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April 19, 2001 - New bird reconnects old friends6A • The Suffolk Times • April 19, 2001 New bird reconnects old friends Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh This Hudsonian godwit is a relative of and similar to the rare black - tailed godwit seen this week feed- ing at a pond in Eastport. If it were not for Paul Gillen of Cutchogue, many great birders not only from Long Island but from around the state and beyond might never have gotten to see that rare sight. was particular) gratified to see the young people in their 20s and 30s' aglow with the thrill of seeing a "life" bird. CUTCHOGUE WAS ON THE MAP AS FAR as the bird world went last week when Paul Gillen of New Suffolk Avenue located one of the rare, rare birds over in Eastport. It has occasionally been seen in the United States but never before in New York State. People came from all over New York, New Jersey and Connecticut plus other states, I'm sure, after hearing the news on the hotline of the bird world, "The Rare Bird Alert" (1- 212 - 979 - 3070). They came to see a once -in -a- lifetime Eurasian visitor, the black - tailed godwit, a large, colorful shorebird with mottled brick -red body Focus and long bill and legs. We have occasionally seen ON the Hudsonian godwit and the NATURE marbled godwit passing through here on migration, but by Paul never before has there been a StOutenburgh sighting of this black - tailed godwit. Paul Gillen located this unusual shorebird on one of his birding trips to Eastport on the south shore. He called me and I immediately canceled my plans for the day and picked him up to visit the site. When we got to Eastport the roadside was jammed with parked cars of people who had gath- ered to look at this rare visitor. There was much camaraderie among the 30 -plus people who had gathered with their tripods, scopes and binoculars, all focusing on this unusual visitor. There were warm congratulations all around to Paul for his find. Old friends from the bird world mingled and chatted: Paul Buckley, Jim Clinton and Bob Adamo, to name a few, along with many others whom I have worked with for years on various bird counts and birding trips. I was particularly gratified to see the young people in their 20s and 30s aglow with the thrill of seeing a "life" bird. Many birding people keep a list of all the species they see. A new addition to their "life list" is a special occasion and this black - tailed godwit surely was just that. The bird was feeding waist -deep in a muddy pond between the railroad tracks and Montauk Highway. It was so busy probing that its head was underwater most of the time. Only occasionally would we see the full bird stand up and look around, exposing its long bill. Focusing their binoculars and scopes on the attrac- tion of the day was to these bird people like seeing a favorite sports persona ity or a famous movie star up close. It was a rare treat. How this bird arrived on Long Island is hard to say, for it is rare anywhere along our coast. It had ti have come from one of the three groups that more normally are found in Europe, Iceland or Asia; we'll never know. He'll never tell. Let's go from our rarest of rare birds, the black - tailed R-odwit, to one of the most common birds we have in our back yard, the robin. This bird is actual- ly a thrush. It is the largest.of the thrush family and, as everyone knows, it arrives here early in the spring. It's found throughout the whole continent of North America during the summer and every back yard seems to have its own robin. They return to the general area of nesting each year and so if you had a nest in your evergreens last year, you probably will find the robin nesting nearby this year. It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin (and I remind you that our state bird in New York is the bluebird). The males arrive first in March, starting the trek north from their wintering grounds in the south following aver- age temperatures of about 37 degrees. As I mentioned, the males arrive first and once on their nesting ground start to defend it. Many's the call I'll get this year as I have other years from people telling me of robins flying at their windows. They see their reflection in the win- dow or in the shiny chrome parts of your car and try to beat off the reflected competitor. The best way to overcome this problem is to drape some- thing over the shiny surface for a week or so. Probablv the robin's nest is the first nest we all get a chance to see as kids. It's a bulky affair made up of mud and grasses, the inner layer being very fine grass. Since their pastel -blue eggs are so well known, you often hear the color referred to as "robin's -egg blue." We've all watched the robin feeding as it goes across the lawn, running and stopping, tilting its head and then perhaps driving its beak into the ground for that luscious worm. For ages it was dis- puted whether the robin "heard" the worm or "saw" the worm as it tilted its head before it probed below. Many scientific studies have gone into solv- ing this problem and the researchers say it's all through vision, not sound or hearing as many had thought. The robin, of course, eats the worms from our lawns but also chooses from a wide variety of insects and fruit. The robin lays its eggs, usually four in number, and then incubates them between 12 and 14 days. Then in just about two weeks the young are ready to fly. Robins usually have two broods and some- times three, which is one reason they are so abun- dant. They grow quite old, one banded bird living to 11 years and eight months, and a captive bird lived 17 years. These days we can hear that loud liquid song of the robin, particularly in the early morning: "Cheerily cheer -up cheerio." It's one of the wonder- ful sounds of spring.