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January 09, 1997 - Feathered Friends Aplenty in Orientcj1 January 9, 1997 • The Suffolk times • YA Feathered Friends Aplenty in Orient For the past three weekends I've been involved with the Audubon Christmas Bird Counts. Last week I reported on the Gardiners Island count. Then on Sunday we covered the area of East Moriches and Eastport for the Central Suffolk count and this past Saturday I traveled on the Orient count, where our group covered the area from the causeway out past the Orient Point lighthouse. We'd only be one party of many that would count and identify every bird seen within the 15- mile circle with its center at Hay Beach on Shelter Island. All these counts start before dawn and last until after dark with lunch on the go. The experience was worth it, for we traveled over much of Long Island's picturesque landscape and saw some of the really unusual birds along with a long list of regulars. Regulars like robins, which in one location amounted to 53 and in another location 18. Why so many robins? Probably the most im- portant factor was food supply. Robins are great berry fanciers, as any farmer or vineyard owner knows, and evidently there was a spot of wild berries that kept them satisfied. This along with the mild weather would let them scratch and pick about on the ground for all those wiggly creatures that would keep them in good stead. How long their luck will last is anyone's guess. One of the great treats for the members of my party was the sighting of a pere- grine falcon out at Orient Point, and I mean the very point. My son, Peter, was able to witness one of nature's greatest falcon shows. This hawk was flying over the water around the Orient lighthouse, known as the coffee pot, when it dove down and tried to take an oldsquaw duck. Having missed that, it flew to the light- house, as my son watched it through his binoculars and attacked a common pigeon. Why pigeons hang around that lighthouse is anyone's guess, but they can always be found there. It's like seeing them under bridges and on ledges of tall buildings. "There it is!" "Over there!" You could tell it was a falcon for it had long. pointed wings and it was about the size of a crow. They are fast flyers and in their dives on prey they have been clocked at more than 160 miles per hour. After circling about the lighthouse, it lit on the upper platform, where I was able to see it even more closely through my 20x scope. This hawk would top our list of all hawks for the day, which included the sharp- shinned, Cooper's, merlin, red - tailed, harrier and kestrel. Then at the same location at the point we were able to see that unusual duck from the north, the common eider. It's from this duck the supply of the famous eider down comes that is used in making extra -light and warm winter gear. In Greenland and Iceland the down is col- lected from the eider's nest and sold for a high price. Those collecting know that the female will replace the down from her coat so that the eggs will always be pro- tected by that fluffy warmth when she's off the nest feeding, and the harvesters know all too well not to take it all for the ducks and their future supply of down would soon disappear. Focus on Nature by Paul Steutenburgh A Look at the Peregine At any rate, Peter came back all excited, telling us about seeing this most famous of all hawks and then casually said, "Why don't you go out and take a look? It's probably still there since there were plen- ty of pigeons around." Well, it didn't take long for everyone to agree and we were soon off to the point. Sure enough, as our binoculars searched the area, we caught something flying fast over the water. Rare Sight in Orient Usually we have to travel to Montauk to see these common eiders so it was nice to see them over here at Orient Point. They feed on mussel beds far below the surface and it is said they swallow the mussel whole and their powerful stomachs grind up the shell and extract the nutrients with- out any difficulty. Later we'd find one of our party, who was working the waters of Plum Island in a boat, was lucky enough to see the much rarer king eider duck. With some careful looking we were able to find five purple sandpipers feeding on the exposed rocks at the very end of the point. How these starling -size sandpipers can eke out a living as the waves dash about in the middle of the winter is hard to believe. They are quite fearless of man and I've often gotten within 10 feet of them when over at Montauk at the jetties. Here they were too far out and we just had to be satisfied with seeing them picking away through our binoculars. We were only able to find two species of owls, the little screech owl and our larger great horned owl. In one location, where we always go for the big owls, we chased out three of these large terrors of the night. The little screech owl comes in two color phases, the gray and the red. We often hear its wavering call in the evening Suffolk Times photo by Paul stoutenburgh GREAT HORNED OWL —This tiger of the night is often heard hooting far off in the distance. It nests in the months of January, February and March, when snow sometimes covers both the incubating female and the nest. and if we mimic its call, this curious little owl will often answer and fly nearby, where with a flashlight you can see its two big eyes and tufted feather ears that aren't really ears at all, but just feathers that make him look a bit ferocious. The great horned owl is the tiger of the woods and all creatures large and small tremble when they hear his haunting call: "Hoo Hoo oo Hoo Hoo." Egg -Laying Time Right now these great horned owls are selecting a mate and chasing off rivals. Eggs of this owl have been known to be laid from late January on and nests with the incubating female have been pho- tographed with snow covering both owl and nest. We missed the barn owl and the long -eared owl this year and the smallest Tallying Orient's Christmas Count The following 109 species of birds were seen on the 1996 Orient Christmas Bird Count: Red - throated Loon, Common Loon, Horned Grebe, Northern Gannet, Great Cormorant, Double- Crested Cor- morant, Great Blue Heron, Black- Crowned Nigflt Heron, Mute Swan, Canada Goose, Snow Goose, American Black Duck, Mallard, Northern Pintail, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Canvasback, Ring- Necked Duck, Greater Scaup, Lesser Scaup, Common Eider, King Eider, Oldsquaw, Black Scoter, Surf Scoter, White - Winged Scoter, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Hooded Merganser, Red - Breasted Merganser, Ruddy Duck, Northern Harrier, Sharp- Shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk, Red - Tailed Hawk, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Ring- Necked Pheasant, Northern Bobwhite, Virginia Rail, Black - Bellied Plover, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Purple Sandpiper, Dunlin, American Woodcock, Bonaparte's Gull, Ring - Billed Gull, Herring Gull, Great Black- Backed Gull, Rock Dove, Mourning Dove, Eastern Screech Owl, Great Horned Owl, Belted Kingfisher, Red - Headed Woodpecker, Red - Bellied Woodpecker, Yellow - Bellied Sapsucker, Downy Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, Horned Lark, Blue Jay, American Crow, Black- Capped Chickadee, Tufted Titmouse, Red - Breasted Nuthatch, White- Breasted Nuthatch, Brown Creeper, Carolina Wren, Marsh Wren, Winter Wren, Golden- Crowned Kinglet, Ruby- Crowned Kinglet, Hermit Thrush, Grey - Cheeked Thrush, American Robin, Grey Catbird, Northern Mockingbird, Brown Thrasher, Cedar Waxwing, European Starling, Yellow - Rumped Warbler, Palm Warbler, Northern Cardinal, Rufous -Sided Towhee, American Tree Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Field Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Sharp - Tailed Sparrow, Fox Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Lark Sparrow, Swamp Sparrow, White- Throated Sparrow, White- Crowned Sparrow, Dark -Eyed Junco, Snow Bunting, Dickcissel, Red - Winged Blackbird, Eastern Meadowlark, Com- mon Grackle, Brown- Headed Cowbird, House Finch, Purple Finch, American Goldfinch and House Sparrow. of all owls, the saw whet. Our total for all parties in the 15 -mile circle area was 109 species. These were all tabulated at the end of the day at Mary Laura and Eric LaMont's home where hot chili and fish chowder were served to the worn-out birders, along with a wide vari- ety of goodies and drinks. It was truly heart- warming to see the 30 to 40 men and women talking about their exciting day in the field. Each had a tale to tell: what they saw, how many, where it was, etc. Each group had its list and the highlight of the evening took place as Mary Laura called out from a master list the birds previously seen on the count. After each bird was called there was a resounding "Yes," "Yes," with an occasional moment of silence where one was missed. Then the last bit of excitement came when the list was finished and new birds seen in the area were added. Then came the "oohs" and "aahs" as new additions were added: king eider, gannet, lark spar- row, dickcissel, red - headed woodpecker, chipping sparrow, ring- necked duck and other rare oddities. During the drive home my mind ram- bled back to the very beginning of the Orient count and how it came about almost 100 years ago. Do you know who started it? There's only one person who would have had the interest and the forti- tude to start something like this. It was our own Roy Latham of Orient, who in those days traveled with maybe one or two peo- ple or sometimes by himself by bicycle, rowboat or car to gather the beginnings of bird lists that would go on throughout his whole life. There was a man of all seasons as long as the season had something to do with the natural world.