As an example let’s take the blue jay, a bird just about everybody knows since it’s a common species in suburbia, often frequenting backyard feeders and making jay! jay! sounds as pairs and packs fly about the neighborhood. Blue jays are wonderful examples in better understanding bird coloration…
If you visit just about any salt marsh fringing Long Island’s interdigitated coastline, you’ll experience the fiddlers – they simply can’t be avoided. And while you won’t hear fiddle music, despite the fact there are many hundreds if not thousands of fiddler’s ceaselessly “rosining up their bows”…
One of the many joys of summer in Suffolk County is spending time in the backyard relaxing with a book, swimming in the pool, gardening, or enjoying a family meal together. I’ve come to realize that during these backyard experiences we’re often not alone.
On an Indian summer kind of morning in mid-October, I decided to explore the Preserve owned by the Villageof Nissequogue at the end of Long Beach Road, on the north side of Stony Brook Harbor. I was hoping to see a lingering diamondback terrapin in the marshes fringing this side of the harbor.
When it comes to cavities it’s all about what kind. A large cavity in your molar? A trip to the dentist because it’s a problem you need to have treated immediately. A deep cavity in the road you travel on to go to the dentist? Worth a phone call to the Superintendent of Highways before it destroys any tires and rims.
Fine spring days have me clipping and raking in the garden. When the weather starts to warm we tend to clean up our homes inside and out, putting winter past us and readying our “nests” for a new season. Outside this is not so much a chore for me, but a pleasurable activity as I am also looking for signs of rejuvenation.
Many Long Islanders look forward to the winter. It’s a time for skiing, skating, sledding, and snowman building. It’s an invitation to walk along quiet coastal beaches devoid of the maddening crowds, and it certainly provides the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends during the holidays.
Every morning has its share of routine chores: get-newspaper, retrieve-garbage-cans, check-weather, wash-breakfast-dishes, etc., etc., etc… But then, there are mornings when chores get interrupted by the force of an unexpected event… as recently happened to me on a November morning, not long ago.
If you love observing the natural world, once in a while you receive a gift. Maybe it’s a special moment of excitement such as with an osprey hitting the water with talons flaring and, with labored flight, lifting off the surface with a writhing fish firmly ensconced. Perhaps it’s a moment of intimacy provided by a doe nuzzling her fawn or a mother cottontail rabbit licking her newborn young.
A few weekends ago Georgia and I decided to explore McAllister County Park in the Village of Belle Terre with the goal of seeing some winter birds, and secretly hoping to spy a Snowy Owl, a winter visitor occasionally seen here. This not-well-known county park is on the east side of Port Jefferson Harbor and consists of a mined out section of the Harbor Hill Terminal Moraine and a sand spit that extends west to the jetty connecting the harbor with Long Island Sound.