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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApril 25, 2002 - The subject is birds, birds, birdsThe Suffolk Times * April 25, 2002 WE HAVE A SMALL POND down In the pasture that was used for irrigation years ago. Since then multiflora rose and Russian olive have taken over its edges, along with a swamp maple I brought from Manorville years ago. Also around the edge are willows, the kind you can start by breaking off a limb and pushing it in a wet area where it will-take root and grow. I did that with four or five branches and. now we have tall and mature willows growing around the pond. It is a haven for attracting birds and animals of all kinds. Water is most important to all Focus Wildlife, and to have a well -land- ON scaped edge with NATURE bushes and trees for cover makes by Paul it the ideal place Stoutemburgh to come and get a drink. Years ago we had it dug out because it had shal- lowed with silt through the years and there was little water left in it. We put some goldfish in to keep the mosqui- toes down which, by the way, is an easy way to keep your little garden ponds and big birdbaths free of mos- quito larvae. Ask for feeder fish at your local pet shop. They're most effi- cient. Lately when I go out to close up the animals in the evening, I hear the male peepers' joyous songs down by the pond, their chorus luring the females to the mating game. Once mating takes place, eggs will be laid, and in time black pollywogs will hatch and work their way out into the pond, where they will feed on a variety of minute plant and animal life. As they grow they will gradually change from pollywogs to little frogs. It's then they'll leave the pond to forage in the fields and woods. There they will stay, quietly enjoying the pursuit of tiny insects like flies, mosquitoes, gnats, As I sit on our back porch writing, my eye is caught by the flight of a crow. This single bird moves quietly in the top of our neighbor's trees. Gradually it half hops, half flies to the left, until it makes its way to a bundle of sticks. Now I see much movement going on and a single crow leaves the nest. Could there be eggs up there and one adult has come to relieve the other so it can forage for food? Evidently both male and female help The subject is birds, birds , birds Times /Review photo by Paul Stoutenburgh This healthy, young great horned owl is probably 3 to 4 weeks old. Go back another 30 days, more or less, for incubating and another month or so for courting and we are in February, when the great horned owl nests. The reason it can nest so early, ahead of others, is that its food supply of rodents, rab- bits, etc., is available throughout the year. to mcut)atmg the eggs. This is the time for young mals. They, too, have of all sorts to awaken to become domesticated in a new world. the sense that they haveBobcalledmefrombeenabletolivealongSoutholdandaskedifIwiththeredwings, grack- wanted to see some les and starlings that eke young owls. Barbara and out a living on the insectsIweresoonoff, and that are found through - when we reached our out the land. rendezvous, sure enough, My last little bit,of up in a great oak were chitchat (and that seems two fluffy, young great to be what this week's horned owls that hadn't flown as et. The mothery article is made up of) is flew away as we ap- that I went on my first fishing trip with my sonproached, but not too far, and grandson. No, we for I'm sure she had us in didn't catch any fish but Ihersightandshouldwe must say we tried. Wehavethreatenedherthoughttheflounders young, we might have might be in the creeks been attacked. Great and so, with a few mus- horned owls are noted Here's a bird that got its name from sets as bait, we tried our for being very aggressive living around cows. They stay close to best. when they have young or the cow which, much to the delight of We launched the boat their nest is in danger. the cowbird, picks up grasshoppers from my son's pickup atOneofthedelightsofandinsectsofallkindsasitmovestheendoftheroad. We spring is the ever - chang- about feeding. Cowbirds were never rowed a short distance to ing world that is around as common here in the east as they the deep-water where weus. A perfect example of are today. They were a creature of the had caught flounders last this was the other day western plains and traveled with the year. My, how dead thewhenBarbaraandIbuffalo, with the same habits of eating marsh looked. Soon pulled into our driveway. insects that the buffalo stirred up as it green shoots will start to At the end is a rose arbor grazed. Then as the buffalo disap- appear and once again where I had just put up a peared, the cowbirds turned to the our marsh will become birdhouse my kids had domestic animals such as horses and that beautiful, green, given me for my birthday. cows, and that's where you'll fi nd swaying masterpiece we They not only gave me them today. As a matter of fact, you'll know so well. Yet even in one, they gave me 16! see them even in areas without ani- its dead stage during theThisparticularonewinter, the salt marsh was attached to the rose adding to its compost, arbor brought a pair of which in turn will create curious chickadees. I the nutrients that will don't know who was continually flow back into who, but first one flew . our creeks to nourish the into the box, stayed a short time an plankton that our fish and then popped out. Then the other one shellfish rely on. went in, presumably checking it out As grandfather, father and grandson for a possible nesting site. With this in sat in the boat hoping for a bite, an mind, if you are thinking of putting osprey flew up the creek trailing a birdhouses up, you want to get to it, long stalk of some sort. We watched it for now is the time new tenants are fly to its nest on a pole in the middle around checking on the best buy. of the marsh where the female was sit - Right near the arbor with the bird- ting. This is rebuilding time for old house nailed to it my two cows were ospreys. It's new building time for grazing. They are so glad to see that green pasture come to life. All winter young ospreys starting up their first nests. Sometimes when we put these long they subsisted on hay, but soon I'll platforms up, they are immediately wean them off that and leave them to taken. Other times it takes years just pasture. As I watched them munch before someone will claim them. It's away on the new shoots of grass, I saw all in the whims of nature what will be cowbirds movie around them. will be. It's a wonderful world. Get out and eniov it.