April 09, 2009 - Concluding highlights of Florida sojournSUFFOLKTIMES.COM I APRIL 9, 2009 1 13A
Concluding highlights of Florida sojourn
This will be my last article from the
land of sunshine here in Florida. The
weather has been good to us, with only
a few cloudy days and one rainy one.
My notebook still has pages of notes
that I wanted to share with you, but
time has run out Before leaving my
notebook completely, I'd like to tell you
about one of my favorite birds —the
magnificent frigatebird, or man-of -war
— and an orange grove we visited.
Frigatebirds are dark - colored birds
about the size of our crow. They can
be identified by the crook in their
long, thin wings and their long,
forked tail. They are never found
walking around on land; their feet are
small and only used for perching and
FOCUS ON NATURE
PAUL STOUTENBURGH
nest building in bushes and trees in
tropical climates. They are creatures
of the air, for that is where they get
their food by stealing from others.
This frigatebird is seen only oc-
casionally down here, drifting along
on the thermals with hardly a wing
beat What it is doing is looking for a
meal at someone else's expense. One
might even call it highway robbery.
That's the bad side of this glider in the
sky. It's all in the game of playing how
to get a free meal by just swooping in
and taking someone else's prize. I've
also seen them pick up flying fish try-
ing to escape from a predator.
I've seen this type of pirating in the
sky in the waters off Pete's Neck in Ori-
ent, where a bald eagle swooped down
on an osprey that was flying to its nest
with a fish. It harassed the osprey until
it gave up its catch in midair, which
the bald eagle caught before the fish
dropped to the surface below. It was a
great view of raw nature at its best It
was also a great way to see how much
bigger an eagle is than an osprey.
We did something that's been on
our list of things to do down here for a
long time: We visited an orange grove.
We were interested to see how and
when the oranges are picked and how
they are processed into juice, while the
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It was also interesting to see
how the oranges are occasionally
protected from freezing. We saw
some of the old smudge pots they
used and the tall windmill-like struc-
tures that were used to circulate the air
at one time. Today overhead sprinkler
irrigation systems are used to protect
the trees when a freeze is coming.
Needless to say, we found an
orange grove near us and had a most
interesting visit there with friends. As
we were driven through on the tram,
we noticed, wandering among the
small orange trees, cattle egrets prob-
ing for insects among the fallen fruit
Justin Matthew, who runs his Mat-
thew's Wildlife Rescue and keeps some
of his animals and birds at the grove,
drove us around and explained things
about the grove. Then he stopped by
and showed us some of his rehabilitat-
ed animals and birds and shared sto-
ries ofhow they came to be there. The
ones that cannot be rehabilitated and
returned to the wild will be kept there
and used for educational purposes.
Some of those in his care were
a raccoon, a deer, an opossum, a
large and a small alligator, a great
horned owl and a red - shouldered
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PAUL STOUfENSURGH PHOTO
Frigatebirds are notorious for
their in -air pirating of food from
other birds. They also resort to
stealing material for nesting.
hawk But the one that stole the show
was a large boa constrictor that im-
mediately made friends with Barbara.
Like our vineyards at home, the or-
ange groves are used for weddings and
other special occasions. They were
setting up for a wedding by a little
pond at the rock waterfall when we
visited. While Barbara thought she was
photographing a snowy egret, as she
looked closer into the camera, there
beside the egret sat a female mottled
duck The two of them seemed to be
overlooking the occasion.
On the tour of the facility the sweet
smell of orange blossoms filled the
air. That sweet scent of blossoms
reminded me of how, during the war
years, when our ship was nearing
the tropical islands of Hawaii, the
perfume from the blossoms could be
detected miles from shore.
Our tour of the orange grove
proved to be interesting and exciting.
It was probably one of our last ad-
ventures here in the land of sunshine
as we return back home to welcome
spring on the North Fork
AUCE RNKLE PHOTO
On our orange -grove tram tour we stopped
at an animal rehabilitation center, where
we saw a variety of animals, including a boa
constrictor that made friends with Barbara
Motorcoach Service between
The North Fork & New York City
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