January 06, 1994 - Bird Lovers Unite for the Christmas CountSA • The Suttolk Times • January 6, 1994
Bird Lovers Unite for the Christmas Count
By Paul Stoutenburgh
The last three weeks were a hectic marathon of
Christmas Bird Counts on our East End. These counts
are professional exercises in recording all birds seen in
a particular area within a specified circle of 15 miles.
Each circle is divided into sectors and each sector is
covered by three or more people. The day runs from
dawn to dusk and some of the more enterprising get up
and go owling in the wee hours of the morning to
record the owls that hunt during these dark hours when
most are asleep.
The first of these adventures was the Montauk Count
on Dec. 18 and the sector I worked
was the south end of Gardiner's
Focus
Island. My son, Peter, used his plane
to get.us there and with Kenny and
Oil day son, Roger, we all spent the entire
day tramping and counting every bird
Nature we saw.
Black ducks were the most com-
mon duck in the big pond on the
south end of the island with American
widgeon and gadwall holding a strong second. The
widgeon has a beautiful soft call that I'm afraid was
lost in the strong winds that bit our faces, numbered our
fingers and worst of all made my eyes water feverishly.
Then there was the sprinkling of bufflehead which
we see here in our creeks and bays throughout the win-
ter months. Of course, there were the red - breasted mer-
gansers that were already doing their comical courtship
with head and body movements. But the star of this
particular count for us was a beautiful snowy owl that
swiveled his head when he looked around at us to a
point I thought it would twist off. The bird was in a
perfect place for snowy owls, which was the wind-
blown, low beach -grass areas of that grand section at
the south end of the island.
Snow Buntings Beautiful
We were also thrilled with a flock of 60 or more
snow buntings that are at home on that barren
windswept point along with three species of shorebirds.
Remember, shorebirds live with their feet in the water
as they feed along, poking their bills into the sand or
mud to capture worms, small crustaceans, eggs or any-
thing that will stoke up their energy supply as the win-
ter temperature drops and the winds howl out of the
north. As we searched the waters off the east side of the
island, inquisitive seal heads were continually popping
up as they eyed us from their chilly water home. Our
species count would be low but when added to all the
other observers on the island and the mainland, the total
will be well over 120.
Dec. 27 found me working with a group on the
Central Suffolk Count that I've been involved with for
`The star of this particular count
was a beautiful snowy owl that
swiveled his head to a point I
thought it would twist off.'
Sprningfield'l
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over 40 years. How that Eastport-East Moriches area
has changed over the years from massive duck farms
that lined the shores to new, sleek, manicured
condominiums. The area is moving into a new world of
people and activity.
The temperature, as we got out of our car at 6:30
a.m., was hovering around 15 degrees but luck was
with us for the wind had stopped. We saw a sleepy,
hairy woodpecker fly out of his cozy cavity in a dead
tree as the slow dawn broke over a frost - covered world.
Freshwater ducks were what we were after. A good
list followed: handsome canvasbacks; showy ring -
necked ducks, black ducks, mallards, shovelers with
their long flat bills and colorful bodies, green- winged
teal — those small, fast -flying birds of fresh water that
somehow manage to elude us on some of our counts.
We heard the American widgeon talking softly even
before we actually saw them in Pitney's Pond along
with a small group of gadwall. Later we'd work the bay
area and pick up red- breasted mergansers, oldsquaws,
bufflehead, loons and others that frequent the bays in
our own backyard.
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT —Each year at
this time thousands of people take to the field,
many times under adverse conditions, to tabulate
the bird population throughout the country.
North Fork
Resident Investment Brokers
Red - tailed hawks, kestrels, sharp- shinned hawks and
the northern harrier would fill in our hawk listings. All
along we'd add other birds of the low beach area of the
bay. Shorebirds like the black- bellieq plover, turnstones
and dunlin in great numbers were feeding on the
exposed bay bottom created by extremely low tides that
day. One sad tale to tell was when one of our party
jumped a woodcock out of a marshy area that sailed off
to the right, running into a picture window of a nearby
cottage. Bob heard the bird hit and when he investigat-
ed, sure enough, there it lay dead with a broken neck.
We all felt sad, particularly because we are so dedicated
to that wonderful world that birds afford us. Our list
would be called in that night and the total species when
added came to 129, one of our highest records.
The day before the official end of the count period I
led a group on the Orient Christmas Count. The date
was Jan. 2 and the day was mild. We worked the point
sector while three parties worked Shelter Island, two
parties worked in Sag Harbor and three parties worked
from east of Orient up to Peconic on the North Shore.
As I write I still have to hear from four parties but some
of the birds already reported are exciting. We got most.
of the sea ducks and many of the freshwater ducks, the
latter coming from Shelter Island and the Sag Harbor
area. The highlight of the sea ducks was the sighting of
two Harlequins off Hortons Point in Southold by one of
our groups. We'd heard reports of these colorful north-
ern ducks being there before but we've never had them
on our count.
We missed the peregrine falcon and goshawk but got
most of the other
common hawks: the `We saw a sleepy,
northern harrier, ,
sharp-shinned hairy woodpecker
Coopers, red - tailed,
merlin and kestrel. fly out of his cozy
The group saw both cavity in a dead
golden- crowned and
ruby- crowned tree as the slow
kinglets. These tiny dawn broke over a
bird's are even smaller
than a chickadee. frost - covered
Shelter Island and Sag, world.'
Harbor both came up
with bluebirds and
hermit thrushes that somehow live through our winters
here on -the East End. Almost everyone reported robins.
Our group at Orient saw a flock of 30 or more. Some
found catbirds and towhees in the more protected
places. Then there were cowbirds, grackles, red - winged
blackbirds and, of course, all the common winter birds.
Our highlight was a grey- cheeked thrush that is so rare
we have not yet confirmed it. Hopefully, a special trip
to see the bird again will help do just that.
With help from the director of Orient State Park, who
provided us with transportation, we were able to add
black - bellied plovers, turnstones and dunlin to our list,
while one group on Shelter Island found a lone yel-
lowlegs. All these are shorebirds and should have gone
south but somehow have survived the winter so far.
I wish I could tell you our total number but we
haven't heard from everyone as yet. Hopefully next
week we'll be able to give you that figure.
Russell E. Mann
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