July Nature Sightings

In terms of nature sightings this month, for perhaps the 10th year in a row, the ocean beaches stole the show. The main “attraction” is the Atlantic menhaden, aka bunker, showing up as a supporting cast of many thousands, yet easily overlooked even close to shore when the ocean’s surface is rippled wind chop. This past week, we had a number of windless days, and the schools of bunker feeding close to the surface were hard to miss.

At one point, I noticed a consistent line of white, foamy water far from the usual low tide sand bar. With the aid of binoculars, I watched a boiling mass of bunker breaking the surface. I wondered who they were trying so frantically to avoid. The only possible fish-eating culprits that showed themselves were a few cormorants, yet I suspected that they were cruising the edges of the school picking off pieces of bunker left behind by fish piscivores, possibly large stripers that Mike Wright wrote about in his column last week.

While the huge schools of bunker were critical members of the cast, humpback whales and bottlenose dolphins stole the show. A small pod of the latter cruised through the break in 5 feet of water not more than 10 feet from bathers, while at least one humpback performed a long series of aerial leaps and fluke slaps further offshore. No binoculars needed for either act.

Osprey regularly dropped in, flying over from their South Fork nests and soon to fledge young. I watched one particular fish hawk circling over the bunker, diving, pulling back up a few feet from the water, circling again and repeating the process for some five minutes before flying off empty-taloned. It seemed to have trouble lining up with one fish in the tightly packed school. “Just go for it and drop in!” I thought to myself. Perhaps it was worried about hooking more than one full-sized bunker, and the potential deadly struggle to get airborn again with such a load.

Speaking of birds, many 2021 hatchlings have fledged, including the three bald eagle chicks produced from three different nests on the South Fork. The class of 2021 eagles are already as large as their parents, and can be distinguished from them, and last year’s fledges, by their uniform chocolate brown plumage and lack of any white markings.

Although I have yet to see any wild turkey young-of-the-year, or poults, they should have hatched by now and I expect to see them wandering around the neighborhood soon. Meanwhile, the house wens in my yard are busy feeding their second clutch, and swallows, starlings and red-winged blackbirds are already organizing in large flocks in anticipation of their big trip south.

I have seen a few monarch butterflies in my garden this month, emphasis on the “few” despite the abundance of its host plant: milkweed. I have two species of the latter this summer: head-high stands of common milkweed in bloom with lavender-colored flowers, and knee-high butterfly weed with its clusters of brilliant orange flowers. Although a milkweed and a host plant for monarchs, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) does not have milky sap.

Also in the “few” category in my garden this year are the insect pollinators. Normally abuzz with many dozens of different types of bees and butterflies, I estimate that numbers are down at least 75 percent this year. There should be enough around to pollinate my tomatoes, eggplants, peppers and squash, but I wonder what caused the low numbers this year.

Last week, I heard a gas-powered leaf blower next door and, being a hater of those obnoxious devices, went out to investigate. The blower was being used to spray pesticides on my neighbor’s property and, in an attempt to maximize coverage along the hedgerow lot line, onto my property as well. After learning that the pest targets were ticks and mosquitoes, I pointed out that the mosquitoes were all hunkered down for the day in the swamp 200 feet down the block (a nature preserve), and research has shown that, while pesticide sprays do kill ticks, they do not reduce the number of tick bites.

The applicator shrugged. “I’m just providing a service for the client here.” He knew the futility of what he was being paid to do.

On that note, as property owners we are all stewards of a piece of the East End. Wake up folks! There is no such thing as a pesticide that kills just ticks and mosquitoes. You, or in most cases the company you hired, are killing all the insects and arthropods that the spray comes in contact with, including butterflies and a wide variety of insect pollinators. Please think about what you are doing and educate yourself about these things.

A great resource is our neighbor Edwina van Gaal’s Perfect Earth Project website: perfectearthproject.org/pep_tips/65. And here’s a link to the CDC research that found spraying individual yards with pesticides did not reduce tick illness or tick encounters, caryinstitute.org/science/tick-project.