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January 22, 1998 - Windows: Threat to Winged Wildlife6A • The Suffolk Times • January 22, 1998 Windows: Threat to Winged Wildlife Outside my bedroom windows are two old rhododendrons, their leaves curled up lengthwise telling me it's cold out there. This curling up of the leaves is to con- serve water by making a humid chamber under the leaf during the cold, dry spells of winter. These rhododendrons were planted some 40 years ago. Their Focus trunks are like small trees and on we've cut them back time and time Nature again to prevent them from taking by Paul over. Rhododen- stoutenburgh drons love the acid soil that is so prevalent here in our woods. It's an ideal setting for them. As I sit here writing I hear a "thud" on the back picture window. It can mean only one thing: A bird has flown into it. Barbara turns from her chores in the kitchen and goes to investigate. I hear a concerned "Ohhhhhh" as she stoops over and picks up the casualty. She comes in saying, "It's a whitethroat," one of the winter sparrows that visit our area each year. I take the stunned body in my hand, its limp head showing creamy stripes, one over the center of the head, then one on each side above the eye. Now that I have the bird in my hand I can plainly see the bright yellow patch that is often missed alongside the face. By moving its body I can also see the clear white patch under its chin that it gets its name from, the white - throated sparrow. It's a ground feeder that's often seen under our bird feeder as it eats the seeds spilled from above. The tiny body is pumping away. There's still hope. There's a brief struggle in my hand. The bird's coming to life. I examine its beautiful, soft, brown body. A faint creamy - colored wing bar is the only other distinguishing mark. More strug- gling in my hand. The bird's head is still limp. Is its neck broken? Its beady black eye shines with hope. It's time to make a decision. Where to put it? We'll put it on the back porch away from roaming preda- tors and hope for the best. Outside I cup my hands over the still panting ball of feathers. Slowly I move fail for sooner or later we'll hear that deadly thud and then silence. Yesterday we had to go to South- ampton and whenever we go on one of these out -of -town jaunts we try to take in some of the sights and activities of the area. This time we visited Agawam Park with its big freshwater pond south of the town. We were pleased to see the big con- centration of ruddy ducks there. Usually Let's Look Sack 75 Years Ago Jan. 19, 1923 Advertisements: Eskimo Pies, formerly 10 cents, now five cents apiece at Joseph Schiavoni's in Greenport. You can get a Hoover for $6.75 down and small monthly payments at Van Popering's hardware store. A class for boys, 9 years of age and over, in ballroom danc- ing is being formed. For particulars, phone Mrs. Violet Latham, 58 -F -24. 50 Years Ago Jan. 23, 1948 East Marion News: All East Marioners know what Steepie is. Steepie is a rather large hill for sled riding on the east side of the Kenneth Vail home. It is a popular place for our young people to go. One not -so -young gentleman, who weighs 220 pounds by confession, joined the boys and girls the other day but then, Max is like that, and the young people go for him in a big way. His wife is said to have gotten the lin- iment ready in anticipation, but it was valiantly refused. A considerable number of our visitors are unaware that East Marion is the home of many sea captains, and they are replete with rich recollections of their years behind the mast. Among them are Captain Porter Rackett, Capt. Edwin Rackett, Capt. Charles Brooks, Capt. Frank Rackett and Capt. Willis Brown. Among the younger are Capts. Frank Eldridge and Myron Suffolk Times photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh IED HAWK —This hawk killed himself when he flew into a i pursuit of the birds at a feeder. More often it is the small - tto the windows, thinking the reflection is an escape to the we see only little flocks of these small ducks, but here we were looking at 800 to 1,000 of them — quite unusual. This spunky, plump little duck is quite hand- some, especially during the summer when the male performs his courtship rites in front of the more drab female. Then his back is a rich reddish -brown off- set by the pure white cheek patch and black crown. One of the true characteris- tics of this small duck is its usually upturned spike -like tail that during courtship folds forward so that it seems almost to touch its head. These easily identified little ducks nest mainly on the great prairie potholes to the west. Its nest is usually hidden amongst Brown. Then there are Capts. Billy Adams and Everett Rackett, who are old- timers still carrying on. 25 Years Ago Jan. 18, 1973 Marratooka Land Buy: The Mattituck Park District Plans to do "absolutely nothing" with the 4.5 acres of Marratooka Lake property that residents voted, 364 to 322, to buy — but lake residents would still like to see it in writing, they say, before they will believe the park district isn't plan- ning a park. "We'll clean it up and probably just keep it as a nature pre- serve," said Frank Murphy, one of the three park commis- sioners. Now the park commission will go back to the Town Board to ask it to underwrite the $24,000 in bonds needed for the purchase of the tract across Route 25 from Mattituck School. But lake residents Charles Cuddy and Edward Wirsing fear any public development on the 25 -acre lake will change the nature of the area, scare off birds and other wildlife. They plan also to bring to the attention of the Town Board that notices were posted three days instead of 10 days in advance of the vote and electioneering took place upstairs in the fire- house while voting went on downstairs. Fifteen minutes before the voting started the park commis- sioners held an informational meeting upstairs to answer any questions people had before voting on the proposal. coast. Another duck that was nice to see was the canvasback, or `cans" as the gun- ners call them. They are a big duck with a chestnut - colored head and neck with a wide band of black below. The wings and back are nearly white, making them quite conspicuous. The unique wedge - shaped head with its sloping bill gives them their "distinct look." It's a fast flier, having been clocked at 70 miles per hour. Canvasback Nearly Extinct Once the ideal duck, the canvasback was high on the list for eating because of its diet of wild celery and other aquatic plants. It was almost shot out of existence by the market gunners of the late 1800s and early 1900s. From those early days of slaughter, the canvasback has had a rocky road to recovery, not only because of the gunners but from long periods of drought and the continual draining of their nesting sites for farming, which crippled their reproduction. Today, with strict laws and bag limits and the good work of Ducks Unlimited and other organizations, new wetlands and nesting areas have been cre- ated, all of which are helping the canvas- back to make a comeback. There were also small groups of black ducks on the pond along with the usual abundance of colorful mallards. There were even 40 or more coots feeding on the pond edge. In all there were proba- bly over 2,000 ducks enjoying the pond's relatively quiet waters. I might add that the best places here on the North Fork to see the ducks mentioned are at Marratooka Lake in Mattituck (opposite the high school) and Laurel Lake north of the Chamber of Com- merce building just west of the railroad trestle in Mattituck. Once again, what would have been just a routine drive was turned into a mini adventure by adding a short side trip to Agawam Park. Of course, what put the icing on the cake was Barbara's remembering to bring along our binocu- lars so we could get a truly "bird's -eye" view of all the ducks that were there.