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May 31, 2001 - Rainy day reflections6A • The Suffolk Times • May 31, 2001 Rai* ny da HOW DID YOU LIKE ALL THE rain We had last week? I haven't seen it rain like that since I was in the service in New Guinea years ago. It rained so hard cars had to pull off to the side of the road because of poor visibility. The wipers couldn't take the Focus water off the windshield fast ON enough. NATURE A rain of that sort can really by Paul create problems. Stoutenburgh Water doesn't have a chance to percolate into the ground and therefore we get rivers of water, moving rivers of soil that cause erosion in farm fields, driveways, back yards and any place that is on an incline where water can run off. We are lucky here on Long Island, as we don't have the flooding problems like those people who live along the rivers to our west. Locally here on the East End we have the problem of road runoff. Many rains run into our creeks at some place along the way and like erosion that takes the soil away, the rainwater washes pesticides and herbi cider and poisonous chemicals into our creeks. Eventually these pollu- tants get into our shellfish and that's why our creeks are often closed to shellfishing after it rains. Heavy rains often have a devastat- ing effect on wildlife. It comes in the form of flooding out rabbit nests and small bird nests and others, It even reflection Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh The kingfisher we hear rattling along our creeks and bay fronts fishes from a high perch above his prey, which is usually killies or other small fish. It nests in holes in the banks along our bayfront. reaches our osprey nests. The prob- lem with heavy rains is that the osprey nests are usually built on an old nest where material has been added year after year, making the bottom impervious. The rainwater collects in the nest and the parent bird In can't keep the eggs ou warm, therefore we lose pl y our ospreys even before Pa they hatch. But should Pr the eggs have already hatched when we get be the heavy prolonged th e rains, the young get wet of and cold and soon die. lat It's all part of the world Th they live in and part of Pip the heartaches that can often go unseen. But wa there is a good side to alo rain, for without it farm intr fields would dry up, is a lawns would turn brown wat and some of our choic- est plants would die off. pipi Before we leave the not subject of water and Pan rain, let's review some do facts. The water we get and out of our faucet, just whether it comes from a can pump on your property sup or is piped in from what we call "city water" from a hookup, all comes from under- neath the ground right here on the North Fork and nowhere else. Think of it this way:; When it rains the water runs into the ground and is collected in a great sand and gravel pool down below. It's kept in this pool by salt water - Long Island Sound to our north and the bay to the south of us. between these two bodies of water r fresh water lies. It's our only sup- and that is the reason we are so rticular about taking care of this ecious resource. This valuable water supply has en tainted, not intentionally, but by use of pesticides, insecticides and her toxic materials that have perco- ed down into our groundwater. is is why is some places we have to e in water so that the homeowner be assured of good drinking ter for home use. There are areas ng the shoreline where saltwater usion has become a problem and nother reason for having to pipe in My concern here is that some of the ng that is going on in our town is justified, as it only opens up dora's Box for development. This me of water I speak of is limited there have been studies done on how much development our town handle. In normal times, when the ply of rainwater exceeds the water usage by humans, we have a surplus in the dome of water beneath us. (On the other hand, should it be reversed and the need surpasses the supply we would be in trouble.) All fresh water runs toward the sound or bays or creeks; it sort of acts as an overflow. Many of you have been swimming in our bays and creeks in the summer when the water is warm and then you come across a cold spot. This is that overflow of fresh water running out into the salt water. It's this fresh water that blends with the bay water that makes this Peconic Estuary such a valuable resource for our fish and shellfish and without this blend we'd lose the pro- ductivity of our bays and creeks. A Hungry Kingrisher While working on this article during the rain we had an interesting experi- ence I'd like to share with you. We have a large pic- ture window that looks out across our lawn and into our pasture. Just below the window, not more than a foot and a half away from the house, we have a small fish pond, one of those black plastic ponds that you drop in the groun for goldfish. At any rate, as we were sitting there working and watch- ing the rain, Barbara happened to catch a rare visitor sitting on our pic- nic table not six feet from the pond. It was a kingfisher. Now we all know the kingfisher is that bluish bird with the long bill and big crest on its head that flies up our creeks and bays in hopes of dining a meal of a killie or some other small fish. And that's just what this fellow was doing. He was looking for a meal of my,goldfish. Kingfishers usually are found perched on a mooring, piling or telephone wire, scanning below for the slightest movement of an unsus- pecting killie for its next meal. And there he sat - ors the picnic table - watching for the next goldfish to show itself for lunch. How he located our little pond alongside our house in the woods on a rainy day has us baffled. Needless to say, we quickly got out an old screen and laid it over our little goldfish pond. Perhaps this will deter him. Onlv time will tell.