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June 04, 1998 - Scenes through a picture windowJune 4, 1998 • The Suffolk Times • 7A Scenes through a picture window Our meals are eaten either outside on the patio or inside in front of the big picture window in this beautiful weath- er. It's an ever - changing scene. One day we watched a baby rabbit hop Focus from under a sprawling yew to ON explore his new world. He is so NATURE small he could sit by Paul in the palm of Stoutenburgh your -hand. He stepped in front of a tuft of violets, his tiny nose wiggling as he sniffed the air. Then he com- menced to cut off a violet leaf and munch it down, all the while his big inquisitive eyes exploring this big new world he now faces. From now on he's on his own, no mother or father to help in the art of survival. Will that roaming calico cat I see sneaking along the hedgerow be his downfall? Or perhaps the red - tailed hawk that surveys all the land from atop the windmill will swoop down from out of nowhere and deliver the coup de grace? Or on the brighter side, perhaps he'll live a life of Peter Rabbit and nip my violets and visit my garden and be part of the ever - changing life that goes on almost unobserved about us. Another day at breakfast we watched a baby squirrel come to the unfinished garden pool under the picture window to drink. He stopped and stared at what might seem an ocean of water to him for he, too, like the little rabbit, is exploring his bright new world. Right now nature has brought these young ones into the world at just the right time, when the new tender buds of the trees and plants are popping out. After all, nuts — particularly our hickory nuts — would be much too difficult a meal for these young tree dwellers to handle at this early stage of life. Unlike rabbits, young squirrels return to their home in the tree for some time. They even romp and play topside until the urge to explore takes over and then the family splits up. Most of their living will be in the trees, high away from rov- ing cats and the bushy - tailed fox, but it won't protect them from the eyes and claws of the red -tail. He's been known ■ �. w to snatch a squirrel right out of a tree, and then there's always the possibility of them falling. Seems impossible, but in those early days of exploring the treetop playground mishaps and slips can occur and death can follow. Right now there are few nuts on the ground and, as I said, if there were some these newborns couldn't handle the tough thick shells anyway, so for now buds and flowering trees will suffice for them. These are the "baby food" they'll thrive on until fall comes around when they'll be able to tackle the tough- ness of nuts. Not all our world centers around our meals — far from it. A few nights ago we inadvertently left the porch light on and as we sat around during the evening we heard and then saw a commotion on the screen outside. It was a fluttering sound interrupted by a shadowy flit- ting around the light. Looking out, we could see it was some sort of moth. Then it lit on the screen in front of us and there was our next tale about the world around us. Our moth was a deli- cate, green, lady luna moth, "the princess of the night," as she's been called. To get ahold of her I made a cup of my hand and then brought her inside and let her go. She fluttered about for a few moments and then settled on the molding of one of the windows, where she seemed quite content. Normally this moth has two long tails on its wings, but this one had part of one tail missing. Reading up on these beautiful moths, I found it's believed the long tails are there for an escape mechanism and here before us was proof of an attack by a bird or other prey, for it had forfeited one of its tails and the reward was escape. Years ago a young entomologist, who was studying luna moths and their ques- tionable comeback after a devastating kill from aerial spraying, brought a female luna moth in a cage to our woods in hopes of having her spend the night attracting a male, providing they were again in our area. Seems the newly about three - eighths of an inch wide and managed to escape. Bless her. I only hope her passion was fulfilled and even though my experiment failed we were gratified to know by her presence our night visitors, the luna moths, are still around. When my son was here last week, can't remember what for, probably to borrow something, he brought to my attention a near disaster in the form of a dangling house sparrow outside its nesting box. It had taken up resi- dence in one of my bird boxes and was refurbishing its quarters, when it became entan- gled in a piece of fine monofilament fish line and was swinging back and forth with a noose around its neck. It surely would have hung itself if Roger had not spotted it and climbed up to un- tangle it. It was happy to shake itself and fly away. Usually we see this thread of deadly monofila- ment at the seashore. It entan- gles thousands of birds along our water's edge each year and that's only half the story; most of the lingering tragedies from this almost invisible killer are not even noticed. Needless to say, we all must be very careful when and how we discard our old fishing line. On the brighter side of the world around us I was down by the dock where my daughter keeps a killie trap to collect specimens for her saltwater aquarium at school. Being a bit curious as to what was in it, I pulled it up and found the usual killies plus two one- to 1 1/2 -inch first -year baby blue crabs. That to me was an encouraging sign. These young crabs shed every 10 to 15 days and just might be keepers by late August or early fall. Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh Finding these snappy little blue crabs In our creek this year might just mean a good year for crabbing, but don't get your crab nets out just yet. Crabs have to shed their hard shell many, many times before they become the legal size of five Inches. l.. G 1 a-.% l.■ V V 2% 119P H %.01% 75 years ago June 1, 1923 She winsl: The young Mattituck woman who sued her suitor, also of Mattituck, for breach of promise, was award- ed $4,500 damages in the Supreme Court at Riverhead this week. The young lady sued for $25,000. During the testimony previously brought out at the hear- ings the young man had declared that he broke off his engagement with the pretty young miss for three reasons — his mother, buns and smokes. The reason his mother had objected to the affair, he testified, was because his mother is rich and the girl is poor. Furthermore, he declared his per- sonal liberty had been infringed upon when his fianc6e chided him for the reckless manner in which he spent his money buying buns and smokes for himself and the "other fellows." The girl, he said, had insisted upon him saving that money for use when they started in housekeeping. They had known each other for nearly four years. 50 years ago June 4, 1948 East Marion news: On Tuesday, May 25, the June com- mittee met at the "Picket Fence" to discuss the forthcom- ing white elephant tea to be held for the benefit of the East Marion Baptist Church. Over the teacups it was decided that Mrs. Eva Udell and Mrs. F. Gerald Hommell would pour. Assisting hostesses will be: Mrs. G. Sanders Nowell, emerged female can be detected by a male literally miles away who will fol- low the scent in hopes of mating with her. To my surprise, after our friend left the female in the cage overnight, sure enough, next morning there was a male clinging to the female on the side of the cage. Remembering that, I decided to try my own experiment with our new- found luna, so I put it in one of our Havahart traps. What I didn't figure on was the ingenuity of a passionate young female luna moth who was intent only on finding a mate. She found the one weak spot in the trap where the door moved up and down with an opening Mrs. M.B. Brown, Mrs. Albert Vail and Mrs. Eugene Sutherland. Delicious cakes will be sold on that day also. Interesting bits of Greenport news: Pell Brothers, Arthur and Rodman, who recently opened the modern new fish market on Atlantic Avenue, are having their property facing on Sterling Creek dredged out in order to make it more convenient for the fishing boats to land at the bulkhead and discharge their cargoes of fresh seafood con- signed to the Pell market. Rodman Pell has a number of men employed filleting blowfish for shipment to New York. These blowfish, or swell fish, as they are commonly called, are extremely plentiful this season and large catch- es of these fish are being unloaded daily at the Pell Market. 25 years ago May 31, 1973 Times publisher dies: [Excerpt] Frederick Langton Corwin, publisher of The Suffolk Times for 46 years, died on May 29 at the age of 84. From the time Mr. Corwin purchased this paper in 1922 until it was sold in 1969, it was his proudest boast that he had never missed an issue, despite hurricanes, power fail- ures and human frailties. A year ago Mr. Corwin collaborated with his wife, Elsie Knapp Corwin, in writing and publishing a volume on the history of his native village, entitled " Greenport Yesterday and Today — and the Diary of a Country Newspaper." Cycle of the blue crab A female molts (comes out of her hard shell to grow) 18 to 20 times be- fore she's ready to mate. Then the male blue crab carries her "cradle like" until she sheds or molts and in this soft stage mates with her. After this tender encounter she becomes hard - shelled once again. She carries her eggs beneath her (sponge -like) until the young are ready to hatch as free -swim- ming larvae. This whole fascinating life history of crabs is beautifully told in a delightful book called "Beautiful Swimmers" by William W. Warner. It is well worth reading and can be found in most libraries, as it was once on the bestseller list. There are many pitfalls to the young of all species. That's why nature pro- vides a surplus each year. Without those pitfalls to the young rabbit, squirrel, crab and even the luna moth, we'd soon be overrun by their species. The trick is to be in balance. The problem is man has changed the world around them and broken that balance, so that today we either have too many or too few.