Plum Island

Plum Island is undoubtedly the most mysterious location on Long Island and, as the home of the U.S. Animal Disease Laboratory, it certainly has the scariest reputation. This piece of glacial moraine, just off the tip of Orient Point, is one of a series of islands and promontories in the region that were formerly the site of elaborate coastal fortifications and defenses meant to protect us from enemy attack by sea. Since the Animal Disease Center was established there in 1954, the island has become the subject of many controversies and conspiracy theories, mostly having to do with germ warfare. In recent years, the Department of Homeland Security, which has taken possession of the facility and the island, has instituted a program of community outreach permitting visitors to tour the facility and the island under highly controlled circumstances. The laudable aim is to defuse the atmosphere of mystery and fear surrounding this place. The tour for birders which took place this morning was part of that effort.

The first part of the visit consisted of a talk by the lab's director and a visit to one of the lab facilities. Not bird-watching heaven although somewhat reassuring about the scientific and medical aims of the facility. At 11 am, the indoor part of the tour ended with a visit to a coastal area just back of the main lab building where a rehabilitated Osprey -- a young bird that had been injured -- was being released. With this release successfully accomplished, a brief tour of the island's habitats gave us a relatively short snapshot of its bird life and natural history.

First the mammal highlight. Although ordinary land mammals are not welcome on Plum Island, the island has become known as a major hauling-out place for seals. It would be no surprise to see seals here in the winter but it was a treat to see them in the summer. Several large-headed animals were seen from the shore, all them apparently Gray Seals, an creature that was, not very long ago, considered scarce even in the northern latitudes that are the center of its distribution.

Another northerner that was seen several times around the edges of the island was Common Eider. Again this is a creature that one would expect to see in the winter but the presence of these birds here in the summer suggests that they may be breeding on the island (they have bred, if I am not mistaken, on nearby Fisher's Island). This is a remarkable exception to the rule that climate change is pushing southern birds north. This is a northerner that is expanding to the south and Plum Island may be Exhibit B.

Two young Turkey Vultures, perched on the roof of one of the abandoned buildings of the old Fort Tyler, also suggest that these birds may have birthed on the island. The first documented breeding on Long Island was in an abandoned fortification in Camp Hero in Montauk in a very similar kind of habitat.

Perhaps the most spectacular avian sights on the island were the agglomerations of terns and swallows. Terns were everywhere -- fishing in the straits on the side of the island, perched on the adjacent jetties and rocks with myriad young birds calling to be fed by their parents. Most of these birds were Common Terns -- numbering in the thousands -- but there were a few Roseates, Forster's and Black Terns mixed in. I'm not sure if any of these terns actually bred on Plum Island but it should be pointed out that Great Gull Island, the next island over and also a former military establishment, is home to one of the largest tern colonies in the world (dominated by Common Terns but also including considerable numbers of the much rarer Roseate Terns).

The island was also playing host to thousands of Tree Swallows as well as smaller number of Barn Swallows, moving through in their annual migration. The swarms of Tree Swallows, each flock containing hundreds of birds, filled the air over the natural island greenery, presumably hunting insects, and occasionally landing to perch side-by-side on long stretches of wire. The migration of the Tree Swallows is one of Long Island's great bird spectacles and the Plum Island gatherings precede their continuing flight though coastal Long Island.

There were small numbers of shore birds seen (including a possible Hudsonian Godwit in flight -- seen by me but no one else) and a Belted Kingfisher. In the raptor department, there was a Red-tailed Hawk, a Northern Harrier and of course, many Osprey. A gray-backed accipiter was briefly seen by two or three people in the group who ID'd it as a possible Goshawk (although all male accipiters are gray-backed). A fair number of familiar passerines were seen in both the densely vegetated and more open areas including Willow Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird and an American Redstart.

Since it has been announced that the Animal Disease Laboratory will move to Manhattan, Kansas, it looks like Plum Island may soon be on the block. Environmentalists and others would like to see it preserved from development. Along with Great Gull Island (currently owned by the American Museum of Natural History) and Gardiners Island (if it ever comes on the market), Plum Island could serve as the nucleus of a superb East End Islands National Park.

Eric Salzman