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January 16, 1992 - The Quest for the Great White Gull4A • The Suffolk Times • January 16, 1992 The Quest for the Great White Gull By Paul S In this age of readily available transportation we hardly think about taking off for Europe or dropping down to Mexico or flying to Alaska for a vacation. We rub elbows unknowingly every day with people who have just come from the far corners of the world. So it is with the bird world. We see our local collection each day but Focus on somewhere amongst them there is that possibility of seeing that Nature visitor that has just come in from a long flight away from its na- tive haunts. Proof of this was when a good friend of mine called and said he'd seen a "white" gull working the edge of the creek where he was working. All white gulls are something special and so Barbara and I dropped everything and sped to the spot he described. Like so many trips of this kind, when we got there the gull was gone. Then, just last Friday, we received another call this time saying he saw it on the school grounds. So, off we went and this time we were rewarded, but only for a short time. I had no sooner gotten out of the car with my binocu- lars when the bird flew overhead and then headed to the northeast. The only place it could be going in that direction was to a small park at the head of one of our creeks. So I jumped back in the car, hoping we would be able to locate him. Sure enough, when we arrived at the park, there was our Iceland gull begging for food along with ring- billed gulls, herring gulls and mallards. Few people realize we have over 27 species of gulls seen in our state. To most, they are just seagulls. This particular all -white gull walked within six feet of the car. I couldn't believe my eyes. Here was a bird of the near Arctic strutting about this little park begging for a handout. Far Away From Home We get these northern visitors each winter when they wander away from the edge of the ice pack that mantles our northern borders. Sizewise, this bird is about the size of a ring- billed gull, which, to put in perspective, is smaller than the common, most abundant herring gull. There are two other all -white gulls we sometimes find coming down for a visit from the north. These birds are easily recognized when seen with the ring - billed and herring gulls, particularly in flight, because of their whiteness. The most common of the three is Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh ICELAND GULL —Each year wil! bring a few sightings of these "all -white gulls." called the glaucous gull. This gull is basically the same but in a larger edition than the Iceland gull. The least common of the three and the smallest of them all is the ivory gull. When one of these is spotted, word will soon get around and birders from all over the country will come to see this polar cap traveler. Some of you might remember years ago when one of these ivory gulls was seen on the ice by one of the fish- ing stations. It was photographed many times and of such interest that after it died the body was picked up by people from the American Museum of Natural His - t9ry for its collection. The Iceland gull's name implies cold and the far north, and it is there in the Arctic regions of Victoria Land, Greenland, Iceland and other areas of that lati- tude we find the bird's home grounds. I picture it nest- ing high on a rocky cliff with ledges white with other sea birds by the thousands. I get this impression from years ago when our family was young and we camped on the Gaspe Peninsula at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada, where we were treated to one of the most spectacular views of a sea bird rookery one could imagine. Gannets, those huge white birds with a six -foot black - tipped wing span, nested there by the thousands, clinging to the 200 -foot high, rocky Cliffs. Like Nothing Before It was a sight I'll never forget. The air was white with birds. I climbed to the very top and sat there mesmerized as these birds glided by within what seemed an arm's length away. I was in a dream world in an area filled with living organisms where I was not even noticed. I guess that's why whenever I see gan- nets, as I did a few weeks ago on our Montauk Christ- mas bird count, my mind flashes back to those won- derful days on Bonaventure where I was alone and privileged. All gulls are scavengers, as our landfills surely vouch for with their masses of gulls waiting to be fed. Seeing there are no dumps up north then what do these gulls live on? Perhaps a mutilated carcass of a seal killed by a polar bear or maybe some other bird or animal that has succumbed to winter's trials. I often see white gulls on TV when watching one of my favorite documentaries on the Arctic. Looking closely, I can usually pick out glaucous or Iceland gulls in the background similar to those that visit us here in the winter. Montauk is the best place to see these wintering strays that slip out of the Arctic each year to visit our southern waters. Even if you're not a particularly avid birder, Montauk during the winter makes a nice ride. I'm afraid we don't take advantage of all the wonderful parks and roads we have here on the East End. On both forks of the island we have attractive parks. What makes them particularly appealing for those who travel a long way to get to these out -of -way parks is that Montauk and Orient have heated bathrooms and facili- ties where you can get a cup of coffee and a sandwich nearby. While out at these parks on our East End binoculars are not a must but they surely help when you want to identify what's out in the water. Anything could be there. Just two weeks ago on an Orient count a whale was spotted not far offshore and regularly seals are seen feeding amongst the rich mussel beds or basking atop one of the rocks at either Orient or Montauk. Global Warming at 181 Babies a Minute By Virginia Moore You can read the earth's destruction in the figures from two New York scientists on carbon dioxide in the earth's atmo- sphere. Its level almost exactly parallels the growth of human population over the last 25 years. The chairman of the N� National Acade- my of Sciences Eco -Tips panel on global warming calls population "the driving force." In the winter of 1980, having breakfast on a Guadalajara plaza, I was troubled by a small boy standing beside the table, one among dozens of nearby Mexican children pathetically hawking chewing gum. It was the steady chocolate eyes that bothered me. They were hyp- notically fixed on my buttered toast, which sat on a level with them. Regard- ing it in his trance, the boy slowly swal- lowed. I surreptitiously held out the plate, and hardly saw the food disappear as he van- ished. Around him, there must have been thousands of children without enough to eat. Within the years that he was surely born — 1970 -75 — Mexican women were having children at the rate of 6.75 apiece — more than Africa today. "Our children are our future," you'd hear. At the same time — in 1972 — the U.S. representative to the United Nations urged that success in population control might decide "whether we can resolve successfully the other great questions of peace, prosperity, and individual rights that face the world." His name? George Bush. ��■ r�r a r� • �r L ar A, r ■.r a N no A ■ MONK• 769 200 gals 727 -6479 Walter and Ed Hodun Jr., Proprietor • Automatic Delivery • Kerosene • Diesel Fuel • Burner Service SERVING ALL OF THE NORTH FORK "= Prices subject to change without notice The Mexican government committed itself to a full - fledged media campaign to educate people about family planning, including the use of contraception. By 1980 -88 the national fertility rate had dropped to 3.8 children per family. They're striving for two. But not everybody is following Mex- ico's example. Kenya's rate, for in- stance, fastest in the world, is a four per- cent yearly increase. This seeds disaster. Only half the population is more than age 15. By now, only a small minority, writes Peter Steinhart in a recent conser- vation journal, will ever inherit land for their children to work. It's a question whether within the decade Kenya will be able to support its people. And where are we in this awful race? It's predicted that Los Angeles will grow another 50 percent in 15 years — 50 per- cent more traffic, pollution, trash, and 50 percent more waste flowing into its bays. Can we fairly substitute "Southold" for "Los Angeles ?" Why not? Remember Southold in 1977? Zero Population Growth warns that at the present rate we'll have squeezed an- other 40 million people into our country, by birth or border- crossing, by the year 2000. That's eight years away. In 12, we'll have added another California. And remember, says ZPG, a child born here has 13 times the ecologic impact of a third world child. It took the world a million years to produce the first billion people, living and dead. That was by 1830. It took only a century more to produce the next bil- lion. Now, since my own childhood, we've reached not merely a third billion — that took only 30 years and the fourth a mere 15 — but an exponential 5.4 bil- lion, with 95 million new faces appear- ing every year, 181 babies a minute! What's the cost? Forgetting for the moment the cost to the earth, what's the human cost? Forty -two thousand babies, unsupportable, die every day. Over the globe, more than a billion peo- ple are malnourished, and 14 million children under five succumb to it each year. In comparison, a conception pre- vented could seem a blessing, abortion a mercy. We can't consider environmental catastrophes apart from the humans that make it. But, because of forces pushing this burning issue into the background, including a George Bush caved in to a right -wing minority, a U.N. resolution calling for a 1992 environmental conference doesn't even mention popu- lation.