a trip to Brookhaven

Thanks to Dan Wilson, a member of ELIAS and an employee at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, Eileen Schwinn and I had a tour of the lab grounds -- not so much to study the colliders or other mysterious scientific installations but to bird some of the 5000 acres! The Brookhaven facility, originally Camp Upton (remember Irving Berlin's "Yip, Yip, Yaphank"?), eventually became one of the country's major laboratories for advanced scientific work in arcane and sometimes scary fields of research. It was considered ideal for this because of its remoteness! Although much of the area has been disturbed, some of it has remained (until now) quite pristine or has been recovering. Although much of the property is dry pine barrens, there are also notable wetlands (the main sources of the Peconic River are inside the Brookhaven Lab fence) and there are also open fields and meadows as well as a lot of edge habitat.

All of this helps produce large numbers and a substanial variety of birds. Even on a hot, muggy morning in the third week of July, there was an amazing level of activity well into the day. We saw close to fifty species including quite a few singing Indigo Buntings (a species that has increased its number of Long Island significantly), a Yellow-billed Cuckoo (calling and in flight; Black-billed is apparently also present), Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, at least three woodpeckers (Downy, Hairy and Flicker), several Red-tailed Hawks, Osprey (on a nest on a communications tower), an angry hummingbird (presumably Ruby-throated; buzzed us literally inches from my face as we trampled on one of its flower beds), several flycatchers (E. Phoebe, E. Kingbird and Great Crested Flycatcher), a mystery thrush (either Hermit or Veery; seen in flight crossing the road), singing Red-eyed Vireos and Field Sparrows, etc. Lots of young birds including B-c Chickadees, Baltimore and Orchard orioles, Ovenbird (adult with young), Common Yellowthroat, Chipping Sparrows, Barn and N. Rough-winged Swallows. The young Rough-winged Swallows were notable as I cannot recall ever having seen this plumage before. There were two birds perched on a wire looking for all the world like some exotic species of swallow: dark around the face, buffy throat and rusty wing-bars.

Unfortunately, some of this habitat -- perhaps as much as 150 acres -- is due to be cut down for a solar energy project. How ironic that an alternative energy project -- a road presumably paved with good intentions -- should require environmental destruction on a fairly large scale. Exactly which areas are to be used I am not quite sure; I trust that it does not involve the wetlands. I have also been told that the Lab has agreed to purchased 150 additional acres outside the fence as 'mitigation' but whether these will be equivalent to what is being sacrificed, I cannot say.

Eric Salzman