Loading...
February 25, 1993 - The VellowwRumped Warbler Retums4A • The Suffolk Times • February 25, 1993 The VellowwRumped Warbler Retums By Paul Stoutenburah It is interesting how things come about because of what you do uncon- sciously. When I was out on one of the many Christmas bird counts this year I found myself in the midst of a tangle of multiflora rose, high tide bush and bay- berry. I was supposed to be looking for birds to add to our count list but my at- Focus on Nature tention was drawn to the profusion of fruit on the bayberry. I hadn't seen berry clusters that thick in a long time. The temptation was too much. I couldn't pass by without picking a few of the gray berries and squeezing them in my fingers to capture that wonderful aroma. In the summer when the leaves are out I break off a leaf or two and squeeze it in my fingers — on the surface are hairy resin dots that bring forth that pungent wild smell of bayberry. By the way, the green leaves are a good substi- tute for the `bay leaves' used in cook- ing. Thinking how nice it would be to have some back at the house, I cut off a few sprays and put them in the back of my pickup. I gave no further thought to them until I got back late that night when I hurriedly put them in a bucket on the patio for holding until I had time to tend them properly. We eat most of our meals in front of the big picture window and look out over the patio where birdseed is spread for those who come and entertain us. Of course, there are also hanging feeders and suet for the variety of birds that visit us each day. It's a pleasant place to eat and we get to know each bird almost as well as we know our own chickens; so when a strange little bird flew in the other day we took notice and immedi- ately got out our glasses to have a closer look. It lit in back of the bucket I had put the bayberry in and remained there busying itself as if feeding. We couldn't YELLOW - ROMPED WARBLER —The majority of these little warblers spend their winters in the south but a few remain throughout the winter, surviving on bayberries and the like. see it move but did notice the branches moving as if it were climbing amongst them but it still kept out of sight. For a moment I thought we had a kinglet, a bird we see during the winter but sel- dom at our feeder. What could it be? We knew all the regulars: the chickadee, nuthatch, cardinal, titmouse, finches, sparrows, woodpeckers, etc. We would just have to wait until it showed itself. By now Barbara had her glasses fo- cused on the spot and was waiting for the first hint that would tell us who our new visitor was. It wasn't long before we started to see it moving up through the branches amongst the berries. "I think I see yellow," Barbara said. That was the key to our puzzle and now the pieces were falling together: bayberry, i ■ wwim nwws" 82 Years Ago Feb. 25, 1911 Modern Improvements: At Halyoake Farm in Orient, a grain grinder, driven by a 22- horsepower gas engine, is now in working order and is the marvel of all who have seen it. Bushels of grain come pouring out of the funnel every minute and go direct to any bin desired. Work is also in progress on the irrigation plant. Many acres will be covered this spring, making the farm the largest in the United States irrigated by this system. Another improvement is a hot house in which onions are springing up from seed. This building is equipped with a sprinkling apparatus, which, by the turning of a valve, starts up numerous little faucets from a pipe running the entire length of the building, sprinkling the green shoots much more quickly and effectively than by hand. Hard Times: Up to the present time of writing Coecles Harbor has been frozen over seven times and only twice hard enough to bear. Shelter Island fyke fishermen are very much handicapped about catching any fish, having such hard storms and so much ice to contend with. 50 Years Ago Feb. 25, 1943 Service Flag Dedication: A Service Flag and yellow spot, jitting bird, winter. It had to be a yellow - rumped warbler, our only regular winter warbler. Sure enough, as it came into view, I could see its yellow rump plainly along with the yellow flank and white wing bars. But what was it doing in our woods at this time of yam? Yellow - rumped warblers are birds of the open fields, beaches and dunes wherever bayberry, red cedar, poison ivy, Virginia creeper and other berry bushes grow. Evidently the bird had be- come separated from its fellow travelers and moved in where other birds were feeding. As with most birds there is a continual chattering going on amongst them. A few of these cheerful sounds Roll of Honor donated by various members of the Jewish Community Club will be dedicated in the Synagogue of Congregation Tifereth Israel in Greenport on Sunday, Feb. 28, at 3 p.m. Thirteen men of the Greenport Jewish commu- nity are serving in the armed forces of the United States. The service will be conducted by W. A. Buchheim, rabbi of the congregation. Ration Books Issued: The faculty of Greenport School has been busy during the past week issuing the No. 2 Government Ration Books for canned and preserved foods. The issuance of these books continues through Fri- day. Up to Thursday morning 2,803 of these books had been issued, it being estimated that approximately 1,000 more would be issued in Greenport. 25 Years Ago Feb. 23, 1968 Reichart Honored: On Saturday the Village of Greenport honored its oldest citizen, Anton Reichart, who officially observed his 100th birthday on Tuesday. The community luncheon at the First Presbyterian Church was attended by over 100 relatives and guests of Uncle Tony. Birthday congratulations were received from President Lyn- don Johnson, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, Senator Jacob Javits, Senator Robert Kennedy, Assemblyman Perry Duryea and Congressman Otis Pike. we hear (a lot fewer for me), but besides the ones we hear I'm sure there is a whole unheard language that goes on and this, too, could have lured our yel- low rump in. Whatever it was, it had found the main reason to stay — the right food supply — my bayberry in the bucket. Our First in 38 Years Since that first meeting a few weeks ago, it depleted my bouquet of berries and we had to make a special trip to re- plenish his larder. This visit by a yellow rump is the first at our feeding station in over 38 years. On our Christmas bird count we had hundreds of these cheer- ful, always moving, little warblers to report on both the North and South forks and Shelter Island. Most were found along the creeks, bays, Sound and ocean front where the bayberry grows. Yet we also see them occasionally in overgrown fields and thickets where berries of one sort or another can be found. They are not the least bit coop- erative when you are trying to identify them through binoculars for they always seem to be on the move. If it weren't for that bright little yellow rump, I'm afraid many would go unidentified. There is the exception to almost every rule though, and once in a while these little birds seem almost tame and unafraid when you walk up to them. These winter warblers are the rem- nants of a much larger contingency that last fall migrated south, some as far as the Caribbean. For the people who spend their winters down south, the yel- `When a strange little bird flew in the other day we took notice...' low - rumped warbler is a common bird in Florida where it thrives on its favorite food of insects. When the cold leaves and it becomes warmer up here on our East End, insects start to hatch and then we see the feeding habits of the yellow rump change from berries to insects. As a matter of fact, it looks very much like a flycatcher as it darts up to pick up an insect and then drops down to its perch where it waits for its next meal. For those warblers who winter in Florida their stay here in the spring when they migrate up from the south is for a short time for they all have nesting plans farther to the north. There in the coniferous forest that extends to the far north of Canada they build their feather - lined nest on the boughs of an evergreen tree. By this time their winter plumage has changed to a more elegant version of the yellow rump, flank and head markings. As mentioned earlier, insects are their basic food and with their pointed bill they become expert gather- ers of insects of all sorts. When I first became aware of this winter warbler it was called the myrtle warbler. This was because in the south they were always associated with the wax myrtle, which is similar to our bay- berry and has leaves to the bird's liking. It's hard to change a name and I still find myself occasionally calling it a myrtle warbler, but by either name, once you become familiar with this hardy, always -on- the -go little warbler, you'll never forget it.