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June 25, 1998 - What's growing wild at Wildwood6A The Suffolk Times • June 25, 1998 M%at's growine wi*ld at Wildwood Some 35 years ago Barbara and I posts along the road. It hasn't as yet and the kids camped at Wildwood lured any bluebirds but it has attracted State Park, which is situated above the its share of house sparrows. shores of Long Island Sound in At Wildwood State Park we saw no Wading River. sign of bluebirds. The park has come a Last week be- long way since we first visited it back in tween showers Focus the '60s. Spacious grassy campsites, and thunder- oN each with its own water and electricity, storms we re- make it quite appealing to trailer visited this 760- NATURE campers, plus there's a whole rolling acre park to section devoted to tenters. Some of reacquaint our- by Paul Stoutenburgh selves with this well -kept wood- land site. Looking back on our early camping, I can vividly remember those days for it was then I first pho- tographed the bluebird, New York State's official bird. It had built its nest in a cavity of a tree near our campsite, so all I had to do was back the car up near the tree where the bird was busy feeding its young and take its picture. It was here I first saw the parent bird do its housekeeping like most birds do, by enveloping the baby's waste in mucous membrane and dropping it in someone else's back yard. In this way birds remove the waste that otherwise might attract the attention of prowling predators such as raccoons, weasels mink, etc.; plus it keeps the nest clean. Since those early years I've never photographed a bluebird again on Long Island. I've photographed them upstate, where they are still fairly common. I was tempted to try a few years ago when they were reported over by East Hampton Airport. There they nested in boxes along the edge of the woods. Today many people are trying to lure this beautiful birds to boxes on what are called "bluebird trails." It's a collection of nesting boxes on a particularly good site of land that is appealing to the birds. It's usually alongside a woods that has an open field in front. The problem is that as soon as you put up a box for bluebirds, tree swallows and house sparrows try to take over and, sorry to say, they are usually successful. Never- theless, the bluebird trails have proven quite rewarding in some areas. The per- fect example is those at East Hampton Airport. Where I live someone has tried this concept by putting boxes on fence these sites are on platforms and all are nestled amongst oaks, hickories and linden trees. We walked to the Sound down a wide cement roadway. It was nothing like the stony, washed -out gully I remember from those early days of camp- ing. We were amazed to see the huge concession and bath facility and couldn't get over the endless trash baskets along the beach in both directions that stood as silent sentinels telling of things to come. This park must have a large day -use population as well as its _ campers during the sum- mer season. Flowery profusion On our walk back along the neatly mowed roadside we could see where trailing arbutus had been cut off, making it spread flat on the ground amongst the grass- es. We wondered if in the early spring it had had a chance to show its lovely, white -to -pink, fragrant flowers before the mowing began. Further off the wooded roadside were the occasional clumps of three - to four -foot -high wineberry bushes get- ting ready to fruit. Right now they had a few blossoms showing but within a few weeks they'll have their glossy red - colored fruit that will be ripe for the picking. If you get them just at the right time they separate very cleanly, leaving just a stub behind on the plant. Wineberries are common along most hedgerows, open fields and roadsides and if you want to reap their sweetness, don't wait too long for birds love them, too. One — no two — plants you can't miss anywhere in the park are the Japanese honeysuckle and the climbing bittersweet. Both can get out of hand if not trimmed back each year. As kids we always picked the blossom from the fra- fall, when the leaves have fallen and there's a chill in the air. It's then the bit- tersweet bursts its shell and exposes its ripe fruit. Left on the vine the fruit will dry and supply wintering birds with sur- vival food. It's in this storehouse of berries you'll usually find a resident mockingbird hanging around guarding his cache of winter food. This accounts for the bittersweet being found almost everywhere. The birds ingest the fruit with its seeds and eventual- ly the seeds are expelled in the waste of the bird. This could be anywhere. Not only that, but each seed has its own packet of fertilizer to help it off to a good start. No wonder it's so successful in spreading throughout the countryside. And if the birds weren't enough to spread the seeds around, people are lured by its bright orange and yellow color and collect it to take home as a dried bouquet. That's all well and good until we get tired of it and throw it outside, where its seeds eventually drop to the ground and thank us for their new beginning. Speaking of climbing plants, there are two others that help dominate the understory around Wild - wood. Catbrier, the one with the dagger -like thorns, is now making its way to higher and brighter places along the pathway. Its soft end tips are edible at this early stage of growing and can afford a refreshing bit of munching as you explore the area. Then there's the wild grape, sometimes called fox grape and other times frost grape. Each name has its special meet- ing: fox grape because of the fox enjoy- ing them whenever he can reach them, and frost grape because that's about the time when the grapes are ripe. The wild grapes have already started their clus- ters of tiny green fruits just as the grapes are now in the vio,eyards on the North Fork. I'm told root }ock of this native grape is used to grail the more prized grapes onto because of its resis- tance to disease. Of all the plants we saw on our'trav- els around the park, none captured our attention as much as the mountain lat< - rel. It was in full bloom. Given the right location its branches literally drooped with clusters of pinkish -white flowers. The plants we saw were eight to 10 feet tall. Their blossoms have an amazing way of dealing with pollination. As an insect enters the flower to enjoy its nec- tar, the stamens, loaded with pollen, snap out of the petal pouch, spraying its precious pollen on the insect. The insect then goes to other plants and flowers where the pollen is rubbed off and pol- lination takes place. All about was lush greenery caused by all the rain we've had. Mushrooms had popped up all about. How I wish Lance Bichele could have been with us to enjoy them. Once again, a mere 20 miles from most of our back yards is another great park to visit. Seniors can use our state parks for day visits at no cost during the week. Remember, it's your tax dollais that created these won- derful parks, so why not enjoy them? Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh This photo of the nesting bluebird was taken at Wildwood State Park some 35 years ago. Once common throughout our area, It has now become a rare sighting. When was the last time you saw a bluebird? i r. OWN 9M-r i ww.JF 1!% : Sri MEN >G ■ .7 V V V r% !D H \.► r1 75 years ago June 22, 1923 School to build addition: Southold has voted to spend $60,000 to build an addition, 60x60 feet, with basement, to the schoolhouse. The changes to be made will include pro- viding four 40 -pupil classrooms, two 30 -pupil classrooms, a principal's room, a teachers' room and an auditorium seat- ing about 400. The stage for the auditorium will reach beyond the present building. The addition will be connect- ed with the present building by three passageways. Advertisement: Ford Touring Car — new price, $393. This is the lowest price at which the Ford Touring Car has ever sold, and with the many new improvements, includ- ing the one -man top, it is a bigger value than ever before. Buy now. Terms if desired. Greenport Auto Sales Co. 50 years ago June 25, 1948 `Grotesque' parade at block party: One of the biggest nights in the history of Greenport will be July 24, when the block party of the Greenport Fire Department opens on the municipal parking space. On that evening something different for Eastern Long Island will take place and everyone in Greenport and all the surrounding territory will want to be a part in it. The committee from the department is perfecting plans for the largest and most spectacular parade ever staged. A grant honeysuckle to suck the sweet nectar out of the long trumpet -like flowers. Funny how most of us can remember those carefree days of youth that seem to be missing with today's busy pace. To reap the rewards of the climbing bittersweet, we'll have to wait until late grotesque parade so big, so wonderful, it will leave you short of breath, it will make you laugh until you cry, and so funny that you will tell of it to your grandchildren in the years to come. It will be composed of the funniest, the most humorous and craziest costumed people ever let out of captivity. 25 years ago June 21, 1973 Hubbard resigns as mayor: Help wanted —Mayor for small village (pop. 2,400) willing to work long hours for part-time pay, app. $32 a week. Must be available several evenings, frequent weekends, and any time someone feels like complaining about how the . illage is run. Must have thick hide. The Village of Greenport might well run such an adver- tisement because it needs a mayor right now. George Hubbard resigned as of midnight Monday and acting mayor William Quinn doesn't want the job for too long either. While Mr. Hubbard, who had been mayor for two years, was at a Village Board meeting Monday explaining his reasons for quitting the job, one of his daughters was graduating at St. Agnes R.C. School. "That's where I should be right now," he said. In his resignation statement Mr. Hubbard said he would strongly recommend that the village think about having a full -time mayor.