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July 24, 2003 - Crab confabs & hidden bitternsThe Suffolk Times • July 24, 2003 rab confabs & hidden bitterns Times /Review photo by Paul Stoutenburgh The American bittern is a master at camouflage. With Its streaks of black and brown, It blends in perfectly with marsh grasses. It's seldom seen here on our East End. Can you see the hidden bittern in the photo at right? THE FUN PART ABOUT writing this article each week is that we learn as much as anyone else does. A perfect example of this is when Hector called from Orient this week and told of windrows of spider crab shells at Petty's Bight on the Sound. That sounded pretty impressive to me, par- ticularly if you know what a windrow is. If you're a farmer, it means FOCUS where the hay is ON turned over in a row to make it NATURE easier to pick up by Paul later. If you're a Stoutenburgh bayman, it's the high -tide line where the loose seaweed and other detritus form a ridee alone the beach. Hector said he'd never seen any- thing like it and thought I might be interested in seeing it. Well, it doesn't take much to move me when some- thing like that comes up. This was something new to us, so before we left we did some research to see why this unusually large mass of spider crab casings was piled on the beach. We found that at a certain time of year spider crabs gather in great num- bers along the coast, where they all shed their shells. Then after they shed, they mate and go on their way. In researching about them, we read that divers had gone down to see this mass gathering of spider crabs and had actually taken pictures to prove this spectacular sieht of eatherine crabs. the pictures showed the crabs p one on top of the other as far as the eye could see. We theorize what had happened in this case on the Sound beach was that the empty shells, now light, washed ashore, piling up in hug( windrows. We found that in some countries spider crabs are eaten just like we eat blue crabs. We actually found a recipe in a book from Ruth Cooke for stuffed spider crabs that they make in Spain. That is actually a different spi- der crab, but it was interesting to read about. As yet they haven't taken any- one's fancy around here. And besides, the spider crabs we see are too small and wouldn't have much meat in them. Hector had gotten to see a greater number of spider crab shells than we did, but the high spring tides with the full moon had probably washed 90% of them away by the time we got there. We found remnants of them all along the beach but nothing like what Hector must have seen earlier. What a sight that must have been. One more fascinating aspect of marine life along our East End shores. The spider crab is quite common in our bays, creeks and Sound. You'll find these spider -like crabs plodding slowly along on the bottom, grubbing for anything they can find to eat. Some of them actually have seaweed and barnacles, etc., on their shells. It helps to camouflage them from preda- tors. Lobstermen or any other person Avho sets traps dislike spider crabs,, )ecause they go into the traps and eat the bait. That was an interesting episode from Orient. Thank you, Hector. Another interesting call came from Larry, who lives near the creek. He had taken a walk in the evening down by the marsh when he heard an unbe- lievable sound. In the 25 years he's lived around the creek, he had never heard anything like it. I asked him to describe the call. He said it went, "Ka thump, ka thump, ka thump." That could mean only one thing to me: the American bittern. This is a marsh bird almost two feet tall that's found mostly in freshwater marshes, but it also visits our saltwater marshes. I've only seen it two or three times in our creeks here. The best place to see one is along Dune Road over on the south shore during the winter. For some reason there are always a few bitterns that stay around, something like the great blue herons. Most of the bitterns and herons migrate south but a few stay around and eke out a living along the marsh edge. I've photographed them right from my car along the road. They blend in so well with the brown wint salt hay that it's hard to pick them When my friend heard the call or >umping" of the bittern, it might the been one that was nesting, but I )ubt it. I think it was a non - breeding rd that he heard. The typical ascription you will find in books is at the call sounds like someone iving a stake into a marsh: "Oong- A- chunk! repeated a few times and edible for a good distance. The sound ves it names like "thunder- pumper" id "stake driver." The reason we probably see this rd so seldom is that it's a master of mouflage. There are streaks of -own and black from its bill to its ally on a background of cream-and- -own feathers. When the American ttern stands still and raises its bill to e sky it sometimes sways slowly sion of waving reeds. It blends in so perfectly with the grasses around it, most observers will walk right by without even noticing it's there, as we once did. It happened in Florida. Barbara and I had stopped at a place called Shark Valley. I'm sure many of you have been there. We had our bicycles along and rode the whole route out through this huge marsh area with its alligators and birds of all sorts along the trail. There's a long, straight canal and roadway that were made by an oil com any looking for "liquid gold." They never found the liq- uid gold but dug the canal miles out into the Everglades. At its end is an island with a tall obser- vation tower where you can overlook the endless miles of tropical marsh. It's a pretty neat place to go, but watch out for the alligators that sun them- selves on the roadway. We were pedaling along. I was ahead and Barbara was bringing up the rear. She called to me and I stopped. When she came up to me she aid, "Did you see the bittern?" Well, hat's one we hadn't seen on the trip o I said, "Let's go back and take its icture." Well, we went back but with ut anything to mark the spot, we ouldn't find that bittern no matter ow many times we went back and forth by the area. I'm sure we went right by it many times. It just goes to how how beautifully camouflaged the American bittern can be. There's really not too much written about the bittern. We checked the books we have and the computer, of course, but got little information. However, bitterns, which can be quite large, will eat just about anything that moves — a toad, a snake, a fish or a frog. They feed along the marsh edge. If you ever hear that strange pumping call when you're near the marsh, you've probably heard an American bittern, one of the great birds to find here on our East End.