For Birders And Hikers
The basics of backyard bird feeders are the ground to be covered at 9 a.m. Saturday at Wild Bird Crossing at the Bridgehampton Commons shopping mall.
What type of seed and feeder? What to do about water, covers, and squirrels? Reservations with the store are required to hear the answers to these and similar questions.
Also on Saturday, Mike Bottini will lead hikers on a circular trek through Napeague to show them a historic wagon route, an ancient dune ridge, a pitch pine forest, and other wonders. The group will meet at the Long Island Lighting Company substation on the south side of Napeague Meadow Road at 9:30 a.m.
Co-sponsored by the Group for the South Fork and the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, the walk should end at about noon.
The following day, Rick Whalen will lead hikers through Northwest on a seven-miler that takes in a major section of the Grace Estate. The meeting time is noon at the end of Alewife Brook Road in Northwest; the trails society is organizing the hike.
The society has planned yet another hike this week, this one through the hardwood forest of the George Sid Miller Trail in Amagansett beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Nancy Kane will lead. Walkers have been asked to meet at the trailhead marked by three boulders on Fresh Pond Road about one mile north of the intersection with Abraham's Landing Road.
Reservations should be made with the Group for the South Fork for a six-mile "winter workout" on Sunday at the Sarnoff Preserve off Route 104 between Riverhead and Quogue northwest of the county airport. Bob DeLuca will lead the walk, which will be from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, the Southampton Trails Preservation Society has planned a four to five-mile walk on Saturday through Wildwood State Park in Wading River. Hikers will meet at 9:30 a.m. at the picnic grounds parking field, which can be reached from Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway by going north to 25A, then east to Sound Avenue, east to the Hulse Landing Road light, and north to the park.
Still willing to go that extra mile (by car)? The Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference will offer a chance to climb Bald Hill in Riverhead and take in the views from on high. Walkers will meet at 10 a.m. Sunday in field one of Suffolk Community College's eastern campus, off Speonk-Riverhead Road just east of County Route 51, and set off for a three to four-mile ascent.