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Home My WebLink AboutSeptember 30, 2004 - 'A good bird to have around' � • The Suffolk Times • September 30, 2004 O O �� o ave aroun . .� �. . �� , . . ,�" � ,,,,,,,�„ ,. r �" ._,..... _ ��"i / ��llh� �lIllill��lllql�r�ll��i��.ii��i�pl�lllkl�.�rll��„llil l�� i!i I lY� �NNr��r�� .,..,,�� ,l l � i vl II'�� i��i � � �.- �- i i Y�� I I'I„ ��N�� l,�//"N l%lr�'(A�M�� (l�� rni I lA� I�lll� /�/i ��i�'Il�G�l,l ,.� . � '�� . �` � ...��.-�� !• wa..� � il ,N�WIM,�ill�l��i��r��allw�Ill� ��Grodi4/l�V a��jW��M I��j��I�I�'I��i�iill� , _ �. , �� ° �„ �% �,'u-�1�1�� _ . . �, . �, . � �' _ r� �� r . � � " �� /.e �' : . ��'ti+�T M.� r t' �,� 'i 's ��.. '" � ,';�. . „��,,;.� . �.�+� . j., ��Ir � �. !!��w '1� r "';,,r. �r �,s^•'+ �,y,�,��,� „ '� '��„�,�,w �;�;dr�+py„ ��'�� .'� ,,+�r �,"" , �,� ►w��i�.".�'}.C��,,`.: )x•b:�.�•� f »yry ,�'.�.!�"A � a t{ �,(�4",�N"•�„��'`.� �«� �",M.•• i L" `4»t .��:�f , y.. 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" .� —�. . .. „ �. ::...,.. .,., .,,.._ ....�.,;'� ....�,,,�,;.,we` . _ . � . + � „' � - . • �."._uw,�.^..-�..,„, ..+wd,.'..", ' ,....w .. .. . ..�� I�+`-�. .., .. �µ..�:.; -• ....... . ,�. �. .�� . . . Times/Review photo by Barbara Stoutenbureh Above: These tree swallows were just a few of the 5,000 to 10,000 swal- � lows milling about in a great cloud over the dunes at Smith Point. They � use the barrier beach to travel westward on the island, eventually winter- � ing in the warmer Southern states. Right: Lucky is the person who lures �",��' a pair of these tree swallows to a nesting box. They will help rid your area of all sorts of insects, including mosquitoes. flies, greenheads and just �4� about any other insect that flies. ;� ;�,. AT�rH�sTimi� �>r ycar.ha��ks � � . � migrate south;a good place to sce �'�' ^" �� "`""�� ° them is along our south shore.One of � ` � r� . �� thc easiest places to observe them is �� at Smith Point,right on the ocean. �r° �"'� �" , �, ' ,� And so,Barbara and I packed a lunch � �' � �" � for a hawk-watching day. ' "� � :� � �,, ��- �%p'�� ,"�r '�' � To get to Smith Point is quite sim- �,�� ,� ,� n ple.Just head west on any of our high- �' ways until you come to William Floyd �� '� � � „� r^^� ' � Parkway,which cuts across the island. "° �,,, �� ,'� , � Get on that and go as far south as you � —_ can.You'll end up at the airfield-sized ��„� ��"1OW�'r„'YO t' ��"'��101`ore"rg�, county parlcing lot (no charge for parking now).To the west of that F'�C V$ is the famous Fire Island ON National Sea- NaTURE shore.That's by Paul �'here we would Stoutenburgh Park the car and walk. turne a cer a�n way,t at w iteness We would head for the newly sur- would 11ash almost as if someone had faced boardwalk that wanders in back pushed a switch and lit them up.It of the dunes.Fire Island National was a fascinating sight to see.These Seashore has provided this special birds flew so close to each other that seaside walk for the disabled.It's wide they moved as one great,rotating ball. and spacious,with benches here and All around me were moving birds.It there far resting.If you bear to the reminded me of when I used to work left,it leads you out onto the ocean with bees.When they swarmed,you beach,where we were amazed to see could stand amongst them as they tree swallows resting by the thou- milled about you.So it was now,as I sands.The beach actually became stood there with the birds swarming black from their dark bodies. all around me with their continual sof Some swallows were restless and chatter. would fly up in small groups,then The tree swallow is the first swallow There's a move ahead,onl to settle a ain.It ran er station there,with a stairwa y g to return in the spring.Usually the g y seemed they moved as if given a com- males come in first to check out the up to the second floor,that gives you mand.As the took off others came in a ood view of ever thin that oes Y ' availability of nesting cavities.Once g Y g g to replace them.It was a continual the male has found one,it will defend by.Sorry to say,the only things that movement of flashin win s.I'd never reeted us when we ot there were g g , it against all other comers.The site is g g seen anything quite like it before.I d three deer and one lone monarch but- always a cavity of some sort,whethcr seen swallows eating bayberries in it's in an old woodpecker's hole ar terfly.Monarch butterflies have been small quantities,but nothing like this. one of man's bird boxes.And here's devastated by cold weather and loss o �/e had chosen the rime da for thei habitat,and we're ver concerned p y where a conflict comes in:Tree swal- about the future of these once-abun- migrating. lows often takc over bluebird boxes, Swallows,as we've said,live on fly- and so we have to work u a new dant migrants.We've been at Smith ing insects,and when the insects go Point when ou literall couldn't strategy for our bluebird boxes. Y Y and the last of the bayberries are Tree swallows are found across count the number of monarchs mov- �one.the swallows move south along ing westward,there were so many of the Atlantic coast to Georgia,Florida America.They're the one swallow tha them.But on this day we would see and the Gulf states,and some go all nests more or less individually,not in onl three. groups such as you would see with Y he way to Puerto Rico.Flying insects hznk swallows,cliff swallows And so it was with the hawks.One etermine where they go. ,barn kestrel,and that was all.The wind We clecided to et closer to the swallows and others.Here on the was right.We just happened to miss North Fork we often see these fall m� mg swallows,so we walked mi rations of swallows, them for some reason.As we got out g particularly of the car and looked to the far along the beach,sat down in the out in Orient,where I've seen them northwest,I could see Brookhaven's shelter of the dunes,and watched land in trees and the limbs literally mounds of garbage that the locals with our binoculars.All the birds bent down under the weight of the call Mt.Trashmore.Then we were were heading into the wind,like a birds.But even those couldn't match excited to see literally thousands of giant weathervane.In back of us up to the quantity we saw at Smith tree swallows milling about like great �'as the rugged dune grass that Point last week. wisps of smoke,undulating up and through eons of time created the Scientists tell us our earth is warm- down,settling and then taking off dunes by collecting the windblown �ng up,and one of the measurements sand around its stems.The big again.What the swallows were doing they use is a 30-year study of the dates was landing on the abundant bayber- clumps of seaside goldenrod were of returning tree swallows at a partic- ry bushes and feasting on the berries. not yet in bloom.Secretly we ular location.This returning date has The tree swallow is the only swallow hoped that was the reason we moved up nine days in that time, that doesn't live exclusively on haddt seen the monarchs,for they meaning that insects are out nine days insects. Interesting to note,on the feed on the goldenrod blossoms as earlier than they used to be.Cold Christmas bird counts that are done they pass along on their daylight weather would have kept them in,bu[ hcre on the island,often we get migration south.The wind was still because of the Earth's warming trend, reports of individual tree swallows in blowing out of the north,and yet we they now find the insects are out earli- the middle of the winter,existing on saw no hawks.In the past,when we er and tree swallows are back and ba berries along the barrier beach. were here on good hawk days,we nesting earlier.It's this kind of solid might have seen more than 500 hawk information that tells the truth about in one hour. global warming. We decided to move closer,and so And so you see we have a bird quite we got up and walked toward the common to the North Fork,quite mass of resting birds.Some became common to the eastern seaboard ancl uneasy and took off so close together 9uite common throughout America. that they looked like puffs of smoke, Look for this insect gatherer with its their white bellies showing as they white belly and iridescent,steely bluc- rose over our heads.When they green back,a bird that we see on the wind snapping up the greenheads,flies and flying insecls of all sorts.A good bird to have around.