On the Road

Aside from the persistent "drink your tea" of an Eastern Towhee and an occasional Yellow Warbler "me, me, me. look at me", there wasn't much going on in the Samuel & Frances K. Salzman Preserve (that's the official name of the woods and marsh area next to our East Quogue house). So, in spite of the threat of rain, I took off with Eileen Schwinn for a road tour. First stop (after the post office and car repair shop) was ex-Grumman a.k.a. EPCAL. Although there has been some new construction and some road work, the western runway is still unused, accessible and fringed with grasslands. Our aim was to find out what birds were in residence or passing through this extensive habitat. However the weather was not cooperative; the best we could manage was a wet runway ride with few birds -- an occasional E Meadowlark flying or singing, an overflying Osprey attacked by crows and a few zip-by sparrows dropping down into the grass. One bird that paused on dead stem was almost certainly not the expected Grasshopper Sparrow but a probable Vesper -- by silhouette and also by its buzzy zip call. 

As the rain let up, we passed out of Gumman/Epcal on the north side, crossed Route 25 and investigated VOR -- not, as you might think, "Vesper Ornithological Reserve" but "VHF Omnidirectional Radio Range" -- an open field with a navigational radio system signalling the approaches to the Metropolitan New York airports. Of course, no sooner did we enter the paved road that leads to the bowling-pin-like signal tower, than a Riverhead Police car pulled in to question us. "Oh, birdwatchers. Well okay." And he left us alone to discover the delgihts of this area which included both Orchard and Baltimore Orioles (the Baltimore apparently a first-year bird not quite in full plumage and singing a somewhat odd song), Blue-winged, Prairie and Yellow-rumped Warblers, Field Sparrow, Eastern Kingbird, and, best of all, calling N. Bobwhite (not a bird you take for granted anymore on LI).

Our last stop was a duck farm somewhat to the west where we discovered a bank of low clay cliffs with Bank and Rough-winged Swallows apparently getting ready to nest. Other swallows, probably also nesting on the farm, were Barn and Tree; ditto for the Chimney Swifts. There were not many shore birds but two good species were present and accounted for: Wilson's Snipe and Solitary Sandpiper (plus Spotted Sandpiper and Killdeer). Yellow Warblers singing everywhere. We had a nice chat with one of the managers of the farm who confirmed to us that owls -- Barn Owls almost certainly -- nested in some of the structures and, in spite of 'improvements' to some of the buildings, might still nest there -- or maybe not. Since the duck farm is obviously overrun with rodents, we suggested the installation of Barn Owl boxes to encourage larger populations of this relentless and ultra-efficient rodent hunter! The idea comes from an Israeli ornithologist who installs Barn Owl boxes (and Kestrel boxes) to encourage natural bird-operated rodent control, allowing farmers to cut down drastically on pesticide use. Hope our new friend at the duck farm picks up on the idea!

Eric Salzman