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Outdoors

It was a fortuitous coincidence when Kyle Paseka ran into Sam von Trapp, grandson of Baron Georg and Maria von Trapp at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vt., on Monday. The Hills Are Still Alive

We had the opportunity to head for the hills and early Sunday morning we took it: the South Ferry to a sleeping Shelter Island, then we stemmed the tide and a few car-size icebergs over to Greenport on the North Ferry where we bought scones and coffee for the ride to meet the 9 a.m. Cross Sound Ferry to New London, bound for Stowe, Vt.

Mar 11, 2015
Nature Notes: Plummeting Population

My ichthyologist buddy, Howard Reisman, who lives in North Sea, says that, notwithstanding the monthlong occupation of North Sea Harbor and other inlets and coves of the Peconics, the alewives are out there and ready to move in to Big Fresh Pond as soon as their passageway thaws. They have been arriving annually at this time every year like clockwork for at least a half-century and most likely for several centuries. The streamway connecting the harbor to the pond can be high or low, depending upon the standing level of the water in Big Fresh.

Mar 5, 2015
Devon Grisham, below, and Kyle Fagerland, with his dog, Shelby, tried ice fishing on Fort Pond in Montauk on Sunday morning. The Iceman Fisheth

The winter of 2015 refused to loosen its grip. As a result, cold-weather passions that have lain dormant in recent years returned with a vengeance in the Northeast.

Ski resorts upstate and in New England have not seen so much snow in years. Iceboats have been dragged out of storage and onto Long Island lakes and ponds. One of the more intense winter passions is the otherworldly sport of ice fishing.

Mar 5, 2015
Two immature bald eagles approached a meal of carrion in a snow-covered Bridgehampton field. Nature Notes: The Behavior of Birds

The great American winter pastime for those of us who live not too far from the Arctic Circle: feeding and watching birds. Each bird species has its own unique way of staying active when the windchills are in the single digits and the sun is covered up by a pale gray sky for most of the day.

Feb 25, 2015
Montauk Harbor was frozen solid on Sunday, bringing commercial fishing to a brief standstill. Winter on the Rocks

Consider ice: It can be a bulldozer that lifts a few thousand pounds of buoy off the bottom and carries it to new location a half mile away. It can be millions of tiny crystalline blades that scalp the terra firma from the face of a bluff. Ice can suck a piling from deep in a harbor’s clay as easily as pulling a toothpick from an olive in an ice-cold martini.

Feb 25, 2015
A red-shouldered hawk, among Long Island’s rarest raptors, was spotted in Montauk this week. Nature Notes: Different Sort of Snowbird

As I write this on Presidents Day in the afternoon while looking out my window across the snow-covered yard to see which bird will show up next, the temperature hovers at 21 degrees. That’s the highest it’s been all day and it’s starting to sink lower. Cornell University’s Laboratory of Ornithology’s annual birdfeeder count took place over the three-day weekend. I haven’t always been a participant, even though the bird lab was started while I was studying ornithology and wildlife conservation at Cornell in the mid-’50s, but I know some who are locally and keep my ear to that grapevine.

Feb 18, 2015
Just a Passing Chill

“Cabin fever” does not do justice to our frozen state of mind. True, the Arctic temperatures that have descended on us in recent days have kept us in looking out while the oil burner adds to our carbon footprint and subtracts from our bank accounts. But “fever” is not the right word. I think “numbness” or “ennui” comes closer.

Feb 17, 2015
On Monday, a willow alongside Long Beach Road in Noyac, was already yellowing up, anticipating spring and flowering time. Nature Notes: Pain Relief in February

While out scanning the frozen waters of Noyac Bay and Upper Sag Harbor Cove on Monday, I noticed that one of my favorite trees and the largest tree alongside Long Beach Road, a willow, was already yellowing up, anticipating spring and flowering time, which comes early for the willow clan.

Feb 12, 2015
Of Fools and Fish Tales

On the grand playing field of human intercourse, nothing gives us as much satisfaction as seeing braggarts brought low, especially if they are the cause, having dashed rather than hoisted themselves on their own petards. It’s what fools are made of, and fools have always been great entertainment.

Brian Williams, the NBC network news anchor, made one of himself with his “Nightly News” story about having been riding on a Chinook helicopter in Iraq when a rocket-propelled grenade shot it down. 

Feb 12, 2015
Nature Notes: The Not-So-Great Divide

All of a sudden after a worldwide record warm year in 2014, the winter turns frigid. Noyac Bay is half frozen, all of the freshwaters are iced up, the ground is still covered with a couple of feet of snow, and the land and water birds are having a hard time of it. These are the times when nature hangs in the balance and familiar themes drop out and alien ones take over.

Feb 4, 2015
A few of Montauk’s hardcore surfers hit the waves, big waves, smack in the middle of the blizzard called Juno, and James Katsipis captured them in action. There’s No Place Like Home

Five a.m. on Tuesday. The house is surrounded and topped with snow and ice. It’s cold out and the wind sounds like it wants to come in as much as the cabin fever burning within me wants to go out.

Both my parents were outdoor people, especially my dad. If weather or some kind of obligation kept him inside for too long he got downright ornery, a trait he passed down to me. We walked the beach every weekend whatever the weather. Both parents skied and taught me at an early age.

Feb 4, 2015
It may not actually be true that no two snowflakes are alike, but their varieties are dizzying. Nature Notes: Quintillion Water Molecules

The biggest Long Island snowstorm that I can remember was the one that occurred in 1947, two days after Christmas. My family was visiting my Aunt Esther and Uncle Jake’s family in West Hills for the holidays.

Jan 28, 2015
Piers, like this one in San Clemente, have been perfected in California. Short Walk on a Long Pier

“Go take a long walk off a short pier.” Not sure why the dismissive phrase came to mind. The pier at San Clemente was not short by a long shot, 200 yards or more. I think it’s because in our minds, piers are a staple, a construct that everyone understands.

“Why do they build them? Just to fish from? Are they for people without boats?” Kyle asked. Good question, and the answer is pretty much, yes, but more. The Pier, as societal microcosm, parade, and oceangoing adventure for pedestrians, has been perfected in California.

Jan 28, 2015
On the Galapagos, one species of finch evolved into several. Some have thick beaks for crunching, like one of our local finches, the cardinal. 	  Durell Godfrey Nature Notes: Travels and Travails

Only 37 days till March and the return of the ospreys and piping plovers. So far, it hasn’t been much of a winter as far as brutal weather events are concerned. The local freshwater bodies froze over, as they almost always do, while some of the salt creeks and lagoons, to wit, Upper Sag Harbor Cove and Otter Pond, were glazed over with the usual coating of thin New Year ice. The edges of the bays in the Peconics system have been white on and off with a pudding of concentrated seawater ice crystals.

Jan 21, 2015
Surfing is not just riding waves. Let’s hope the Surfing Heritage Foundation will help Montauk’s new Oceans Institute emphasize the good that can come from an intimate appreciation of the sea. The Science-Surf Connection

It’s Sunday morning. We have just lifted off in the rain from J.F.K. bound for San Diego, where the plan is to rent a car for the short drive north to San Clemente, home of the Surfing Heritage Foundation. The foundation archives surfing history and works to protect access to surf spots around the world.

I’ll be meeting with the foundation’s executive director, a man of Hawaiian lineage, and a surfing god of sorts, a legend in his own time beginning in the 1960s in the waves of Waikiki.

Jan 21, 2015
Nature Notes: From the Inside Out

A cruise around the South Fork last Thursday revealed that about 99 percent of the deciduous tree leaves had fallen. The ground beneath the oaks, hickories, and other trees on either side of the roads in Northwest and Middle Line Highway and Old Sag Harbor Road in Bridgehampton were completely covered with brownish leaves from this year’s crop. The woods, per se, were as they should be, bare trees, underbrush, and a thick leaf groundcover.

Jan 14, 2015
What if there was a meteorological anomaly 2,015 years ago, and the water Jesus walked on had, in fact, been frozen by an arctic blast? Let the Truth Be Told

Skating south, I squinted into the sun reflecting off the cold obsidian of Fort Pond in Montauk on Sunday, my blades carving the surface with the crisp metallic notes of swordplay.

The ice mirrored my fellow skaters. They appeared to be skating both right side up and upside down, joined at the blades. A few kids huddled, looking down through the ice in search of fish. “Through the glass darkly” came to mind, the way Corinthians suggests most of us view life — that is, imperfectly.

Jan 13, 2015
Snow was blowing on an east wind as anglers aboard a Viking boat returned to port in Montauk Saturday afternoon after an excellent day of cod fishing. Consider the Sources

If you think of life as an unending story that’s whispered to you, shouted at you, otherwise presented, and then knitted together with the wool you’ve gathered — and I do — then you learn to consider the sources.

One of the best things about living in a small town like East Hampton in winter, Montauk in particular, is how the sources stand out, come into relief against the quiet backdrop. Of course, the best source is personal experience. I’d heard by way of a friend while waiting at the checkout at the 7-Eleven on Friday that local boats were doing well on cod.

Jan 7, 2015
Nature Notes: Eagles and Owls

Long Island’s annual holiday-season breeding bird counts have come and gone, the last, the Orient Count, finishing up the lot on Saturday. The two closest to home were the Orient count, which includes part of Noyac, Sag Harbor, North Haven, and East Hampton’s Northwest Woods, and the Montauk count, which includes Amagansett, Springs, Montauk, and Gardiner’s Island.

Jan 7, 2015
Throughout the fall of 2014, the interns and their Third House teachers have been working collaboratively on understanding the ecology of Big Reed Pond. This year's interns are, left to right, Makenzie Scheerer, Madison Aldrich, Hannah Vogel, and Travis Santiago. Nature Notes: All for Montauk

It’s the new year and the East End is looking good. The days get longer by a minute or two every 24 hours. As Shelley wrote, when winter comes, spring can’t be far behind.

Jan 1, 2015
The Duryea and Son lobster restaurant and market on Fort Pond Bay in Montauk has been sold, as has the nearby family house, which might be razed. The Good and the Broken

This is the time of year when we seem duty-bound to reflect upon the year just past. I suspect a formalized, perennial look back has always been part of our basic makeup on whatever calendar, and upon whatever date, was chosen as the start of a new year.

The day after Christmas, I had the privilege of attending a small gathering of Montaukers hosted by Chip Duryea in an enclosed area of the Duryea and Son lobster pound and restaurant on Fort Pond Bay. There were about a dozen of us, including a few of the hamlet’s elders — to be honest none of us were spring chickens.

Dec 30, 2014
Nature Notes: For the Birds

The winter birds are here and hungry. The Pennys haven’t had a winter feeding station out for more than five years running — no more rats, but very few birds. Having been recently stimulated by watching visitors feed the birds at the Morton Wildlife Refuge a few blocks down the road in Noyac, I decided it was time for me to return to the practice. My understanding of avian ways had become blurred because I had stopped observing them at close range.

Dec 23, 2014
Call them trophies, but the fins and tails preserved on dock piles or shrunken and warped by the sun are more like totems to beloved species. Totems of Fins and Tails

It’s not our seascape, hills and dales,

When I think Montauk, it’s fins and tails.

Not Rita’s mare, or ‘The Affair,’

Not the Light, or stars at night

Not Gosman’s Dock, or Blackfish Rock

Not summer’s sails, nor nor’east gales

What is Montauk?

It’s fins and tails.

During the summer months, you hardly notice them. Too much else going on. But, like the skeletons of trees once their leaves have flown, the dried trophies of seasons past become visible on dock pilings, signs, and telephone poles this time of year.

Dec 23, 2014
Southern pine beetles attack a tree by boring holes around its circumference, prohibiting the flow of nutrients, food, and water up and down the tree’s trunk. Nature Notes: Dwarf Pines Under Attack

Pines and oaks are the most common native trees on Long Island. There are two species of pines, pitch and white, and at least seven species of oaks. Oak trees are long-lived — white oaks such as those on Gardiner’s Island can live to 400 or 500 years, equaling the longevity of white pines, while pitch pines, which George Washington called “ill thriven” on his one trip here, are lucky if they make it to the century mark.

Dec 18, 2014
Tom Hensler of East Hampton and Dai Dayton of Bridgehampton enjoyed a productive day of blackfish and sea bass fishing aboard the Breakwater charter boat on Sunday. The Existence of Cod

Of cod, blackfish, black sea bass, winter in Montauk, One Million Years B.C., Christmas, and Susan Sontag:

I was watching a documentary about Susan Sontag the other night, an extraordinary woman very much of her time in the ’60s, a feminist, philosopher, and essayist with what were, and to some still are, radical views. As it happened, I had caught the last half of “One Million Years B.C.” starring Rachel Welch on the Turner Classic Movies channel earlier in the day. It was one of those cold rainy days last week, so perhaps I can be forgiven.

Dec 18, 2014
Nature Notes: Turn Right on Oak Street

Trees figure prominently in Long Island street and road names, much more so than animals. Why? Perhaps it’s because trees are large in stature and immobile, while animals are smaller and liable to be in one place one day and another the next. Before concrete monuments were used by surveyors to mark metes and bounds for various properties throughout New York in the original division of the state’s lots, trees, especially white oaks, were cut off above the lowest lateral branch so that the tree became disfigured and obvious, going by the name “lop trees” or “boundary marker trees.”

Dec 10, 2014
Something of Ditch Plain’s spiritual core would be lost, Russell Drumm believes, if the town allows the former East Deck Motel to be redeveloped as a private club. The Soul of Ditch Plain

I want to talk about beaches and why the Town of East Hampton should do everything in its power to purchase the former East Deck Motel property at Ditch Plain in Montauk and turn it into a park.

Dec 10, 2014
The glassy, head-high waves of Thanksgiving Day were generated by the massive weather system that had plunged the Midwest into record-breaking cold. Because It’s Smooth

“Like butter,” was Dalton Portella’s brief and, given the day, appropriate description of the surf as he watched a set of waves peel across one of Montauk’s moorland coves a week ago.

He had just gotten out after a two-hour session before his internal clock told him he’d better get home for turkey at a neighbor’s house. He was shivering, but happily so. It had been a good go-out, and if his peaceful expression was any indication — chattering teeth included — he was grateful on the day specifically set aside for thanks. 

Dec 3, 2014
Windblown shadbush dot the dune plain between Montauk Highway and Cranberry Hole Road on Napeague, an expanse rich in interesting flora, fauna, and topographic features. Nature Notes: A Glorious Habitat

The Town of East Hampton stretches from the tip of Montauk Point to just west of the town airport, from the bays of the Peconic Estuary on the north to the great Atlantic Ocean on the south. Within those boundaries is a set of habitats, ecotypes, ecotones, and plant associations that set the town apart from the rest of Long Island and make it a unique treasure in terms of the natural world.

Dec 3, 2014
A wild turkey at dawn near Lily Pond Lane in East Hampton. Turkeys, reintroduced to East Hampton Town in the 1990s, can now be found in abundance from Montauk to Wainscott and beyond. Nature Notes: Thanks for Wild Turkeys

It’s turkey day, and many of us across America will be feasting on what Ben Franklin believed should have been our national bird. Bald eagles don’t taste good, but are more elegant and soar high in the sky; turkeys barely get off the ground when flushed. Vegans will forgo the turkey, but some will dine on the traditional trimmings, meatless stuffing, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce.

Nov 26, 2014