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June 04, 1992 - Close Encounters of the Bird KindGA • The Suffolk Times • June 4, 1992 Close Encounters of the Bird Kind By Paul Stoutenburah Ninety percent of the trees around our piace are hickory. When I first knew this area the trees were about 15 feet tall. Later, when we were going to build, the trees had reached 20 feet or more. Today after 30 -plus years they are over 50 feet tall and still growing. Be- Focus on Nature cause of their height, many of them had their tops twisted off and broken during Hurricane Bob. For anyone who knows woods, hickory doesn't break off that easily. As a matter of fact, it's that abil- ity not to break off that makes it one of the best woods for handles of axes, sledges, hammers and other tools that take a lot of shock in use. Had the trees been oak, maple or some other hard wood the broken tops would have long dropped to the ground but with hickory they hung on and just dangled, Iike Damocles's sword. Even- tually they'll dr -p as one did recently when it fell on our car and broke the windshield. With that kind of uncer- tainty, we thought it best to have a pro- fessional tree trimmer come in and cut off the twisted limbs and top some of the trees. Slue enough, he came and in no time we looked like Hurricane Bob had hit all over again. It's taken us two days to clean up, what with disposing of the limbs, cutting up the big wood for our wood stove and hauling away the debris — which brings me to when I I was determined not to be out- smarted by any bird, no matter how beautiful it was was caught napping in the hammock during a break. The truth was, I was bushed and needed that 15- or 20- minute recharge to get me started again. Now I'll get to the point of my story. Eye -to -Eye Contact As I lay there half in and half out of a dream, a Tufted Titmouse lit on the hammock and proceeded to pluck out a bill full of cotton from the many strands that go into the making of a knotted hammock. I watched in amazement as the ball of cotton grew. Then the tit- mouse jumped up on my shoe where I could feel its movement. Now it hopped along my pant leg, then on to my shirt and then right up on my shoulder. I hardly dared to breathe. I looked it right in the eye — a mere 10 inches away. Then an uncontrolled blink startled Mrs. Titmouse and she flew off with her bundle. Her nest is in one of the boxes I've built with a 1 1/8-inch opening. Later the same day 1 watched a Great Crested Flycatcher pick up an old piece of cellophane and fly off into the woods. I knew she was building in a special box I'd made just for her. It's actually a bird box with only half a front. The large opening is supposed to represent a hollow broken -off limb or other open cavity which flycatchers use for nesting. You can always tell when these birds are around for they have a Photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh TUFTED TITMOUSE —This big cousin of the chickadee has been coming to our feeders all winter long and is now gathering nesting materials to build its nest in a tree cavity or in one of your bird boxes. loud, coarse call. It surely couldn't be classified as a songster. I guess you'd call it a caller. The Great Crested Flycatcher gets its name from the crest on its head when aroused. The body is grey with cinna- mon tail and wings and yellow belly. If you live in or near the woods and you hear a rasping call you probably have one nesting near you. My third nest builder is one of our most beautiful birds, the orange and black Northern Oriole. This is another bird with a rather distinctive call that also is not one of our greatest songsters. You might say the oriole's song is something like today's modern music, a bit loud and not soothing for sure. But nevertheless I look forward to its call each spring as a harbinger of the regulars that have just arrived. Many of our birds in the spring move right on through and nest in the northern forests but the regulars like the catbird, thrashers, towhees, orioles, flycatchers and others are the ones we associate with summertime. Hard To Catch Most of us know and have probably seen the hanging nest these weavers make. Knowing their need for easily worked materials, Barbara has always put some of her yarn cut in two- to 10- inch -long pieces for them to take. This year she decided to put it along a wire fence we have around our big birdbath that sits right in the middle of our lawn. Uafts ft ■ . "al" n.....V 78 Years Ago June 6, 1914 A Farewell Gift: The Rev. William J. McKenna, who was promoted last week from curate of the Chapel of the Queen of All Saints, Brooklyn, to pastor of St. Agnes Church in Greenport, will soon be riding in an automobile, the gift of All Saints parishioners. Father McKenna has been attached to the chapel ever since he was ordained 13 years ago and he is very much beloved by the people. When they heard he was to leave them, a quiet subscription was started to get him an automobile as an appropriate and useful pre- sent. Monday morning a committee waited upon Auxiliary Bishop George Mundelein and turned over to him a check for $1,700 with which the machine is to be purchased. Weekend Record: Dr. C.C. Miles of Greenport made quite a record the last weekend. From Friday until Monday, he brought six little babies into the world to make fond parents happy. Three of them arrived Monday morning before six o'clock. 50 Years Ago June 4, 1942 No Gas for Pleasure: Motorists who have expend- ed or are expending in pleasure driving their May 15 -July 1 allotment of gasoline need not expect to obtain supplemen- tal rations. Leslie Wells, Suffolk County rationing adminis- We thought it would be a conspicuous place where we'd be able to see the ori- ole take the yarn and in doing so find out where they were building. But our oriole was very secretive. No matter how we tried, we couldn't catch her taking her newfound building mate- rials. We'd put more yarn out and sit and wait but she wouldn't come when we were around. Then we'd give up and do something around the place only to come back and find she'd snuck in and taken the yarn away. More would be left out and the same disappearing act would follow. But I was determined to see our clever feathered friend. Foiled Again I'd tie the lengths of yarn on the wire of the fence and therefore if the oriole was persistent she would keep tugging away and hopefully stay around so we could see her. But here again I failed. Being a clever weaver, she was able to untie the knot and steal away the goods. Now I was determined not to be outsmarted by any bird, no matter how beautiful it was, so I tied and retied my yam and sure enough this did the trick. Mrs. Oriole came in, tried her usual un- tying but couldn't break the second knot. Soon she got discouraged and left, which made me feel a little guilty. So I put more yarn out to make her happy and she was soon back, carrying it off to her nest. I'm sure her nest is a wonder to be- hold for it's probably made up mostly of Barbara's four -ply knitting yarn. We haven't located the nest as yet but we have a pretty good idea of the direction it is. Someday when the parent birds are in the frenzy of feeding, I'll sit down the driveway with my binoculars where they've been heading and find it. The remarkable part about this yarn (no pun intended) is that the material I double- tied is now missing. Evidently they were not to be outsmarted and returned and worked on the knots until they got what they wanted, which just goes to show us all we shouldn't underestimate our feathered friends, particularly when it comes to nest building. trator, declares bluntly in a statement issued at Riverhead this week. Mr. Wells suggested that many autoists are not taking rationing seriously and added that these people have only themselves to blame if they find themselves with empty tanks. Church Damaged: At about 5:30 Sunday morning during a severe electrical storm, the First Baptist Church of Greenport was struck by lightning. The steeple was badly shattered and fuses in the church were blown and two lanterns in the gallery were also damaged. During the hurri- cane of '38 the building was also damaged and had to undergo extensive repairs. 25 Years Ago June 9, 1967 Broadway in Southold: Once again Broadway will come to Southold. The Arena Players, well known now because of their outstanding performances in the Tent The- atre last summer and for "Gigi" at the Paradise Woods Stu- dio in Southold last October, will present another play in the same Studio this month. "Any Wednesday" opened at the Music Box Theatre in New York in 1964 and was an instant success. As with "Gigi" it will have a musical back- ground featuring the Studio's manual pipe organ and vocal numbers. The North Fork Animal League is sponsoring the production.