John Turner – Page 2 – Long Island Field Notes

Surviving Winter: Chickadees

With winter’s icy embrace hitting Long Island we tend to respond by spending more time indoors out of the cold, something we all certainly did during this winter’s visit of the polar vortex to Long Island, which dropped nighttime temperatures well below zero. Wild animals, of course, cannot do this. But what they can do is to respond with a wide variety of adaptive behaviors which enables them to survive through the most challenging time of the year. One animal that is especially adept at surviving the winter is a familiar one to anyone with a backyard bird feeding station – the black-capped chickadee.

Winter Bird Flocks

Before the holidays I took a walk along the Suffolk Greenbelt trail in the vicinity of Motor Parkway. As I walked slowly up a rise onto the Ronkonkoma Moraine, the trail took a subtle turn to the right, by a large trailside pitch pine. As I passed the tree I heard the characteristic nasal wank, wank, wank of a white-breasted nuthatch in an oak behind the pine.

Woodpeckers of Long Island

The common woodpecker of suburban Long Island. It is the smallest woodpecker (the size of a house sparrow), is widespread on Long Island, and often visits backyard bird feeders during the colder months. It does well in Long Island’s heavily developed communities since, in addition to larger tracts, it can successfully inhabit small woodland fragments of just a couple of acres in size.

Wonders of Woodpeckers

One of the great joys of being a naturalist is to marvel at the countless adaptations, hiding in plain sight in the natural world surrounding us, that enable living things to survive and prosper. The tendrils of a catbrier, allowing the vine to attach and grow; the arching base of an earth star fungus to assist in spore dispersal; the burs of common burdock to facilitate the spread of seeds; and the sandpaper-like bottom of an osprey’s feet so it can better hold onto slippery prey, are but a few examples that come to mind of the hundreds of adaptations on display in the plant and animal species that share our island home.

Field Notes is a project of Seatuck Environmental Association, Inc. All Rights Reserved 2017®