Category Archives: Four Harbors Audubon Society

Painted Lady At Young’s Island

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Sunday, October 7, 2012,

Two weeks ago I found myself on Young’s Island in Stony Brook Harbor. The island is largely made up from the sand dredged out of West Meadow Creek and Stony Brook Harbor itself. Despite being man-made, the island is now DEC protected, and no one is supposed to land on there. It’s protected because it has become a very important nesting area for Piping Plovers and Least Terns, both of which are disappearing far too quickly. It’s also a very popular nesting area for several species of gulls and shorebirds. This is a good place to spy Oystercatchers, which just might be the most striking looking shorebirds that grace our fair island.

Now, this post is supposed to be about the butterfly in the photographs, correct? What’s all this yakking about protected species and islands? And what was I doing on a DEC protected island in the first place, right? Well, dear reader, while I rarely mention it, I am a member of the Four Harbors Audubon Society. Shucks, I’m even on the board. I’m the photographer. Now that’s a surprise, huh? Anyways, for the past two years, Four Harbors has received permission to kayak to Young’s Island and clean it up. I like to volunteer, because while picking up trash is even less glamorous than it seems, it affords me the chance to photograph some almost unspoiled shore land, and the critters within. Plus it’s kinda cool walking around where few others get to go. Of course, we’re not the only only ones who actually go there. Not all of the trash we pick up is washed ashore. This year, one of the larger pieces of garbage was a four person tent. It would seem that others enjoy being here as well. I don’t blame them for being there, I just wish they’d take their belongings with them.

Alright already. Yes, these are pics of a butterfly. A Painted Lady Butterfly. I know almost nothing about them, even my friend Sue from Four Harbors had to identify it for me. The only thing I know about Painted Ladies is that my Mom always told me to steer clear of them. I don’t understand; I mean, it’s just a butterfly. Mom never warned me about wasps. Go figure. JK

 

       

My First Bluebird

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Sunday, February 26, 2012,

This is the Eastern Bluebird. It’s the New York State Bird and I think it’s the first one I’ve ever seen. It’s certainly the first one I’ve ever photographed. Maybe I need to get out more. Now, as have claimed from time to time, I am not a birder. At best, I’m a lousy birder. Honest. Don’t get me wrong, I love being out there and taking the pics but a good deal of the time I don’t know what I’m looking at. That was indeed the case here.

I was enjoying a long overdue visit to Avalon this past week when I saw this bird. Avalon’s open fields are amongst my favorite places to shoot as all that daylight can make for for great shots. That being said, this bird was not in an open field. Rather, it was in treed section outside the northernmost field. In that light its colors looked more gray than blue but there was something about that chest that made me think. I sent the pics to some of my friends at Four Harbors Audubon Society and both Sue and Luci told me that this was a bluebird. Woo hoo! Victory laps around the kitchen and a couple of frightened cats but they’ll get over it. I had my first bluebird!

JK

Skunk Cabbages In January?

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Sunday, January 8, 2012,

Here is a curious thing. These are pics of Eastern Skunk Cabbages I found on January 3rd at Morton Wildlife Refuge in Sag Harbor. Now, skunk cabbages are pretty cool on their own merits – we’ll get to that – but the curious thing here is that these plants are generally not seen till February at the earliest. Three days into the year has got to be too soon for these guys to be emerging. In fact, I was so sure that it was too early to be seeing skunk cabbages that I sent the pics to Isabel at Sweetbriar Nature Center. She confirmed my guess and said that the weather is confusing the plants. I think she’s right.

Skunk cabbages are usually the first flowering plants to emerge from the ground. Both John Eastman in Swamp and Bog and John Turner in Exploring the Other Island give February as when this plant should be making its debut. Maybe it’s this mild weather we’ve been experiencing but we haven’t actually had a winter yet.

The really amazing thing about these plants is that they are able to generate their own heat, enough even, to melt the snow. I know, big deal, right? I, too, can melt snow and I can write my name at the same time, but think about it: this is a plant that can melt ice. How cool is that? It’s that ability that allows it to appear so early in the season. But January? This has to be too early.

I sent the pics to some of my friends at Four Harbors Audubon Society to get their opinions.

Sue B. said, “weird and cool.”

Michele cried, “Invasion of the Body Snatchers!”

Elaine made comparisons to Audrey, the carnivorous plant from Little Shop of Horrors.

Indeed, at this point the plant does have a rather otherworldly look about it. Believe it or not, this is the flowering stage. Yep, this is as pretty as this plant gets. As Elaine explained to me, “The reddish spike you see is the “spathe”, an adapted bud which never opens to reveal its flower within. There’s just enough space between its closed “petals” to allow air to circulate from its warm center and provide an odorous current that visiting, pollinating insects will explore.”

Pretty cool stuff about a pretty cool-looking plant. JK

Red Maple Leaves, Probably

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Sunday, November 20, 2011,

Here are some Red Maple leaves that I saw while strolling through David Weld Sanctuary recently. There’s some controversy over these leaves. I should start by explaining that I really don’t know Jack about any kinds of foliage, be it trees, bushes, or flowers. On those occasions when  identify a flower or any other plant-type thingy, its only because I’ve managed to use a field guide correctly, which is very rare, or, more likely, one of my (much) more knowledgeable friends has made the identification for me. Incidentally, this is how I became involved with the Four Harbors Audubon Society. I’m kinda lousy with bird identifications as well, so I would send my pics to them for help and now I’m their photographer. It’s friends like these that allow me to appear intelligent and informed in my posts. Trust me, this is no easy trick so I need to reach out to a lot of people. It’s too big a job for any one person.

So, back to the story at hand. I sent this pic out to a few of the folks that I thought could help me out with this pic. I got two replies to my query. Elaine, from the Four Harbors Audubon Society was the first to get back to me. I had asked Elaine because on one of our recent Audubon walks at Avalon she really impressed me with her knowledge of plants. Red Maple, she wrote me. She’s got one in her yard, the “prettiest tree in all the woods in the fall”. I looked up Red Maple in a couple of my guides and, yeah, Elaine was right.

Then my buddy John emailed me. John is my usual go-to guy for trees. He was sure that these leaves were Black Maple. He even looked them up in his Grimm’s Illustrated Book of Trees. I did the same with my own Grimm’s. John pointed out that the leaves were much more like Black Maple rather than Red. (Grimm’s uses all line drawing but the drawings are very good. It’s not a lesser guide by any means.) I could see that John had a point. Looking at the Grimm’s drawings, you could see that the leaves were shaped more like Black than Red. The Red leaves seem to be much more serrated than the Black’s. While Grimm’s mentions the beautiful red fall colors of the Red Maple, it makes no mention of the autumn colors of the Black Maple.

Then it was back to the books for me. My Peterson’s Trees and Shrubs mentions that Black Maples prefer mature upland woodlands and that Red Maples prefer wet woods. Grimm’s even mentions that another name for the Red Maple is Swamp Maple. I remember the general area where I took the shot, and while the ground is dry at that spot, there is swampy land less than a hundred feet away. Then I looked at my National Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees, which, by the way, is a very nice little field guide. The Audubon guide says that the Black Maple has leaves that turn yellow in autumn.

What to do? Are they black Maple or Red Maple leaves we’re looking at? Rather than have my friends enter a boxing ring, I’ve decided to make a judgment call. I’m guessing that these are Red Maple leaves. In shape, they do appear more like Black than Red but I took the shot in damp woods and these leaves are definitely red, not yellow. Many plants, including trees, cross-pollinate all the time. There are infinite varieties of trees, even within the same species. The wonder of life and all that jazz. This could very well be a mixed species or one of Nature’s conundrums. Or maybe it’s just a Red Maple and I’ve made you read all this for nothing. Hmmm. JK