black and white birds

A propos of the LI rivers (a subject of recent posts): John Turner writes me that the Nissequogue, as with all other streams and rivers on Long Island, is also groundwater fed. The Carmans River, he points out, receives about 94% of its flow from groundwater that seeps in from along its banks and through the river bottom! That makes our water system quite different from almost everyone else (where streams, creeks and rivers are primarily drainage).

When I head down to the pond early in the morning these days there are almost invariably a dozen large all black birds and at least a half dozen brilliant white ones. The black ones are, of course, crows in a noisy mixture of adult and young birds. The white birds are Great Egrets (with an occasional Snowy mixed in) which roost on and in the dead and dying trees along the backside of the pond waiting for the tide to go out. Even when they are put to flight by my lumbering presence on the path, they are reluctant to leave circling around to find another perch where they can survey the scene. Often they fly around a bit and then perch directly ahead of me on the pond-side path where they are, of course, flushed again as I move forward.

Some new flowers have started to appear in what now seems like definitively summer weather. These include the charming Deptford Pink and the gorgeous Venus' Looking Glass, both tiny flowers of great beauty and both blooming in storm-ravaged open areas.

Eric Salzman