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Great Egret at Hook Pond by Terry Sullivan.[/caption]
By Annette Hinkle
Getting in tune with nature is about more than simply going for walks in the woods. It also has a lot to do with honing skills and perfecting the art of observation in a way that allows you to notice not just the physical beauty, but the quiet presence of the life surrounding you.
As a bird watcher, Sag Harbor’s Terry Sullivan has developed the keen ability to detect the subtlest movements and tiniest details in the wild. It’s an ability that pays huge dividends when he spots a unique or interesting bird species which most people would pass by without even noticing.
Ironically, Mr. Sullivan’s powers of observation can be traced to a skill-set developed several decades ago while he was living in SoHo in New York City, which in those days, was a less than desirable neighborhood. In fact, there were a lot of car break-ins taking place near Mr. Sullivan’s home, so he became part of a citizens’ block-watching program. One technique he learned from a local police officer was to stay alert while witnessing a crime. Rather than reacting in an emotional manner, he was told to keep calm, pay close attention and check off a mental list of details about what the subject was wearing, from head to toe, to help in identification.
Turns out that sort of skill translates quite well to bird watching — and it’s a skill Mr. Sullivan took a step further when he began to photograph the birds instead of just observing them in the wild.
As a result, over the years Mr. Sullivan has gotten some pretty spectacular shots of local bird life. Now, he has published many of these images in “My Sag Harbor Bird Notebook” a new book in which he also shares first person stories of bird encounters on the East End, a bit about the habits and behaviors of several species and a sprinkling of nature poetry — a naturalist’s journal, if you will, honed by the power of observation.
While he was always good at seeing birds, buying a good camera changed the way in which Mr. Sullivan truly captures birds in all their plumage and personality. That’s because he used to have a not great camera which he happened to have with him on a day more than three years ago when he encountered an incredibly improbable species near East Hampton Airport.
“I saw a really rare bird — a scissor-tailed fly catcher,” explains Mr. Sullivan. “The most northern habitat for the scissor-tail is Mexico. We had a storm – it might have been Sandy – I had this little box Hitachi and you couldn't tell if it was focusing right.”
Turns out it wasn’t, and all Mr. Sullivan managed to capture with that camera that day were some fuzzy images of the bird. But even so, a magazine that specializes in fly catchers (yes, they exist) was able to discern that he had, indeed, photographed the real deal and they asked Mr. Sullivan to sign a document verifying where and when he saw the bird.
“It had a tiny yellow thing on its head. Not only was it a flycatcher, but it was a juvenile,” says Mr. Sullivan. “This bird was really lost and trying to find its way back.”
It is instances like this which help explain why Mr. Sullivan keeps his camera in his truck at all times. These days, it’s a much better camera — a Canon Rebel — and he explains that his passion for photography actually began with fishing, not birding.
“Rich Kiegiel was a real inspiration,” says Mr. Sullivan of his friend and fellow surf caster who always had his camera at the ready. “You’d be catching a fish and turn around and Rich would be taking a picture or a movie of it.”
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Juvenile bald eagle photographed by Terry Sullivan.[/caption]
“I said I’m going to get a good camera. So I got the same camera Rich had,” adds Mr. Sullivan. “I also got a nice lens and then I started bringing it with me along with my fishing equipment.”
And when there were no fish to be had, Mr. Sullivan shifted his photographic efforts to birding. An important part of that effort comes during the annual Audubon bird counts in which birders across the region spread out to identify and tally the number of different bird species they encounter on a single specific day. In recent years, Mr. Sullivan has teamed up with Sag Harbor’s Al Daniels in taking part in the Audubon bird count.
“About 15 years ago, I had been going by myself. Then Al said, ‘Can I come along?’ Al is more hawky than me — he’s ridiculously hawky. Then Al and I became the duo responsible for a lot of saves,” says Mr. Sullivan who explains that he and Mr. Daniels are able to do much of their birding by car. “We would stop once in awhile and a lot of our birding is my photography because it doesn't spook the birds.”
“I call it ‘drive by shooting,” he adds.
A prime example of Mr. Sullivan’s technique is embodied in a shot in his book of a great egret he caught fishing at the end of Hook Pond in East Hampton.
“I took the truck and started driving next to the pond going two or four miles per hour,” he says. “I saw a great egret from the other side and wanted to sneak up on it. I rolled down the window before I got there. He was bending down below the grass line so I turned the engine off and waited. He came up with a fish in his mouth.”
“The picture is so sharp you can see the eye of the fish,” adds Mr. Sullivan. “He stood there for a full minute. Then I got a nice shot of him flying away and the details of his feet.”
These are the moments that make it all worth it, and when asked why he decided to turn his passion for birding into a book, Mr. Sullivan notes that it has a lot to do with inspiring East End residents to get outside and reconnect with what brought them to this part of the world in the first place.
“It occurred to me it would be a really good thing to encourage people to go birding and see the value in why people came out here originally,” says Mr. Sullivan. “It’s not to build the mansion, but to be closer to nature.”
“I want to show how varied the nature is out here.”
On Tuesday, March 15 at 7 p.m., Terry Sullivan will read and share photographs from “My Sag Harbor Bird Notebook” at the John Jermain Memorial Library, 34 West Water Street, Sag Harbor. Admission is free, but pre-registration is recommended by calling 725-0049.
on Mar 9, 2016