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January 31, 2002 - 'Goof-off day' is good for the soulSuffolk Times • January 31, 2002 'Goof -off day' is good for the soul Times /Review BARBARA AND I DECIDED that every once in a while we should take a "goof -off day," a day you just do whatever happens to come along. We'd lock up the house with all its work: washing, cleaning, piles of paperwork, Medicare forms, letters to write and all those things that clutter up your life. We'd take a camera and binoculars and just head out. Our two favorite escapes are the won- derful roads of Orient and Dune Road on the south side to Shinnecock Inlet. We set the date and, to and behold, the weather forecasters told us there was going to be Focus rain, but that didn't matter to us. Our goof -off day ON works for us no matter what NATURE the weather turns out to be. We had helped put up an by Paul osprey platform a week or Stoutenburgh so ago in a location that was just pure beach sand. I was a little concerned that the supports we put around the pole might give way in a strong wind, so I wanted to go back there and put in some extra supports, just in case. I had previously scrounged up some scrap wood together with nails, hammer and shovel, so we were now ready to revisit the site. It sure looked like rain. Every once in a while we'd see a few sprinkles on the windshield, but the osprey gods were looking out for them. The rain held off and let us get our extra supports in the sand so that the osprey platform would now be much more secure, and I felt better about its future. With that little job out of our way, we packed up our gear and headed for Shinnecock We were surprised to see in Hampton Bays what looked like a huge new shopping center going up. Once again a small town is being devastated by big business. But that's another story. We put those thoughts behind us and were soon within sight of the Ponquogue Bridge that connects the outer beach to Hampton Bays. Our stomachs told us we were approaching noon and so we stopped at one of the fish markets you come to just before the bridge. We ordered crab cakes, monkfish medallions and french fries to take out. With these goodies we drove over the bridge, and then turned into a park- ing lot on the bay just below the bridge. We sat there and watched the ducks and gulls as we indulged in our hot fish takeout lunch. What a pleasant way to spend a rainy noon. Winter ducks enjoy the day The red - breasted merganser ducks were diving nearby. In between the dives they were chasing each other. I wasn't sure whether it was because one of them took the other's choice findings or if with this mild weather we were seeing some courtship rituals beginning to take place. They surely were busy dashing about. Through my binoculars I could see black ducks way oft to the south, maybe 150 o them tucked up under the bank to get out of the wind. It was good to see their big dark bodies. This duck is having a difficult time making it and Its numbers have dropped dramatically. It's probably one of the prime ducks on the hunters' list and because of its low numbers, only one, is allowed to be taken each day. I can remember 60 years ago when black ducks were plentiful. We'd come home with four or five after spending a cold and miserable day in a soggy duck blind. Those were youthful days, but back to our lunch, which we polished off in no time. Then we headed out to the nearby Shinnecock Inlet. We were supposed to find a huge bulkhead construction job going on at the north end of the parking lot. We scanned the inlet, where usually we see Bonaparte's gulls, mergansers and maybe some rare visitor from the north. But we saw nothing, absolutely nothing. Could it be the noise of the con- struction had scared everything away? We scanned the ocean in hopes of seeing gannets or perhaps a guillemot, but no, nothing was there except the usual gulls, and they were sitting on the beach dis- gusted with the rain that was now coming down pretty hard. And so we headed west back along Dune Road, where we hoped to find the snowy owl that had recently been reported or perhaps to see that hard -to -spot marsh bird, the bittern, that we had seen along here some years ago. As we traveled along slowly, a car passed with a familiar face in it. It was Paul Gillen of Mattituck, an ardent birder, and his wife. We followed them and met at the end of a road where we rolled down our windows and discussed the bird world. Off to see 'George' Paul told us about a lesser black- backed gull, a rare gull from Europe that occasionally visits our shores. He and his wife call it "George" because they see it so often hanging around the fishing boats at the big commercial dock. Well, that did it! We hadn't seen it, so after swapping a few yarns, Barbara and I headed back. Sure enough, we found George, the lesser black - backed gull, that visitor from Europe that has taken up residency at the commercial dock. Our goof -off day was proving to be kind of neat. We kept the windshield wipers going and turned on a little heat so we were perfectly con- tent to ride slowly along Dune Road to see if we could find anything else. On one of the side roads that headed north, we found a dunlin, a small shorebird, trying to find something to eat along the water's edge. It is easily recognized if you can get close enough, because it has a slight downward curve to its rather long bill. That was nice to see. We again headed west. Then Barbara's sharp eyes picked up an American bittern feeding in a shallow ditch along the side of the road. This area is a good place to find this fairly large marsh bird, whose call is like the sound of a stake being poun.e into a mu ..y .og. "e very rarely see this bittern on the North Fork but can almost always find one along Dune Road. And so with a few quick photographs we said adieu to our bittern and proceeded westward. Soon we came into the conglomerate of huge modern beach homes. It seemed like we were dri- ving along some canyon wall with these domineer- ing extravaganzas all about us. Most are on the ocean side. Seeing there isn't any more room there, they are gradually working their way along the other side of the road now. The only buildings that pleased our eyes were those few little cabins that still remain from years ago. Those were the days when you could pull your car off the side of the road and go up over the dunes and jump in the ocean. Those were wonderful carefree days of ocean picnics and swimming. Of course, that's all gone now and if you are lucky today you can pay a fee and get into a parking lot and mix with the multitudes. By now time had crept up on us so we headed home. We wound through Westhampton and back across the island to our familiar north shore. Our goof -off day was a breath of fresh air. It's something everyone should do. It breaks the routine of mun- dane things. Try it. I think you'll like it.