February 13, 1992 - Through the Window, a Winter AviaryFebruary 13, 1992 • The Suffolk Times • SA
Through the Window, a Winter Aviary
By Paul Stoutenburgh
We had taken one of our "goof off'
days to drive and photograph along our
South Shore where there is always
something for the outdoor enthusiast to
see. Our first stop was at Shinnecock
Inlet where we
found Bonaparte Focus
gulls bunched up,
feeding in the on Nature
strong rip that
comes around the
outwashed jetty on the west side. These
dainty little tern -like gulls seemed to
float and swoop from the distance like
magical, tiny, white butterflies.
They'd dip down to the churning wa-
ter, picking up morsels only they could
see, then rise and start again in their
endless feeding dance. A cold wind was
blowing out of the northwest and I was
glad to get back in the car, protected
from its icy blasts.
We then headed west and turned our
attention to the great marsh expanse that
lies behind the dunes along the bay.
They were now smothered in winter's
icy mantle. The marsh grass was flat-
tened down and was being prepared in
nature's mixing bowl. Later its compost
will provide the nutrients that will flow
out and feed the multitude of organisms
to start the various food chains which we
and others benefit from. Some of those
that are at the top of the food chain are
the birds and animals that live in and
along this great marsh.
The Evasive Bittern
I was looking for a particular bird, the
American bittern, that during normal
times would be almost impossible to see
but because'of the cold and ice has been
forced to feed in a narrow band of
unfrozen water that parallels the road.
This half- frozen, half -open oasis pro-
vides just enough food in the form of
killifish to keep the bittern alive during
these thin winter months.
Most bitterns, like the majority of
wading birds, fly south in the winter but
there are always those few who think
they can make it despite winter's cold.
Like the great blue heron we see occa-
sionally eking out a living out on the
marsh, the American bittern also plays
the risky game of survival at the edge
of the open water where it stalks its
prey.
Stalking is its specialty. One never
tires of watching this master of camou-
flage as it moves in slow motion
through knee -deep water, neck out-
stretched, eyes concentrating on the
slightest movement below, a foot held
tense half- raised — then a curious thing
happens.
The body starts to sway rapidly back
and forth almost like a baseball pitcher
winding up and then, with lightning
speed, its long pointed bill darts forward
and the head disappears below the
water. Then up it comes, a small fish
held in its bill. A few shakes of its head
as the water flies, a quick bill movement
and the fish is gone. The throat ripples
and the hunt resumes again in its slow
methodical procession.
Often the hunter will stop and study
the water before him. Seconds go by,
perhaps a minute or more, then the head
Recycling Pays Its way
By Virginia Moore
Vacationing in Sarasota for the fourth
or fifth winter, we've observed the city
and county focus increasing attention on
a recycling program. It's mandatory now
for both house-
holds and busi-
nesses. Like most
other places, they Eco -Tips
haven't worked
out all the bugs
yet. But there's so much less regular
garbage after the trucks have collected
all the paper and plastic and metal and
yard waste that they propose cutting the
regular garbage pickups in half. Just
think how much space is being spared in
the landfill.
And the gas. Experts estimate that one
of every six trucks in the U.S. is a garbage
truck —
60000 of
them. They make
500
r
o more stops a day, go back to unload
several times, and each
truck holds ds the
equivalent of 250 homes' garbage. The
trucks get six miles to
the gallon.
By 1990 there
were more than 1,500
curbside r e
c clin g P
r o
r a
m s in
the na-
tion. Th
e number is surely growing.
.
A couple of years ago the Environ-
mental Protection Agency predicted that
in the year 2000, the U.S. would be
landfilling or incinerating 11.4 million
tons of newsprint, 16.2 tons of corru-
gated cardboard, 10.8 million tons of
gl .s, 8.2 million tons of plastics, and
1.5 million toils of aluminum. (The en-
ergy equivalent, if recycled, of 10 bil-
lion gallons of gas.)
How much difference can one person
or one family make? More than you'd
think The v
e a g era a baby, or "ample,
e le
Y ,
P
generates one ton of garbage every year.
(Disposable diapers are really neither
compostable nor recyclable.) So this
gets into another whole realm — how to
tear up soft clean rags into generous
squares, fold them into a diaper and;
when they're soiled, dump the contents
into the toilet and rinse the diaper out
there before boiling it for reuse. We
must be kidding, someone says? How do
you think your forebears managed be-
fore Pampers?
And one family is important when
multiplied by others: during the first
World War collecting corset stays pro-
duced enough metal to build two war-
ships! If Americans recycled just one
out of every 10 high - density polyethy-
lene jugs — milk and bleach bottles, etc.
— it would save the landfills 200 mil-
lion pounds a year. And yet I, and proba-
bly Y ou , know people
—
som e clo se t o
us — th r o
throwing what another fv
e r
0
10 seconds o ds cool
d
send
back
to the
rec
Y
cler. Just look around the 1
aundr
omat.
I figure
at home e
use about 175
plastic
milk jugs g s
a year,
which we
recy-
cle. cle. If only five other f a
mili
es are
doing
the same the jugs g s coil
ec to
d would
make, say, an almost indestructible six -
foot park bench.
One furniture designer has made a chair
of recycled glass; another, from Vancou-
ver, has fashioned furniture out of the
cedar branches and bark that the logging
industry routinely discards. Chairs made
of recycled newspaper are predicted.
Packaging makes up about a third of
household trash. Let's keep cutting
down on our purchase of it. And don't
forget to carry your cloth shopping bag
to market.
AMERICAN BITTERN —This secretive marsh wader is often overlooked
as it stands, neck outstretched, pointing to the sky. Like our great blue
heron, it gambles that its feeding grounds will not freeze over.
moves out, stretching the neck to its
limit. Then the body starts again wig-
gling back and forth and almost too
quick to see, it strikes and another killie
slips down the now retracted neck.
Watching from the Car
We watched spellbound by the side of
the road in the comfort of our car. Only
one or two vehicles passed as we sat and
watched. Here, out of the whole marsh,
our bittern had found a spring of warm
groundwater that keeps the saltwater
from freezing. Just a short distance
away the surface had already iced over.
It was at the open water the bittern knew
his food supply would be and why he
would spend the winter at this oasis. It
was here the killies would feed on the
detritus and muck of the marsh bottom
while others stayed dormant in the
nearby mud 'til spring. Needless to say,
in between comments of "Did you see
the fish he caught ?" etc. my camera
clicked away.
We were almost afraid to start the car,
afraid we would interrupt the bittern's
feeding, but we wanted to see if any-
thing else had found refuge along the
road to the west. We weren't disap-
pointed. We soon saw a lone red -
breasted merganser feeding in the shal-
low waters that parallel the road. His
long, toothed bill equips this diver well
for gleaning the muddy bottoms for kil-
lies.
Farther along we found black ducks in
the open water wherever it occurred and
at one spot, within a hundred feet of
where we had pulled up, we watched a
handsome pair of pintail ducks feeding.
This trim, striking bird appears to be
hand- painted with his large white neck
stripe and elegant long tail.
We looked in vain for the snowy owl
we had seen a few weeks ago but it must
have been farther along to the west
exploring its favorite hunting grounds,
the dunes.
Driving home we talked about our
day of sightseeing and how easy it was
to do it all from the comfort of our car.
No wonder people comb from so far
away to view our shorelines and
examine the easterly points of our island
for unusual sights. Here was a hidden
treasure of entertainment available to
all.
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