of committees. but this one was here when we first built and was already six inches in diameter. It had been blown over partially in the '38 hurricane but somehow held on to the earth in its tilted position all these years. Because of its slant, it made a natural challenge for our kids to run and try to climb it with the momentum of the run. Few ever got higher than six feet up before jumping off. As time moved on, the tree grew, blos- somed each spring and filled the front yard with its white blossoms only to fall like snow later on. Its fruit would then attract an array of birds such as the robin, catbird, oriole and others and so rather than cutting this. old slanted tree down, we kept it as part of the family. Then our kids grew up, got married and, of course, as time went on their children, our grand- children, had to run and try to climb the slanted shad. Each of us had his or her own particular memories of that tree, but like all good things it had to come to an end during that last nor'easter. We regretfully cut it up thinking we'd lost part of the family of things that make everyone's home something special. We'll miss the burst of white in our front yard each spring, we'll miss its delicate petals falling like snow to cover the ground below, the kids will miss their "fun tree" that absorbed much of their youthful energy and we'll miss its crooked shape that was part of our front yard for so many years.