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January 23, 1997 - A Winged, Wintry Day in Montauk6A • The Suffolk Times • January 23, 1997 A Winged, Wintry Day in'Montauk I guess this is what you call Long Island weather, cold -warm, snow -rain and then a dip in the temperature into the teens again. Since this is typical of our winter weather, we're always ready to drop everything inside the house and get out at the first sign of a good day, so last week that warm sunny day found Barbara and me off to Montauk. You can't get any closer to being out in the ocean than from there and still be on land. INC course, our trip would have a few short delays from our home base as we stopped along the creeks to see what Nat ducks winter had brought in. At one place we found the by P usual mallards, but on closer stouten examination through our binoculars, we could see three small crest- ed ducks, hooded mergansers. A nice beginning to our list. Another stop brought us more mallards, black ducks and their close ally, the gadwall. I don't remember seeing this duck as a kid, but of late it seems to be about more and more. It's very similar to the black duck but eas- ily identified by a white patch along its lower rear sides. We could also see and hear American wigeon as they fed in the shallows. Their quaint little sounds are always heard when they are feeding undisturbed. This shallow water is most important for a large number of ducks like mallards, black ducks, gadwall, widgeon and others, as they are dabblers. You'll see them feed- ing, upended, as they probe the bottom with their long extended neck and bill. Deep water means no food and goodbye. As we scanned the feeding ducks, my eye caught sight of the rusty- colored head of a duck I'd seen only a few times before. It was a European wigeon, one that nests in Eurasia and Iceland, a rather rare visitor to our shores. With those interesting ducks added to our list we headed for Marra - tooka Lake in Mattituck, opposite the high school. The best place for viewing is from New Suffolk Avenue on the south side of the lake. The town owns a piece of prop- erty there. The only problem is parking. You have to park half on the road because of the narrow shoulder. Some day let's hope this dangerous situation will be cor- rected with a wider road edge. By the way, Nature Conservancy and the Mattituck Park District own most of the opposite side of the lake. From the high overlook on the south side of the lake you get a great view of the ducks in this wonderful freshwater kettle hole called Marratooka Lake. A kettle hole is what was left by a IS glacier when a huge chunk of ice was pushed into the Oil ground as the glacier moved southward. This all took place Matt 10,000 to 15,000 years ago and after the ice melted, deep aul depressions were left in the burgh ground forming Marratooka Lake and Laurel Lake here in Southold Town. Lake Ronkonkoma and Lake Success are other examples of the formation of kettle holes. And Gaggles of Geese I put my 20x scope on its tripod and scanned the hundreds of ducks that use this lake for feeding and resting. The whitish - looking ducks across the lake proved to be canvasback ducks, 100 or more of them. It was good to see these handsome chestnut - redheaded ducks with their gray backs and white sides in such numbers. Then there were pintails, ruddy ducks and, of course, the mallards, black ducks, wigeons and gadwalls plus 80 or more Canada geese. Some were still wear- ing their white- numbered collars that the state DEC uses to track their movements. It's ironic we here on Long Island seem to have a surplus of geese but in other parts of the country, geese are drastically down in numbers and we don't know why. That's why the intense study by the DEC is being done to investigate this phenome- non. Seems we have more and more resi- dent geese each year, and why not — we've given them the best food supply for these vegetarians: rye fielas of the farmer and the. ever-increasing sod farms. Our last good sighting at the lake was a pair of snow geese standing on the ice. With that we headed for Montauk. Snow was still on the ground but the sun's warm temperature was trying its Let's Leek Back 75 Years Ago Jan. 27, 1922 Lots of Scallops: Escallops in large numbers have been washed in over the sand bar along the bay side of Ram Island. The last two weeks crowds of men and boys have been catching the shellfish on rowboats or by walking out with hip boots on at low tide. The scallops are put in bags and carted home or to the shanties and opened. 326 Llers Died in the War: The casualty records in the late war, as prepared in the office of the Adjutant General and recently published, show that 146 persons in Suffolk County gave their lives, 121 in the army, 25 in the navy and marine corps. In Nassau County there were 180. Of the 58 coun- ties in the state, Suffolk is tied with Chautauqua for 13th place. 50 Years Ago Jan. 24, 1947 Greenport to Have A&P: According to informa- tion just received, Frank Barth, owner of the vacant lot on Front Street, Greenport, next to Steve's Restaurant, has awarded the contract for a modern new store building to con- tractor Lohr of Riverhead. The new building will be of the most modern type of con- struction, of concrete blocks and steel girders. The building has been designed especially for use as a supermarket by the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company. Editorial: Three most excellent suggestions for a World Suffolk Times photo by Paul Stoutenburgh COLLARED GOOSE —We on Long Island seem to have an extra supply of Canada geese, while in other parts of the country their numbers are down. These identification collars are part of a study to help determine why this change in migration. best to liquidate it. As we passed the big and little hamlets along the way, we could see "Closed" signs in the store windows, remnants of the summer trade that had long since gone away. A few regulars still had their Christmas displays up with "Sale" signs in their windows, but for most people shopping was over. All along the way farmstands were buttoned up, their fruit and vegetables only memories on forgotten signs. Winter had set in on the East End, but our destination was still ahead of us. Actually, from where we live on the North Shore, it's about 60 miles to Montauk by road but a bit shorter if you take the two ferries across Shelter Island. Timewise, there's hardly any difference. At Montauk the day was sparkling clear with only a slight crisp breeze out of the northwest, hardly enough to ripple the water. We parked in the lower of the two big parking lots and took time to stop off at the warm, heated bathrooms. They keep them heated during the winter there and at Orient State Park as well. It's nice to know this when you're traveling out to the War II memorial have been made to the Community World War Memorial Committee of Greenport. All three of the propositions are of the practical, living type of memorial, and all are improvements which would be of great benefit to Greenport and vicinity. Our choice of the three, however, would be the acquisition and preservation of the historic old Young house as a World War II memorial. This historic house, which was once located on the site of the present Booth House at what was then known as the Packet boat landing, a house in which George Washington stayed in 1756, should be preserved for future generations. [Excerpt] 25 Years Ago Jan. 27, 1972 Yes, Greenport Is Incorporated: Greenport Village Superintendent of Public Utilities James Monsell has unearthed evidence that those dates of incorporation on the Greenport Village letterhead are accurate. The village has been incorporated since 1838. The oldest original minutes still available are handwritten accounts in a suede and leather ledger whose earliest entry is Feb. 15, 1879. In it is carefully documented that the Certi- ficate of Re- Incorporation was filed with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New York and with the Office of the County Clerk of Suffolk County on the 28th day of May 1894. The earlier notices of incorporation show the first acknowledgment of incorporation by the State Legislature in 1838. extreme ends of our Island in the winter. We headed for the restaurant area to the north where I set my scope up on a tripod. We could see hundreds of ducks on the water and hundreds more over them in a constant flight to the south. With the scope I could pick out hundreds upon hundreds, no, I'd say thousands of eider ducks feed- ing on the rich mussel beds below. Most were in the dark phase but every 30 or so, there'd be an elegant adult decked out in its bold black- and -white body with its greenish - yellow slanted bill. The bird daz- zles you with its sharp contrasting colors and size. Everywhere you looked, you could see these visitors from the north, the eider ducks. In all my years at Montauk, and that's quite a few, I've never seen any- thing like it. We watched for over an hour and the line of flying eiders out of the northeast never seemed to stop. I believe we had the entire population of the eastern seaboard congregated off Montauk that day. There were other ducks such as the scoters and the best view I've ever seen of the more elusive black scoter which were in small groups of 10s and 20s. We were the only ones at the Point and we wondered why. The day was perfect — not too cold or windy. The vision of that wild,sight of ever - moving sea birds is something I'll never forget. It was like being back in the days when this kind of massive sighting of birds was common. No wonder our early forefathers thought there would never be an end to the pas- senger pigeon, the shore birds or the buf- falo and others that traveled in such great numbers. That day at Montauk was a priv- ileged day. One to remember for I doubt it will be repeated in my lifetime. Ag Forum Coming Up RIVERHEAD —The 16th annual Agricultural Forum is slated for Thurs- day and Friday, Jan. 23 and 24, at the Eastern Campus of Suffolk County Community College in Riverhead. The general session will address cur- rent agricultural issues including an up- date on property tax reform, labor, wildlife management and pesticide is- sues. There will also be more specific sessions with pesticide training credits offered at most. (Bring your pesticide applicator ID card.) To register call Linda Lynch at 727- 7850.