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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOctober 26, 2000 - Snow geese make a rare appearanceSA • The Suffolk Times • October 26, 2000 Snow geese make rare a earance JUTTOIK i imes photo by Paul Stoutenburgh It is seldom we see snow geese on land or water in any great num- bers. Just recently 25 were spotted on Laurel Lake. It was an unusual sight to see. We took day trips from our motel to the vast reaches of the wildlife refuge that attracts these birds. It is here they come to feed and rest after their long migration from their nesting areas in the tundra of the far north. We stood speechless as we I received a telephone call this week from watched flock after flock drift out of the sky into the a man living on Laurel Lake who was sur- marshes below like great clouds of snow. All about prised to see a flock of 25 or more white us we could hear the haunting cry of the geese as birds out on the lake in front of his house. they came together, almost like old friends chatting That was enough to excite Barbara and me, amongst themselves. so we hopped in the car and went up to see It was one of those rare sights. What a relief it his mysterious white birds. In the back of must have been for them, after flying all day high in our minds, we were hoping they were snow the sky, to find a resting place with food and safety geese, for this is the time of year to see in a wildlife refuge. We are not so fortunate out them. here on the island to be able to see such great Usually we only see one or two snow migrations of snow geese. Only occasionally do a geese mixed in with a greater number of few make a stop here for us to see, and then they Canada geese. When are usually mixed in with the more common FOCUS we arrived, we were Canada geese. pleased to find we had Our caller was anxious to know why the geese ON arrived in time to see NATURE 25 or more snow geese still on the lake. by Paul had chosen the middle of the lake to con - Half were immatures. Stoutenburgh Like our seagulls, the gregate. Surely they were not feeding, for the water was much too deep. The onlydon't obtain their other solution I could come up with washandsome, white adult plumage until the that they were resting there during thesecondorthirdyear. You could tell these day and at night they would take off to were snow geese for they had that charac- nearby fields to feed. These could be teristic snow goose pose and if you looked fields of leftovers from a corn field that carefully, you could see the black wing tips had been disked up or even the new and of their primaries tucked underneath their tender shoots on the fairway of a neigh - feathers. These black wing tips are very boring golf course. After all, they are veg- obvious when the birds are in flight. etarians as all geese are and man has Just a word about Laurel Lake. This is a made his fields so tempting it is hard for deep lake formed by a huge chunk of them to pass them by. glacial ice that was pushed into the group as In some parts of the country snow geese, the glacier slowly moved southward 10,000 because of their increasing numbers, have to 15,000 years ago. Then the weather become a real problem. We all know the changed dramatically and the glacier reced- havoc caused by the common Canada ed, leaving these huge "ice cubes" to slowly geese: messy golf courses, trampled yards melt and form a lake. and the problem of airplanes having diffi- We have two such kettle -hole lakes in Southold culty with geese on the runway. Town, the one in Laurel and one in nearby All these problems are now being shift - Mattituck, Marratooka Lake, which is much larger ed over to the snow geese in places where than Laurel Lake. We find these kettle -hole lakes they are multiplying in great numbers. We throughout Long Island. Lake Ronkonkoma to our only get the stragglers here and not the west is our largest. So you can see, they were quantities that are reported in other formed by chunks of buried glacial ice of all sizes. areas. Lucky for us we haven't as yet There are even some of these kettle holes that are experienced that growth as other parts of dry because they were not deep enough to reach the the country have. water table. Years ago we took a group of "birders" down to Look for tiny birds Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. While sitting with the couple and watch - We wanted to see the arrival of the snow geese that ing the snow geese on the lake, we heard lots of birds in the area. As I lookedusethatareaasoneoftheirprimerestingandfeed- ing grounds. We had preplanned the trip by arrang- more closely with my glasses, I was able to spot ing for transportation and lodging to make sure we the tiny little kinglets working in the bushes nearby. didn't waste any of our time on the trivia of finding Later in the week by the side of the road we'd seeaplacetostay, eat, etc. those same busy little kinglets as we watched the Whitebread sailboat race that left from Cutchogue Harbor. There were over 100 boats and they filled the bay with their colorful sails. It just goes to prove that you should always carry your binoculars with you. SA • The Suffolk Times • October 26, 2000 Snow geese make rare a earance JUTTOIK i imes photo by Paul Stoutenburgh It is seldom we see snow geese on land or water in any great num- bers. Just recently 25 were spotted on Laurel Lake. It was an unusual sight to see. We took day trips from our motel to the vast reaches of the wildlife refuge that attracts these birds. It is here they come to feed and rest after their long migration from their nesting areas in the tundra of the far north. We stood speechless as we I received a telephone call this week from watched flock after flock drift out of the sky into the a man living on Laurel Lake who was sur- marshes below like great clouds of snow. All about prised to see a flock of 25 or more white us we could hear the haunting cry of the geese as birds out on the lake in front of his house. they came together, almost like old friends chatting That was enough to excite Barbara and me, amongst themselves. so we hopped in the car and went up to see It was one of those rare sights. What a relief it his mysterious white birds. In the back of must have been for them, after flying all day high in our minds, we were hoping they were snow the sky, to find a resting place with food and safety geese, for this is the time of year to see in a wildlife refuge. We are not so fortunate out them. here on the island to be able to see such great Usually we only see one or two snow migrations of snow geese. Only occasionally do a geese mixed in with a greater number of few make a stop here for us to see, and then they Canada geese. When are usually mixed in with the more common FOCUS we arrived, we were Canada geese. pleased to find we had Our caller was anxious to know why the geese ON arrived in time to see NATURE 25 or more snow geese still on the lake. by Paul had chosen the middle of the lake to con - Half were immatures. Stoutenburgh Like our seagulls, the gregate. Surely they were not feeding, for the water was much too deep. The onlydon't obtain their other solution I could come up with washandsome, white adult plumage until the that they were resting there during thesecondorthirdyear. You could tell these day and at night they would take off to were snow geese for they had that charac- nearby fields to feed. These could be teristic snow goose pose and if you looked fields of leftovers from a corn field that carefully, you could see the black wing tips had been disked up or even the new and of their primaries tucked underneath their tender shoots on the fairway of a neigh - feathers. These black wing tips are very boring golf course. After all, they are veg- obvious when the birds are in flight. etarians as all geese are and man has Just a word about Laurel Lake. This is a made his fields so tempting it is hard for deep lake formed by a huge chunk of them to pass them by. glacial ice that was pushed into the group as In some parts of the country snow geese, the glacier slowly moved southward 10,000 because of their increasing numbers, have to 15,000 years ago. Then the weather become a real problem. We all know the changed dramatically and the glacier reced- havoc caused by the common Canada ed, leaving these huge "ice cubes" to slowly geese: messy golf courses, trampled yards melt and form a lake. and the problem of airplanes having diffi- We have two such kettle -hole lakes in Southold culty with geese on the runway. Town, the one in Laurel and one in nearby All these problems are now being shift - Mattituck, Marratooka Lake, which is much larger ed over to the snow geese in places where than Laurel Lake. We find these kettle -hole lakes they are multiplying in great numbers. We throughout Long Island. Lake Ronkonkoma to our only get the stragglers here and not the west is our largest. So you can see, they were quantities that are reported in other formed by chunks of buried glacial ice of all sizes. areas. Lucky for us we haven't as yet There are even some of these kettle holes that are experienced that growth as other parts of dry because they were not deep enough to reach the the country have. water table. Years ago we took a group of "birders" down to Look for tiny birds Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. While sitting with the couple and watch - We wanted to see the arrival of the snow geese that ing the snow geese on the lake, we heard lots of birds in the area. As I lookedusethatareaasoneoftheirprimerestingandfeed- ing grounds. We had preplanned the trip by arrang- more closely with my glasses, I was able to spot ing for transportation and lodging to make sure we the tiny little kinglets working in the bushes nearby. didn't waste any of our time on the trivia of finding Later in the week by the side of the road we'd seeaplacetostay, eat, etc. those same busy little kinglets as we watched the Whitebread sailboat race that left from Cutchogue Harbor. There were over 100 boats and they filled the bay with their colorful sails. It just goes to prove that you should always carry your binoculars with you. SA • The Suffolk Times • October 26, 2000 Snow geese make rare a earance JUTTOIK i imes photo by Paul Stoutenburgh It is seldom we see snow geese on land or water in any great num- bers. Just recently 25 were spotted on Laurel Lake. It was an unusual sight to see. We took day trips from our motel to the vast reaches of the wildlife refuge that attracts these birds. It is here they come to feed and rest after their long migration from their nesting areas in the tundra of the far north. We stood speechless as we I received a telephone call this week from watched flock after flock drift out of the sky into the a man living on Laurel Lake who was sur- marshes below like great clouds of snow. All about prised to see a flock of 25 or more white us we could hear the haunting cry of the geese as birds out on the lake in front of his house. they came together, almost like old friends chatting That was enough to excite Barbara and me, amongst themselves. so we hopped in the car and went up to see It was one of those rare sights. What a relief it his mysterious white birds. In the back of must have been for them, after flying all day high in our minds, we were hoping they were snow the sky, to find a resting place with food and safety geese, for this is the time of year to see in a wildlife refuge. We are not so fortunate out them. here on the island to be able to see such great Usually we only see one or two snow migrations of snow geese. Only occasionally do a geese mixed in with a greater number of few make a stop here for us to see, and then they Canada geese. When are usually mixed in with the more common FOCUS we arrived, we were Canada geese. pleased to find we had Our caller was anxious to know why the geese ON arrived in time to see NATURE 25 or more snow geese still on the lake. by Paul had chosen the middle of the lake to con - Half were immatures. Stoutenburgh Like our seagulls, the gregate. Surely they were not feeding, for the water was much too deep. The onlydon't obtain their other solution I could come up with washandsome, white adult plumage until the that they were resting there during thesecondorthirdyear. You could tell these day and at night they would take off to were snow geese for they had that charac- nearby fields to feed. These could be teristic snow goose pose and if you looked fields of leftovers from a corn field that carefully, you could see the black wing tips had been disked up or even the new and of their primaries tucked underneath their tender shoots on the fairway of a neigh - feathers. These black wing tips are very boring golf course. After all, they are veg- obvious when the birds are in flight. etarians as all geese are and man has Just a word about Laurel Lake. This is a made his fields so tempting it is hard for deep lake formed by a huge chunk of them to pass them by. glacial ice that was pushed into the group as In some parts of the country snow geese, the glacier slowly moved southward 10,000 because of their increasing numbers, have to 15,000 years ago. Then the weather become a real problem. We all know the changed dramatically and the glacier reced- havoc caused by the common Canada ed, leaving these huge "ice cubes" to slowly geese: messy golf courses, trampled yards melt and form a lake. and the problem of airplanes having diffi- We have two such kettle -hole lakes in Southold culty with geese on the runway. Town, the one in Laurel and one in nearby All these problems are now being shift - Mattituck, Marratooka Lake, which is much larger ed over to the snow geese in places where than Laurel Lake. We find these kettle -hole lakes they are multiplying in great numbers. We throughout Long Island. Lake Ronkonkoma to our only get the stragglers here and not the west is our largest. So you can see, they were quantities that are reported in other formed by chunks of buried glacial ice of all sizes. areas. Lucky for us we haven't as yet There are even some of these kettle holes that are experienced that growth as other parts of dry because they were not deep enough to reach the the country have. water table. Years ago we took a group of "birders" down to Look for tiny birds Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. While sitting with the couple and watch - We wanted to see the arrival of the snow geese that ing the snow geese on the lake, we heard lots of birds in the area. As I lookedusethatareaasoneoftheirprimerestingandfeed- ing grounds. We had preplanned the trip by arrang- more closely with my glasses, I was able to spot ing for transportation and lodging to make sure we the tiny little kinglets working in the bushes nearby. didn't waste any of our time on the trivia of finding Later in the week by the side of the road we'd seeaplacetostay, eat, etc. those same busy little kinglets as we watched the Whitebread sailboat race that left from Cutchogue Harbor. There were over 100 boats and they filled the bay with their colorful sails. It just goes to prove that you should always carry your binoculars with you.