Outdoors

I was completely baffled. For over 10 minutes on Sunday morning, the screen of the fish finder to the left of my helm seat clearly showed the contours of the sandy bottom 45 feet below. However, the markings of any life, fish that is, were totally absent from view. From the look of things, apparently nobody was home.

“When the wind is in the east, it’s for neither man nor beast. When the wind is in the north, the old folk should not venture forth. When the wind is in the south, it blows the bait in the fishes’ mouth. When the wind is in the west, it is of all the winds the best.”

This was the third winter that Heather Caputo, Spencer Schneider, Mike Bottini, and Jeremy Grosvenor have been swimming three or four times a week at various spots in the ocean and in the bay.

Despite below normal water temperatures, things are starting to open up on the fishing front at least, especially in areas west of Montauk.

Meteorological wishes notwithstanding, it has not been a surprise to see our local water temperatures drop. On a jaunt to my lobster traps last weekend, I saw 47-degree water at Cedar Point to the entrance of Gardiner’s Bay, a 3-degree drop from a week earlier.

Marinas and boatyards, which had been deemed non-essential under the governor's New York on PAUSE executive order, have been allowed to open, giving people happy to social-distance with fishing gear in hand reason to celebrate.

The South Fork Natural History Museum and Nature Center has introduced a new digital program to help people stay connected to nature while stuck at home helping to stop the spread of Covid-19.

Unable to sell a 1,000-pound catch of fluke last week, Capt. Chuck Morici of the dragger Act 1 spent three days filleting the fish at Montauk commercial dock and offering it for free straight from his boat. On Saturday morning, he gave it away from the back of his pickup truck in downtown Montauk, a big handwritten sign announcing, “Free Fish.”

As of this week, spring officially arrives. While it’s pretty clear we will be dealing with the effects of the virus for the foreseeable future, I’m putting forth in solitude, preparing my boat for the season and launching my lobster traps into the still-cold waters.

Halfway through March, chipmunks are up for good, it would seem. I see ours almost every morning running about, looking hale and sassy.

The eastern bluebird, the New York State bird, is the only North American thrush that doesn’t build a typical nest in a tree or bush during breeding season. It lays its eggs in a hole in a tree or a nonliving substitute, a bird box.

For the last 81 and 67 years, annual end-of-the-year, or Christmas, bird counts have taken place without fail in two nearby areas, Quogue to Water Mill, and Central Suffolk. The tradition lives on and is increasingly revealing.