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April 03, 1997 - Winged Visitors Make Spring Stopover"'• The Suffolk Times • April 3, 1997 Winged Visitors Make Spring Stopover The first warm day found us eating lunch out on the back porch. We swept off winter's detritus from the cement and wood decks and even brought out the Adirondack chairs from hiding to relax on. Robins sang and down by the pond the red -wings were telling the world spring had finally come. The peepers, �OCVS too, let us know winter was over. On Even the quiet woodpeckers Nature drilled away on hollow limbs in by Paul typical woodpec- stoutenburgh ker fashion in hopes of attracting a lady fair. After all, they had the ability to craft a wedding home and were there to demonstrate their skill. Then we heard another softer, duller hammering of a woodpecker. It didn't have that sharp clear rat - tat -tat we all associate with our local woodpeckers and the noise was coming from right above us. Sure enough, there was our drumming. From where we were sitting, he looked somewhat like our downy and hairy woodpeckers, but then there was some- thing different about him. A quick trip inside to get the binoculars that we keep handy revealed our visitor to be a yellow - bellied sapsucker. Amore definitive name would be hard to find for right in front of him was a line of holes he'd drilled into the soft bark of a hickory tree. Our sap- sucker was having lunch also. What this woodpecker does is make a series of holes in a circle around the limb deep enough to capture the sap -laden inner layer of bark so that each hole he drills develops into a little reservoir of sap. Upon closer examination of the hick- ory we could see other holes he had dug earlier and from them we could see the sap glistening in the sun and running down the bark of the tree. This circle of holes that are drilled around a tree make drinking fountains for others as well and Mr. Sapsucker has to keep an eye out for freeloaders. I'm sure this tree wasn't the only tree he'd tapped and so he makes the rounds from tree to tree. In the mean- time, as I men- tioned earlier, oth- ers take advantage of the free syrup that oozes out of the holes. While we sat there a chick- adee and a titmouse both came by and helped themselves to a drink. A Closer Look My binoculars brought our visitor up close and I could see how handsome this woodpecker really is. It is some- what similar to our downy and hairy woodpeckers I've previously men- tioned, but instead of just a red top notch on its head, the red runs all the way down to its bill with an additional bright patch of red under the chin, and in place of a white belly like the downy and hairy, it has a creamy yellow front. Orchard growers particularly don't like this bird because it seems to like fruit trees more than others. Many a sapsucker has fallen to the orchard grower's shot- gun in the past but as we learn more about these birds people are slowly realizing they do little harm to the trees. Yet I'm sure there are still some who aren't con- vinced. Not only does the sweet sap lure other birds to the sapsucker's holes, but it also draws insects, which the sapsucker ea- gerly picks off and enjoys as well. You might say his many lunch stops provide him with both food and drink. As we watched our visitor busy making new holes in the smooth bark of the hickory, he'd stop once in a while to fly off like a flycatcher and snatch some insect that had probably just recently hatched out. Spring was stirring all kinds of creatures on this warm sunny day. I've mentioned our sapsucker as a ca- Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh WOODCOCK —Look closely, for this plucky little game bird is master of the art of camouflage. Usually it doesn't fly up until you are about to step on it and then it startles you by its sudden and erratic burst of flight. 75 Years Ago March 31, 1912 Advertisement: How can you purchase a score of items of everyday use whose quality you can't equal in your neighborhood store short of three to four times the price quoted here. You are invited to inspect our new store with a complete line of Army and Navy surplus merchandise. Twelve pairs cotton socks, $1. Thermos bottles, 85c. Hospital slippers, 95c. Army khaki reclaimed breeches, 95c. Army khaki slipover sweaters, 85c. Flannel wool shirts, $1.95. Goodyear raincoats, $3.85. The Outlet Stores Co., 308 Main St. (Swain Building), Greenport. Island News: Southampton Town has decreased its pay of highway workers a dollar a day for teams and 50 cents for laborers, the rates established being 88 cents an hour for teams; 60 cents for foremen, including use of car; and 38 cents for laborers. Local News: There are many motor tractors and trucks and touring automobiles in this place and many people con- sider that these have taken the place of horses to a large extent. 50 Years Ago April 4, 1947 Editorial: What Greenport needs now without further delay is a modern, sanitary incinerator plant, where papers, sual visitor to our East End, for he never has been known to nest any place south of the Catskill, Mountains. He prefers the higher elevations like the Adirondacks and regions north into Canada. Also while we were eating on the patio, we spotted a small group of glossy ibis flying overhead, I'm sure headed for Plum or Gardiners Island, where they nest. This is the bird about the size of a crow that has that long — and I mean long — curved bill that is so char- acteristic when you see it flying. Then just off the patio where we ate our lunch was a freshly ravaged rabbit's nest. Evidently the nest had been raided by a raccoon or feral cat. Nothing was left but the fur the female had taken from her body to make the well - insulated nest. Time is on Mrs. Rabbit's side for she will soon mate and have another brood and let's hope this one will have a better chance of survival. The Hard -to -Find Woodcock Like the sapsucker we saw passing through our area, we're going to see a garbage and other objectionable refuse matter can be dis- posed of by burning. No matter how carefully the present dump is supervised, or what precautions are used to keep rubbish from blowing about the village, it is still, and always will be, a menace to our health. Instead of waiting until the Southold Town incinerator plant at Cutchogue is completed, with its long haul for loaded trucks from Greenport, why not establish and main- tain an incinerator of our own? Why not once and for all eliminate a situation which for years has been a blot on the tidy appearance of our village and outstanding menace to public health. 25 Years Ago April 6, 1972 Oyez, Oyez: It's really a mini - court, all done on a smaller scale than county or state courtrooms. Southold Town's new justice court, located in a building purchased from the New York Telephone Company last year for $9,000, went into use yesterday when the regular Wednesday night traffic court was presided over by Justice. Martin Suter. The new Justice Court room, located on Route 25 in Cutchogue, will be used for all traffic court sessions and for trials and jury trials. Until now, traffic court has been held in the Peconic School, and trials have been held in the offices of Justice Suter in Mattituck or in the office of Justice Louis Demarest in Orient. steady stream of migrants passing through from now on. One we seldom see but know it's around is the wood- cock. Last week Dr. Zitek, our local vet- erinarian, called us and told of one he had that had been killed by a passing car. These game birds enjoy the damp and wet spots where they can probe with their long bills for worms and insects of all sorts. I once photo- graphed one on its nest in East Marion and it was so well camouflaged with its brown dead -leaf coloring that I al- most stepped on it before it flew. I merely left and came back later, a bit more cautious, and took the pic- ture you see above. Once the young have hatched and dried off they too, blend into the woodland duff of the forest floor and are off scurrying about with a parent. I can well vouch for their camouflage for once we were out on a "warbler day" when a woodcock fluttered off from under our feet. For a moment we saw five or six young scatter in front of us so we immediately started looking for them down on our hands and knees. Look as we could, we couldn't see them. We knew they were right in front of us but we could not find them. Finally, just when we were about to give up, I spotted one. If it was- n't for its big black eye, I would never have seen it. It was the only thing out of sync with the rest of the surroundings. I then photographed it in hand just for the record. You might remember a few weeks ago my writing about vultures flying over our back pasture and how unusual it was to see them here on our East End, as they are usually a bird of the mainland. Well, wouldn't you know it? I got a telephone call from a man down the street asking if I was the one who wrote about the vul- tures in the newspaper. I replied, "Yes." He then said, "Well there's two of them sitting in a tree just a little way up from your driveway." Needless to say, it didn't take Barbara and me long to get down just a little way from our driveway and sure enough, there were the two big black vultures he described, sitting in a tree. Since that time others have seen them flying about, which just goes to show you there are a lot of eyes out there; all you have to do is get them focused in the right direction. Help the Endangered SHELTER ISLAND —The North Fork Audubon Society and The Nature Conservancy are offering a training ses- sion at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 12, for volunteers who will work on the North Fork Endangered Species program. Volunteers are needed to monitor piping plover and least tern colonies at Cedar Beach, Southold and at Goldsmith's In- let in Peconic. A minimum of four hours a week can make a difference in nesting success Call Tom Damiani at 749 -2341.