April 24, 2008 - Focusing on the familiarThe Suffolk Times • April 24, 2008 O C U s 1 n
on the familiar
Suffolk Times photos by Paul Stoutenburgh
Above: Vernal ponds, like the one above with its last remnant of winter's ice, are crucial to creatures such as salaman-
ders, who rely on them for mating and laying eggs. Below left: The spotted salamander, which lives in damp places.
Below right: The eggs in this gelatinous mass will eventually mature to adult salamanders that will leave their watery
home to seek a moist habitat, where they'll live on small bugs and worms. By summertime the vernal ponds they
started out in will dry up.
to
the business of writing, but if you sit
back and let your mind wander a little,
things will finally fall into place. Recent-
ly an old tune, with the words "in all the
old, familiar places," came to mind, and
that's just where we have been looking
since we returned from Florida.
What we saw in some of these "old
familiar places" was reassuring that the
world was running right. Case in point,
we looked out our bedroom window
and saw an eastern phoebe snatching
tiny insects from the air. You'd won-
der how a small bird like that could
live on such a
Focus meager diet
and what could
O N have caused it
to migrate from
NATURE the warm areas
by Paul in the South to
the inhospitable,
Stoutenburgh dreary weather
we've had here.
Nevertheless there it was, with its tail
bobbing, as we watched it fly out for an
insect and then back, fly out again and
then return to its perch. That spurred
us on to look for other things that were
Our two resident red - tailed hawks
have been cavorting on the high winds
blowing. out of the north. It's mating
time for them, which means showing -
off time. In between their dives and
glides, one breaks away and lands on
top of the windmill. This tall structure
seems to be-a favorite spot not only for
our red tails but for our ospreys as well.
By now all of you, I'm sure, have seen
your favorite osprey. Keep an eye out
as they rebuild their nests. The winter
winds have played havoc with them. .
Of course we had to visit the "old
familiar" Long Island Sound, which was
wild with white caps. With our glasses
we searched but found few birds. We
did see five mergansers and one lone
white - winged scoter. At one time,
back in the '60s, scoters flocked by the
hundreds off Mattituck Inlet. Evidently
there must have been some sort of .
food that drew them there; whether it
was small clams, mussels or something
else, I don't know. Something had to
have been there to draw such a large
number of scoters.
It always amazes me how these rug-
ged sea ducks can swallow a -whole
mussel or clam and have it crushed
by their gizzard, thereby exposing
the good parts. There are two other
scoters you might want to look for;
the surf scoter, which has a bold white
blotch on the back of its head, and
the all -dark scoter called — yes, you
guessed it — the black scoter.
Years ago there was an active group
of duck hunters that would trailer
their boats up to the Sound and string
them across the early - morning flight
path of the scoters and anchor there.
Here they would lie in the bottom
of their boat (which usually leaked),
then, as the scoters flew by, they would
shoot at them in hopes of hitting one.
What with the rocking boat and the
usual strong north wind, few scoters
(known locally as coots) succumbed to
those energetic duck hunters.
In our creeks there are still some
bufflehead ducks around — those
beautiful little black- and -white "but -
terballs" that glean'our creek bot-
toms all winter long: They will soon
be leaving for the woodlands to the
north, where they'll look for a tree
with a cavity to lay their eggs. Seems
Ad for a duck to nest in a tree! Yet
we do have our colorful wood duck
hat also nests in a cavity and doesn't
lave to be near water. There are many
ecords of wood ducks walking long
listances with their clutch of young
lefore finally reaching the safety of
pen water.
A careful observer will notiee that
me crows are starting to pair up, getting
ready to build their stick nest high in a
tree. It's a time when crows become se-
cretive and quiet. We had a pair nesting
in our woods last year. This all reminds
me of the pet crow the Quogue Wildlife
Refuge had that would greet people. It
would call out "Hello," "Hello," in the
clearest voice you can imagine. It was
fun just watching people walk into the
compound and answer with a "Hello,"
"Hello," all the time searching for the
mysterious caller.
In one of the vernal ponds we passed
.in our search for "old familiar places,"
we found a gelatinous mass of eggs at-
tached to a twig underwater. On rainy
nights, when the conditions are just
right, salamanders come out of their
hiding and head for one of these vernal
ponds to mate and lay their eggs. These
shallow ponds, which eventually dry up
in the summer, serve a vital role in the
salamander's fife cycle. Here the eggs
slowly develop through various stages
into adult salamanders, and then on
a damp or misty night they move out
on their own. Few people realize that
wet areas like these are essential for
salamanders and others to breed.
This white- winged scoter was
tangled in some old fish line. Luck-
ily, we came along and untangled
it and set it free. The best place to
see these rugged sea ducks is off
Montauk Point, where in some years
they feed on mussel beds by the