May 24, 2007 - The mighty mud puddle4'
The Suffolk Times • May 24, 2007 migh ty
7 mud
1
puddle
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This is about a mud puddle and I
how important it can be when the
chips are down. First some back-
ground material. From Riverhead to
Orient sod farms continually crop up
in fields that once grew the famous
Long Island potatoes. This change
from potatoes to sod changed the
way the soil was prepared. Rather
than the rough, furrowed land the
potato grower used, it is now worked
into a flat,
smooth, grassy
Focus field.
These condi-
ON tions set the
NATURE stage for erosion
that would not
by Paul have taken place
StOutenburgh if potatoes were
grown on the
land. Now when
pn ✓;,i ��M � f y
Muddy ponds of water at low
spots attract all kinds of birds
and animals. Above, a small
flock of least sandpipers stops
off on the annual migration
north to nesting grounds. In
the background can be seen
the more common Canada
geese and our common herring
gull that frequent these wet
spots.
we nave neavy rains, wnere the Lana
slopes, often rivers of sand and silt
flow, creating huge puddles of runoff.
When things get back to normal,
these rain - created puddles start to
dry up, and as the land dries out, the
muddy water in these puddles at-
tracts birds and animals of all sorts.
Probably the most noticeable tracks
you will see are the telltale foot- and
handprints of the raccoon. It loves
these muddy places, for here earth-
worms have been forced to the sur-
face and make for easy picking.
These newly created mud puddles
attract many birds. Our common
herring gull is probably the first to
arrive. Here's where gulls and other
birds clean themselves of salt. If you
watch them closely, you'll see they do
a pretty good job of wetting them-
selves with the fresh water of the
puddle.
Hiong witn the guns are the geese.
I see them working the muddy water
as if they were getting something to
eat. Could be seeds that were picked
up by the runoff and deposited here,
or worms, or something else that
nourishes them.
The birds and animals that I've
spoken about are fairly common.
What was not so common recently
was a short visit by a flock of 20 or
more "peeps." This is the name given
to a unique group of extra -small
shorebirds. We only see them as they
pass through on their spring and fall
migrations.
There's one bird in particular that
I have special admiration for. It's
the smallest of all shorebirds in the
world. It is called the least sandpiper.
These little puffs of feather spend
their winter in South America.
Remember, we're talking about
a shorebird only a bit larger than a
sparrow. Along with thousands of
others, they face what seems to me
insurmountable odds of storms, rain,
cold, bright lights, wires and other
obstacles that man has used in his
pursuit of progress. Then add the
natural predators such as hawks and
a hundred other unseen hazards and
you start to realize what a journey
the word "migration" implies.
All along the way these migrants
of the bird world must stop to rest,
find food to keep their body going
and hopefully find the same general
area thev used a vear aeo to refresh
least sand
stopover areas are
becoming harder and
harder to find.
tnemselves. these stopover areas are
becoming harder and harder to find,
as man changes the natural habitat.
New roads and houses are replacing
the once pristine seacoast, making it
almost impossible for these and othe:
shorebirds to survive.
Yet there seems to be some ho e
as the world starts
to realize we aren't
the only ones on this
planet and, in order
to survive, there has
to be a compromise
where both man and
the environment can live in armony.
This takes on new meaning when we
.00k seriously at such things as global
varming, loss of our fisheries, air pol-
ution, and the simple act of smoking
i cigarette. Look at any disaster and
ve can see man's impact on the land,
n the sea, in the air we breathe, the
Let's go back to the mud puddle,
where we started. Many of our nutri-
ent- producing wetlands have been
filled, so our migrating shorebirds
have to look for new refueling stops.
Luckily they found an oasis in a most
unusual spot where they could refuel
and rest before they started out once
again for their nest-
ing grounds in the far
north. Just how long
they will be lucky
enough to find these
"watering holes" is
anyone's guess. When
the real estate business builds up and
the land is subdivided into building
lots ... well, you know the story; it's
all around us.
Here's an interesting tidbit about
a 2- year -old least sandpiper that was
banded on its nest on Sable Island of
Nova Scotia on July 22,1970, and was
recaptured on its nest at basically the
same location 15 years later on June
8, 1985. This put the age of this small-
est of shorebirds at 17 years.
What makes it so interesting to me
is that I was one of the naturalists
aboard a Lindblad cruise along the
Maritime Provinces and one of the
stops was to Sable Island, that grave-
yard of the north Atlantic. It was
a rare treat to visit this windswept,
sandy island with its wild horses and
abundant seals. It makes me wonder,
could any of these least sandpipers
that were feeding in the mud puddle
on a sod farm here wind up on Sable
Island this year to nest? It's fun to
Note to reader subscribers: For any
' you interested in seeing Focus on
ature photographs in color such
,the rose - breasted grosbeak that
)geared in the May 17 issue of The
iffolk Times and The News Review
to www.suffolktimes.com.
Left: This least san -
piper, smaller than a sparrow,
is our smallest shorebird. Last
eek a small flock of them
topped off at a mud puddle
o probe the soft ooze, look -
ing for a source of energy to
take them on their journey
north to their nesting grounds.
They spent the winter in south
America until the urge to mi-
grate headed them north.
Suffolk Times