July 29, 1993 - Walking the Beach on the Wild SideJuly 29, 1993 • The Suffolk Times • SA
Walking the Beach on the Wild Side
By Paul Stoutenburah
By the time you read this article (with
all the dry weather we have had) you
may have forgotten we had a touch of
rain and a wind during the night re-
cently. I'd like to take you on our first
wild, stormy, evening walk along the
bay. It was the only touch of rain we've
had in over a month or more.
We put on our rain gear for it was
starting to spit a bit and looking across
the bay we could see showers blocking
out the far shore. Whitecaps rolled in to
the beach and churned the water into a
murky turmoil that ran up on the beach,
giving us a hard surface to walk on. It
was starting to get dark as the grey
clouds rolled in from the southwest.
The newly dampened sand was warm
on our bare feet but with all the wind
and spray that was churning up it didn't
dampen the sand hoppers' activity; they
jumped up and out of sight before us as
we moved along. These are nighttime
feeders of the water's edge that feed on
minute particles of detritus that wash up
on the beach. Actually they are a form
of crustacean and like the sand fleas we
see under waterlogged boards and sea-
`They started to
move right before
us and pulsed like
some great heart.'
weed along the beach they are seem-
ingly always on the move. During the
day these sand hoppers spend their time
in tunnels and only emerge during the
evening hours. We can see these tunnel
holes on the high beach above the high -
tide mark. The holes you see below the
high -tide mark are usually made by air
escaping from around small sand parti-
cles as the waves recede from the shore.
There's nothing in them but air.
Walking into the Wind
We headed into the wind, an old trick
I learned many years ago because it's a
lot easier walking home with the wind
Focus on
Nature
at your back. It's something like sailing.
It makes sense to tack and do the hard
work in the beginning and then take the
easy ride home with the wind.
Our glasses were now becoming al-
most impossible to see through because
the fine mist -like rain had collected on
them. Ahead of us a large boat had
dragged its anchor and was now being
beaten ashore by the waves. It was an
old wooden boat and one I'm sure had
seen happy days before but any boat on
the beach is a trying experience for one
who's close to the water. We looked on
helplessly for now it was too late to do
any good. It was a sad sight indeed. We
stood on the wild beach silently watch-
ing her groan with each wave. It was too
much and so we turned our backs on the
beaten boat and the churning storm and
headed back.
Our dog had followed us in his now
old -age pace of sniffing here, lifting a
leg there, with nothing that seemed to
bother him as long as we were close by.
On our way Barbara's sharp eyes
picked up something that had washed
ashore. It was a soft jelly -like grape -
sized cluster that is part of a large
family called sea squirts. As the name
implies they often squirt out water when
handled and did as we picked them up.
We took them back with us to put them
in a small aquarium we keep for just
such occasions. Before we got back we
had picked up the tail of an old
horseshoe crab, a few pieces of beach
glass to be added to our collection and
some driftwood that would be added to
our fire we hoped was still going back
at the cottage.
We were glad we had the warmth of
the fire when we returned because the
strong wind had found a way of getting
into our rain gear and chilling us
through. We filled the aquarium with
some of the murky water of the bay and
put the sea squirts in to watch them
function. There were two siphons on
each soft round glob. On reading up on
■_s69A i_wwL ndmwu
82 Years Ago
July 29, 1911
Narrow Escape: Schuyler Bonney of Southold and a
party of friends had a narrow escape from injury or death
last Saturday evening when they collided with a train on the
Long Island Rail Road tracks at Sixth Street crossing, while
out in their Pierce -Arrow touring car. They arrived in
Greenport during the afternoon and about dusk started to go
across the railroad. The driver did not see the train until he
was upon it. The train proved to be an extra composed of
the Haag Circus cars. These cars were painted a dirt color
and were not easily distinguished at any distance. The front
of the Pierce -Arrow was badly smashed.
Ordered Out of Town: A band of Gypsies struck
town last Saturday and made life miserable for the inhabi-
tants around the village for several hours until they were
ordered out of town. They then made tracks for Shelter
Island. At Huntington, Freeport, Riverhead and many other
south side towns they were chased out. These dirty people
are a nuisance and a pack of thieves and should not be per-
mitted to stop over in any of the villages.
50 Years Ago
July 29, 1943
Three Letters Home: Mr. and Mrs. Donald Clark
SEA GRAPES —These important filter feeders live on docks, pilings and
rocks.
them we found out that like many other
creatures that are permanently anchored,
they take in sea water in one siphon,
take out the nutrients and spit out the
waste water through the other.
A Private Performance
They started to move right before us
and pulsed like some great heart. The
book calls this particular sea squirt a sea
grape, a more appropriate name. They
are hermaphrodites, which means they
are simultaneously male and female in
one. Quite a trick if you can do it. The
eggs are self- fertilized, or in some cases
cross - fertilized, whichever the currents
of water dictate. The young are like tiny
tadpoles but with much longer tails. Sea
squirts attach themselves to almost
anything they can cling to — a piling,
rocks, docks, boat bottoms, etc. — and
are often broken loose during storms.
Sitting writing with the sea squirts in
the aquarium before me I was amazed to
see the murky water become clearer and
clearer until it was crystal clear and the
activity then slowed down. Evidently
when the food was used up the sea
of Shelter Island were indeed fortunate on Saturday when
they received letters in the same mail from all three of their
sons in service: Eugene in Newport, Donald in Texas and
Gilbert in North Africa. Gilbert writes that conditions are
not too bad there, that while "Cokes" and root beer are not
to be had they do have ice cream occasionally, and he
closed his letter by saying he was on his way to an outdoor
movie which reminded him of the Heights Casino at home.
25 Years Ago
July 26, 1968
Old Buddies Meet: Many talk about renewing old
acquaintances and never do anything about it. That's not the
case of Harry Tappen of Oyster Bay. Mr. Tappen drove out
to Greenport last weekend looking for George (Lou)
Tuthill. He was Lou's top sergeant in France during World
War I. They met at Camp Upton in 1917, trained together
and were shipped to France. The war ended, thirty -five
years passed and they saw each other briefly, just once.
Last week marked almost 11 more years and they finally
got together and hashed over old times. They had chow
(roast beef sandwiches, iced tea and Jell -O) — quite a bit
different from the chow they had for supper when they
were doughboys — and then Harry and Lou parted once
again.
grapes went into rest. They had filtered
the water right before me and when I
think of the thousands of kinds of sea
squirts and clams and mussels and other
filter feeders working in our waters we
can start to see their importance.
So it was on the first stormy night in
our cottage by the bay. We could have
stayed in by the fire and let the storm
roar outside but look what we would
have missed. All it took was a little
gumption and the world opened up for
us, revealing once again some of its
many secrets.
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