Evermore?

Here's an amazing story.

A pair of Common Ravens made a nest on the Hampton Bays water tower, produced three young (two of whom survived) and no one noticed!

Almost.

People who worked there were aware of the nesting; they just didn't realize that it was anything unusual. One of the young ravens got sick or injured and was taken to the Quogue Wildlife Refuge. The poor thing expired but not before conveying the information that there were ravens in our midst! It happened that someone from SOFO was visiting and reported back to home base: Ravens in Hampton Bays! Jim Ash and Hugh McGuinness saw the birds yesterday afternoon. I heard the news, got there late yesterday afternoon, and saw one of the birds on the ground in the distance. I went there again this morning and saw two birds -- probably the two youngsters -- cavorting on and around the tower.

How come nobody noticed? These are big birds (the biggest of all the so-called 'song birds') with massive beaks and a large, lozenge-shaped tail and they had to have there -- right in sight of downtown Hampton Bays -- for three months or so!

Common Raven has a world-wide distribution and is one of the few birds that lives year-round in the high Arctic. In North America, it is most common in the west and particularly in mountainous country. In the northeast, it was always uncommon being mostly found in the more rugged parts of New England and places like the Adirondacks. In recent years, the population has been rather dramatically on the increase and expanding to the south; Ravens have, for example, started appearing in the Palisades on the Hudson River. In 2010, to everyone's surprise, a pair nested on an old tower in a park in Queens and it was subsequently discovered that they had nested successfully in 2009 as well! Now suddenly we find they're in Hampton Bays and they have been there at least since March or April. They built a nest on the water tower (now vanished), laid eggs, incubated them, hatched three youngsters, fed them and finally fledged them -- all this spring! And nobody noticed until a sick bird was brought to the Quogue Refuge!

The Hampton Bays water tower is just south of the Hampton Bays LIRR station. There is a paved road that goes from Ponquogue Avenue past the Suffolk County Water Authority site. The Authority does not encourage visitors but the birds can be seen from the road through the fence. There is a lawn with a faucet that is permanently turned on not far from the fence and the birds are often there. They can also be seen on and around the water tower itself.

Eric Salzman