Irene brings us tropical weather and a tropical bird

We were without power or phone or internet for two days. Phone service came back last night, electricity at 4:30 am this morning. Without electricity, we had no running water (we have an electric pump and, since a new well and pump were installed about 10 years ago, our old hand pump is no longer connected). However we had filled every available container in the house from bottles to bathtubs with water. And we also had candles (and matches) at the ready.

The storm hit Sunday morning before dawn and, although there was a fairly big storm surge, the water never reached the house. And there was no wind damage on or around the house although the place was strewn with broken branches, leaves and hickory nuts. An account of the storm -- written as events were still proceeding and the battery on my laptop was still holding out -- is included below.

By Sunday afternoon, as the storm moved off, there were birds active on Weesuck Creek, seen from the edge of the pond, from our neighbor's (damaged) dock near the mouth of the pond, from the end of Weesuck Avenue and from Aldrich Boat Yard. There were several Royal Terns, at least one Black Skimmer and a pod of a half a dozen or more Black Terns, all in winter plumage. These last-named, uncommon on the creek and rarely seen so close, were circling and picking food off the surface of the water right off shore, giving superb views. Sometimes they would soar up high, showing their distinctive silhouette with a squarish tail. These birds were dark on the back ranging from black to dark gray; a few, probably young birds, had dark brown or reddish brown tints in the mantle plumage. The white underparts as well as white facial and neck markings made a striking contrast to the dark mantle, black bill, cap and ear patch.

At one point, I noticed that one of the birds, although similar in many ways (acting in a similar manner, picking food off the surface), was in fact quite different. The bird was bigger with a longer black bill, less contrast on the head (a fairly thick black line seemed to extend the black of the bill right through the eye but there was only a light grayish cap on a white head), and, most striking of all, a deeply forked tail with white on it. I followed this bird as it made wider and wider arcs from one side of the creek to the other. Eventually it landed on a piece of floating debris where I could get a good view of it perched. This sleek, storm-blown bird was one of the tropical terns: a BRIDLED TERN, Sterna anaethetus, carried in from the Gulf Stream by Irene to provide a remarkable record for Weesuck Creek! I am no expert on Bridled Tern plumages but I would guess that this was a subadult bird part way into full adult plumage. It was #237 on my Birds of Weesuck Creek list (birds from the property, from the creek itself and adjacent areas).

Here are my notes from Sunday morning:

"I woke up this morning at c. 7 am to the sound of wind and rain -- a serenade that heralded the arrival of Hurricane Irene. Stormy as things were, the electricity was still functioning and I was able to make some breakfast and sit myself on the porch to watch the progress of the storm. At 8:12 we lost electricity and the sight of water creeping up the path from the pond toward the house began to become a matter of some concern. The bay was looking like the ocean with substantial waves breaking just off the rapidly disappearing shore line and then running unopposed across the marsh and even into the woods. As high tide approached, marsh, pond and creek all overflowed. This was not a flood from rain but a storm surge from the bay abetted by the continuous, punishing winds from the southwest helping to push the water up and over. Incredibly enough, these waves began rolling into the woods creating a surf line at the base of the trees and rolling ever further inland. Only the presence of a slightly higher narrow berm of high ground INSIDE the woods seem to prevent the water from crossing over to the higher open ground in front of the house! [Editor's note: the narrow berm of high ground was nothing but the line of debris dumped by the water.]

There is a large piece of blue styrofoam, formerly sitting on the path in the marsh, but now carried in to a point where it is blocked by a tree well inland. An old dock spinning by in the swollen creek waters was perhaps the same old dock that sat in the middle of the marsh and which I have used as a look-out post for the past two or three years!

The storm surge had another surprising effect. It pushed local ground water -- which is very near the surface here -- back and up so that our old right-of-way and more than one basement on Randall Lane was flooded, not with salt water, but with water from the upper aquifer. Our house is on a kind of sandy dome which is high enough, far-back enough and porous enough that it does not floods. But the land just to the southwest slopes down to an old creek bed which used to run from above Montauk Highway and which still forms (via the underground aquifer) the source of our marsh. Most of the old creek bed proper is covered in dense vegetation but the land on either side of it forms a kind of bowl through which rainwater runs and which can fill up either from heavy rains or from water back-up in case of storm surge. The pressure of the salt water storm tide literally pushes the upper water table back and up.

By 9:30, the tide began to run out and by 10:30, the surf was no longer crashing over the marsh and through the woods. All the water -- the puddles on Randall Lane, the water on our old right-of-way, even the flooded basement water in the Randall Lane houses -- began to recede. No big trees or even large limbs seem to have fallen and, although the winds continue to blow, the rain has stopped. Still no electricity either in the house system or from this battery which is running down and will shortly shut down the computer."

Eric Salzman