Presidents Message – September 2024

Hello my little birding friends! Hope this newsletter finds you all well. Hope you also had a great summer and enjoyed the birds. We’re starting our bird walks now on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I had a lot of egrets and herons in my back yard this summer. One day I had 4 egrets together in the same spot. They were probably a family. We went on a bird walk at Shinnecock Inlet in September and saw a lot of egrets. I found out that the young ones have yellow legs and feet. When they mature their legs turn black but the feet stay yellow. They were snowy egrets. I don’t know which ones I had as I didn’t know about the feet until after the fact. I’ve had the great blue heron and a kingfisher too. Guess there’s a lot of bait fish in the canal! The ospreys and some other summer birds will be leaving soon. It was nice to see them all, especially the ospreys and the eagles, who had 2 babies in an osprey nest! Usually the ospreys chase them away but not his time. I never saw an eagle on Long Island until the last few years. I’m looking forward to seeing the winter birds and ducks. My little friend Mal is still swimming around the canal. He was lonely during the summer when the ducks had their broods. Now they are grown and he’s back with them all. I wish they never took his white duck mate away.

I was thinking that a good thing you guys could do with your grandchildren, if you’re babysitting this school year, is bring them on nature walks. Go to the beach or park and show them the different ducks and birds. My grandson, who is five now, was brought up that way as did I bring up my kids that way. They love the outdoors and nature and all three have boats. Nature is a wonderful and an amazing thing!

We’ll be having our meetings and speakers starting this month at Seatuck National Wildlife Refuge in Islip on South Bay Avenue. The schedule is in the newsletter. We always have good speakers and I hope you can join us.