September 06, 2001 - A voice from the pastSeptember 6, 2001 • The Suffolk Times • 7A
voice
om the
This sketch, along with the storycby Harolde pea Evans a Puleston of Brookhaven
In the Riverhead News - Review Sunday edition. ppeared 40 years ago
Plover sighting
rekindles some
old memories
YEARS AGO, WHEN BARBARA and I
both worked in Riverhead and I was
on the road all day selling, I always
had a pair of binoculars in the truck
so I wouldn't miss anything in the nat.
ural world. Today our son is on the
road in his business, and whenever he
comes across some interect;no �;,,h+,._
gives me a call and we head out to see
it. Just this week he called to say:
"Dad, I just saw
a flock of 50 or
Focus so plovers on a
ON newly planted
sod field. They
NATURE looked like
by Paul mostly black -bel
Stoutenburgh lied plovers with
possibly some
golden plovers
mixed in." It didn't take us long to
gather binoculars and cameras and we
�Xe K
ago when I wrote Focus on Nature for
which he works in the shallow water
The News - Review in Riverhead and
seeking small insects. He has no fear
had guest writers. One of those writ-
of cattle, so by staying near them I car
ers was Harold Evans, farmer, teacher
approach him within 50 feet.
and poet in the Riverhead area, who
"Most birds have little fear of any -
left us long before his time. We have
thing not resembling a vertical biped,
researched our files and found the
so a man on a tractor or other
article, which we feel you will enjoy
machine, no matter how noisy, can get
reading, along with the sketch that
quite close. Among those I have seen
accompanied it, done by the well-
at close range from the vantage of a
known naturalist Dennis Puleston,
tractor seat are upland, black- bellied,
who just recently passed away.
golden and semi - palmated plovers,
RIVERHEAD, NY —THE SUN-
pectoral sandpipers, ruddy turnstones,
DAY REVIEW, NOV 19.1961—
water pipits, horned larks, grasshop-
(Harold Evans, guest writer)
per and Savannah sparrows, herring,
"According to one definition, a
ring- billed and great black- backed
farmer is a man who is outstanding in
gulls and many others.
his own `field.' Anyone can see that
"After years of looking at the gulls
this gives him a good opportunity to
which surround us during plowing and
observe the birds which are there. He
potato- digging I differentiate between
is out day after day in all weathers
the similar herring and ring - billed
and seasons and is able to see num-
gulls by the `expression of their face.'
bers and species which people in other
I have seen traces of the delicate gold
walks of life seldom, if
of the golden plover, an
ever, see. ' As near as I the rosy shading on the
"Unfortunately, very
Can figure,
horned lark's head. The
I
few farmers appreciate
latter can't be seen in a
their opportunity. And have seen about book, neither can their
so, a large flight of gold- 160 species high, melodious song
en plovers is passed off
as a `flock of doves' and without
which is everywhere in
leaving the fields in the spring.
an avocet `must be a the farm.' "Last year the plovers
snipe.' — Harold Evans, 1961 were especially numer -
"For twenty years I
ous, and there were liter -
have been farming north
ally hundreds of golden
of Riverhead on land which includes
and black - bellied plovers in the bare
Sound shore, woods, orchard, pasture
fields late in October. Somehow a
and pond as well as the large open
stay -at -home gets a thrill when he sees
fields characteristic of this area.
these beautiful birds which travel
During this time it has been very
almost the length of the earth twice a
interesting to see the great variety of
year. Probably no other creature sees
birds that visit here. Some are really
so little darkness.
rare, and some only rare to the
"During October and November
observer who cannot be in the right
flocks of water pipits accompany the
place at the right time.
potato harvester. These are small,
"The latest visitor, a real rarity, is an
drab- colored birds that fly with the
avocet, which, as I write, is happily
abandon of leaves in the wind. This
feeding in the pond behind the barn.
habit alone can identify a flock. They
The records show that avocets are
nest on the Arctic tundra and so our
rare east of the Mississippi. This is a
brown fields must seem familiar to
beautiful. lone- leeged. white bird with
them. They can also be seen along the
pons euge, but their color makes
them nearly invisible.
"In the spring the swallows cruise
around the moving tractors catching
the insects aroused by the machine.
Most of them are barn swallows, but
at times the tree swallows are numer
ous and occasionally a rough- winged
swallow is seen. These latter are usu-
ally the first ones I see in the spring
and are Me ones t1lat nest on the
Sound banks.
"One recent fall, I came across a
night hawk sleeping the day off in my
cauliflower field. I got my camera, an(
got a picture of him from a four -foot
distance before he flew. The beautiful
fine markings on his feathers must be
seen to be appreciated.
"Other farm visitors have been cat-
tle egrets, both in spring and fall,
mockingbird (this October singing al-
most continually), glossy ibis, sooty
tern (during hurricane Donna), sum-
mer tanager, cardinal, orchard oriole,
snow geese, snow bunting and dickcis
sel.
"I have not mentioned the ducks
and other water birds seen from the
Sound beach, the many warblers and
wood birds seen from time to time, or
,the hawks and vultures. As near as I
can figure, I have seen about 160
species without leaving the farm.
"Long Island is rich in bird life, and
anyone who is interested and obser-
vant can see a wider variety than can
be tseen in almost any other area in
e country."
Now you can see why I was remind-
ed of Harold's article the other day
when my son called to tell me of the
50 or so black - bellied and golden
plovers he had seen in a newly sodded
farm field. As we watched and tried tc
identify these plovers, our minds went
back to the article that Harold had
written about seeing these same
plovers from his tractor on the farm
40 years ago, when he wrote this arti-
cle as guest writer for Focus on
Nature. I guess it reminds us that
while some things change, some things