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June 18, 2009 - Zooming in on three North Fork raritiesSUFFOLKTIMES.COM I JUNE 18, 200 Zooming in on three North Fork rarities When was the last time you saw a box turtle? For me it was about two years ago, when I saved one from bein€ crushed as it attempted to cross one of our busy highways. If you have the occasion to help a turtle crossing the road, always remember to move the turtle to the safety of the road shoulder in the direction it was heading. Recently I saw a young turtle that was trying to get across the highway. We wanted a new turtle photograph for our reference files, so Barbara reached for her camera and started shooting, with the result you see here, I thought this might be a good time to look into the box turtle's back- ground. Box turtles are the only land turtles FOCUS ON NATURE we have. They are very versatile animals and canbe PAUL STOUTENBURGH found in a variety of habitats, from wooded swamps to dry, grassy fields. They are most abundant on healthy land and in moist forested areas with plenty of underbrush. This pretty much accounts for their demise, for man has taken over much of their habitat, and then man's rotary lawn mowers have just about elimi- nated turtles around our homes. We often wonder when looking at a turtle whether it is a male or female. Dne way to tell the difference is by their eye color. The male box turtle asually has very orange or red eyes end the females have brown or light - )range eyes. Turtles grow to a ripe old age and mill eat just about anything that fits in heir mouths. They are slow - growing and have few young. Over their life- time female turtles will lay hundreds A eggs, but only two to three of these offspring will survive to adulthood. PAUL AND BARBARA STOUTENBURGH Box turtles were once the most common animals found on our Fast End. Sorry to say, man's invasive activities such as driving at high speed on the highways and using rotary lawn mow- ers have diminished their numbers Early one morning recently we had a call about a sandhill crane in Orient. Cranes are the tallest of all land birds in our part of the world and for a chance to see one here on the North Fork was enough for Barbara and me to drop ev- erything else, get cameras and binocu- lars together and head for Orient. Dan Latham of Orient, one of my ,rmer students, has seen at least ree of these birds in the past in his rm fields. He told us when he went to the field at 5:30 a.m. that particu r morning he spotted the crane. He aled Rob McGinness, another one my students who has been taking ctures since his early photography asses with me, and Rob quickly tool me shots for identification pur- )ses and then gave us a call. We arrived as soon as we could Rob searched the enough, he spotted the bird again. This handsome bird stands four to five feet tall 91 /2 pounds any has a wingspread of seven feet. Rob took us as close as we felt we could get to take some distance shots and then we carefully slipped away and left the bird alone. When we were in Florida we were able to get much closer to these large sandhill cranes to photograph them. We had also searched out this large crane years ago on a trip out west. T is all-gray bird with re on top of his head and white cheeks passes through the Platte River by the thou- sands on its migration. We had hoped to see the. concentration of cranes there, but we were disappointed by eing too late for that spectacle. While driving-along after dark recently, our son noticed something uttering in the highway. He con- ued driving for a while and then ought it might have been one of the arge luna moths he'd seen before, so e turned around and went back. Sure enough, there in the road was e moth, still moving about. This eautiful green moth is about three o four'inches wide and five to six riches long, including the long tail. oger was able to carefully pick this agile moth up off the road and put t in something to keep it still until he got home. We received a call from him asking if we were interested in photograph- ing it. Of course we were. We hadn't seen or heard of one since the time some young students brought one in a cage to our woods in hopes of luring in a partner. They were trying to find out if there were still any luna moths on the North Fork at the time. They knew if a caged moth was set out in the woods at night it prob- ably would attract another one, since they are able to pick up the scent of another moth from five miles away (hard to believe, but that's what the experts say). We were lucky— by morning we couldn't believe it but there was another luna moth clingin to the side of the cage. Fhis handsome sandhill crane, seen mly a few times over the last few fears on the North Fork, is a thrill to ,ee, if only at a distance. We were a to see there were still na moths here on the North Fork id glad the one our son picked up as still in good shape by the time w( are able to photograph it. When we leased it we were hopeful it would able to find another one. The reason we don t often get to -e these luna moths is that they •e nocturnal (active at night). They y and mate during the night hours id therefore few people ever get see them. Adult luna moths have o mouths. They live for only about week and eat nothing. Their only urpose is to reproduce. Let's hope one day you will have a Nance to see one up close, perhaps ist outside your home near a light there it might stop by for just a bit. s eye- catching green luna moth is attracted lights, so keep your eye out; you may see E! on your screen some night.