Cupsogue

The East Quogue Birder Contingent -- Eileen Schwinn, Mike Higgiston and the undersigned -- were joined at Cupsogue this morning by Byron Young. Cupsogue, the county park on the east side of Moriches Inlet forms, along with Pike's Beach a little further east, what is just about the best shore and water bird destination on the East End of Long Island -- even on a foggy morning like this one. The sea fog eliminated the possibility of any kind of sea watch but it was still possible to see the birds on the bay shore, Conditions were actually quite good: an early morning low tide exposed the sand flats where the birds like to hang out and the fog, which lifted a little as the morning progressed, kept the hot sun out of our faces.

The initial impetus for the visit came from a report of a Red-necked Stint said to be hanging out with the Short-billed Dowitchers. Well, there were plenty of dowitchers but we didn't find the Stint. We did manage to make out two WILSON'S PHALAROPES showing their unique silhouettes as they fed in the shallow pools just off our shoreline perch, alternately swimming and walking, spinning slowly, jabbing and picking at the water in classic phalarope fashion. Other shorebirds seen included a Pectoral Sandpiper (looked like a big Least), one or two Red Knots, a couple of Spotted Sandpipers, a single Sanderling (oddly enough in breeding plumage), numbers of Least Sandpipers, a few Semipalmated Sandpipers, one possible White-rumped Sandpiper (picked out because of its scratchy call) and a few Semipalmated and Black-bellied Plovers. Numbers of Black Skimmers and many Common Terns were seen along with two or three Least Terns but alas, no other terns emerged from the mist. Boat-tailed Grackles were active and noisy and the dunes were surprisingly birdy with Willow Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Brown Thrasher, Common Yellowthroat and Yellow Warbler all in evidence.

On another subject: Yesterday evening, I was working on the manuscript of Lorna Salzman's forthcoming book, "Politics as if Evolution Mattered", when the question arose about how to identify Gregor Mendel. Mendel, an Augustinian friar in the Moravian town of Brunn, did the classic studies on inheritance using the common garden or sweet pea and his discoveries proved to be the basis of the modern science of genetics (information which eluded Darwin but proved to be complementary to and supportive of his 'evolution by natural selection'). Mendel was a German-speaking subject of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire but the city of Brunn is now Brno in the Czech Republic. So I went to the computer to google 'Mendel' and discovered that the letters of the word 'Google' were spelled out on the screen in pea-pods! Curious as to why, I clicked on the pea-pods and discovered that it was Mendel's birthday! I also discovered -- this will mean something only to any opera-loers out there -- that the organist for the church service at Mendel's funeral was Leos Janacek! And, of course, Janacek wrote an opera in which the cast includes foxes, a badger, an owl, a woodpecker, various other birds as well as a cricket, frog, grasshopper, mosquito, spider, moths, etc.

Eric Salzman