kayaking on a green pond

Last night's BBQ at the Quogue Wildlife Refuge gave me the chance to do my yearly kayak excursion around the Old Ice Pond. The Ice Pond was formed by damming Quantuck Creek near the spot where Old Country Road was built many years ago (long before Montauk Highway). The Fairy Dell part of the Refuge (south of Old Country Road) is the more familiar tidal zone of Quantuck Creek  but the Ice Pond is purely fresh and the whole water system is connected to the ground water aquifer.

This was in fact the site of an ice business in the days before refrigeration. In the 1930s, it was purchased by a group of local hunters (Southampton Township Wildfowl Association or STWA) as a refuge for ducks and geese in a day when the waterfowl populations -- locally and nationally -- were drastically diminished. The hunters introduced Mallards (originally a Western species only) and Canada Geese (previously seen here only in the winter) so that they would have something to shoot! And, indeed, Mallards and Canada Geese were the dominant residents for many years. New York State managed the Refuge until 2006 but, when the lease ran out, it reverted to the STWA and is now managed as a non-profit nature organization run by Michael and Marisa Nelson, Somehow funded locally and very beautifully managed!

The refuge has a lot of trails, mostly cutting through the Pine Barrens and heading up to a detached piece of the Dwarf Pine Plains. It is watered by Quantuck Creek which forms wet spots from the top of the Refuge on down but the big puddle is the Ice Pond. This idyllic location, surrounded almost entirely by dense vegetation and dotted with leafy islands, can be seen from only a few spots on the trails (the Nature Center, the open area near the injured wildlife cages, the wooden bridge and swamp platform on the lower trail). To really see this aquatic gem properly you have to get out on the water and paddle around (no motor boats here!).

Although it was windy with scudding clouds and dusk was fast approaching, it was a real treat to glide around the pond and get glimpses of an old Long Island that scarcely exists anymore. Barn Swallows, Tree Swallows (nesting in gourds), and a few Purple Martins were gleaning the last of the day's insects over and around the water while overhead an Osprey soared and a somewhat unexpected Little Blue Heron came flapping by. From the shores you could hear a chorus of Catbirds -- also often seen crossing the pond in low, direct flight -- and occasional bursts of song from Yellow Warbler (nesting on the islands), Common Yellowthroats and Eastern Towhee. A calling Northern Flicker and dark flocks of Common Grackles completed the picture.

The dense vegetation around the shores and on the islands also included a number of fresh wetland species of which I could identify Water Willow, Sheep Laurel (in bloom) and Swamp Azalea (also in bloom). A low plant with a white inflorescence in umbel form lined the shores of several of the islands but I did not succeed in identifying it from my kayak perch.

Eric Salzman