From Scully

Strange Winter Visitor

This strange winter got a bit stranger at Seatuck last night. Just as we were closing up for the night, a bat (little brown, I think) came swooping into our main office, did a few laps around the large room and landed on the wall. We opened the door to the office balcony (if that sounds strange, you'll have to come for a visit!), but it didn't seem interested in going outside. Instead, it fell off the wall into another series of gentle circles around the room. When it finally took a break, I managed to coax it into a large butterfly net. Then I stood on the balcony and held the net upright into the darkness. The bat climbed up the netting to the rim, perched for a moment (as if to say "do I really have to") and then leaped into the night. It did a few large swooping circles over our terrace before flying up over the building and disappearing.

It was a bittersweet moment. I'm always relieved to catch and release an animal without injury, but the prospects for a bat flying off into a winter night are not particularly good, even in this winter. The warm weather may give it a chance to find new place to settle into a proper hibernation, but there's no flying insects to be found, so it won't be able to restore lost energy. Given the devastation that the still mysterious "white nose syndrome" has caused eastern bat populations, every healthy bat is precious. I didn't see any white fungus growing on this bat, but it's unusual to see them active this time of year. Maybe our little visitor was just confused by the warm weather. Here's to hoping it's healthy and that it finds a good place to await the return of the real spring.

- Enrico

Here's a short clip of the bat in the butterfly net:

 

New Sign and (Hopefully) a Safer Crossing

I was pleasantly surprised to see this new sign on the road to the Environmental Center today ...

The road, as anyone who lives in the area knows, is like a race track ... literally.  As I learned during the years I lived at the nature center, it's not uncommon to hear engines screaming under the cover of darkness or to find tire marks littering the road in the morning - evidence of a night of speeding and drag-racing.  And even the general pace of traffic down the mile long stretch to the Islip Town Beach is far too fast.  Wildlife, of course, are too often the victims as they try to cross between the 70-acre Environmental Center and the 200-acre Seatuck National Wildlife Refuge.  We see dozens of animials - deer, racoon, fox, birds - killed on the road each year.

Hopefully the new sign will help.  Credit is owed to Islip's Bouler Family who pushed Seatuck and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (managers of the wildlife refuge) to write a letter to the Town about the problem.  And thanks is due to the Town of Islip for responding.  We hope the sign slows down the cars ... and helps more of our local wildlife move safely between our property and the wildlife refuge.

- Enrico

 

 

Want a Cold One?

Enjoying a cold drink will now be a whole lot easier for Seatuck staff, volunteers and guests thanks to the beautiful new refrigerator that was donated to the nature center by Appliance World of Huntington.  The donation was made possible by Appliance World President Kevin Nathan, who learned about our need through Jane Lewis, one of our regular volunteers and a beloved member of the Seatuck family.  The appliance is a great first step in our plans to get the entire kitchen finished in 2012!

Thank you, Appliance World!

Seatuck Volunteers Jane Lewis and Thadine Balsalmo show off the new fridge

Flying Finish

What a night.  It started with Seatuck's annual Holiday Potluck at the nature center.  An amazing collection of food and desserts, great people and fantastic music from Bob Pinnola and Mike Immerman (the "acoustic" Suburban Brothers!).  During the party, I also had the great pleasure of giving our annual volunteer award (the Good Tern Award) to two of my favorite people: Peter and Noreen DiMento.  It was certainly a well-deserved honor, as they are simply two of the most important parts of the Seatuck family.

Then, to top off the night ... after getting home and heading out to walk my dog, Jackson, I had - for the first time in my life - the incredible experience of seeing a flying squirrel in flight ... twice!  

I was standing under the glow of a streetlight in the middle of an intersection waiting for Jackson to finish sniffing around a tree when some motion right in front of me caught my eye.  I looked up to see something drift across the dim light and disappear around the side of a large oak.  My first thought was woodpecker because it flew horizontally at first, then slowed down and straightened up to near vertical as it got close to the tree. Everything about the motion said woodpecker, but it was the middle of the night - it couldn't be.  And sure enough, when I moved around the tree for a better view there was a flying squirrel climbing up the trunk!  It was unmistakeable: big black eyes, crisp white under its chin and body, and that cute tail.  And just in case there was any doubt, it climbed a bit more and then launched off again, effortlessly gliding across a front yard to the trunk of another large oak.  It was such a beautifully unexpected thing to see that it literally gave me the chills.  There, in the middle of my densely developed Long Island neighborhood, was a wild flying squirrel going about its nightly rounds. You just never know when Mother Nature is going to treat you, do ya?  It was the perfect ending to a wonderful night. 

- Enrico 

 

 

Islip Juried Photography Show

Photography is a great passion for many Long Islanders, especially scenes from nature.  Knowing this, the Islip Arts Council put out a call for photography pieces that focus on the beauty of nature on Long Island to be featured in a 'Local Color - Juried Photography Show.'  With Seatuck's mission to conserve Long Island widlife, Seatuck was the perfect location to host the show. 

The photography show will be available to the public for the month of December and 20% of the photography sales will go to Seatuck.  The Islip Arts Council has done an outstanding job, arranging and judging the pieces, which are breathtaking.  We hope you will come visit us at least once in December to see the show and the beautiful holiday decorations that are on display as well.

- Jessie

One November Weekend: Kiosk Up, Tiger Grass Down

The November 5-6 weekend was a busy one at Seatuck, with big projects underway on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday morning, local student Nick Fagone installed a new information kiosk in the parking lot. The project was undertaken as part of Nick’s work towards becoming an Eagle Scout. The beautiful new kiosk – built expertly to Parks Department specs by Nick and his team over the past few months – will make a wonderful addition to our facility. In addition to a property trail map, we plan to use it to post program updates and other notices to help engage and inform visitors. Thanks,
Nick, for a job well done!

On Sunday we hosted volunteers from Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) and the Islip High School’s Keep Islip Clean (KIC) club for several hours of clearing tiger grass. The invasive, exotic plant – which grows up to 12-feet tall in a dense monoculture – covers more than a half an acre near the parking lot at Scully. Armed with loppers and weed whackers, we tackled a portion of the grass that is covering a former tennis court on the property. The area is eventually going to be home to a children’s “outdoor exploratorium”, a place where youngsters (and their parents) can get comfortable playing (and learning) in the outdoors and with natural elements. The site, which will eventually have to be excavated to fully remove the tiger grass roots, will include a messy materials area, a water works area, a climbing area, areas for music and art and a host of other separate areas designed to engage children in the great outdoors. But the first task was to remove the grass! We still have a long way to go, but thanks to our friends at REI and KIC we’re off to a great start!

- Enrico

Owl Prowl!

The 2^nd Annual Seatuck Owl Prowl is in the books.  Despite the weekend’s weather, we
had an amazing turnout (433 finishers!) and a great morning.  If you haven’t seen them, the full results can be found at Island Timing’s website.  

Also, photographer (and Seatuck volunteer!) Craig Low took a ton of amazing photos of the event, including all finishers, costumed participants and many of the Monster-Mashers.  You’d can see (and purchase) his photos at this site.

With the race fresh in my memory, here’s a few other random thoughts on the day:

• My first impression in the morning, like most everyone else’s, was that it didn’t feel much like Halloween.  With temps in the low-30s and the wind whistling, it felt like we should have been getting ready for a Turkey Trot or New Year’s Day run!  But –and this is somewhat hard to believe – after Saturday’s mess, I was very much pleased with the wake-up weather.  It certainly could have been much worse!

• I shared the start of my day (in the dark, really) with a small cadre of warriors – Mark Boyd (our story returns to him later), Peter Walsh, John Thomas and Tom Moldovan – that fearlessly went into battle against the mess left to us by Saturday’s weather.  There was standing water everywhere.  But these guys shoveled gravel, raked mud, moved platforms and did every cold, messy and back-breaking thing they could to ensure the course was ready for our runners and the property was safe and passable for our guests.  In the end, there may have been a few muddy shoes, but there were no major problems or complaints.  It was a (difficult) job well done.

• I was very impressed by our parking team, which included Frank Giaquinto, Glen Klimpel, Justine Walsh and “Team Velapoldi” (Mark, Sandy, Zack and Sydney).  These guys also did an amazing job with a difficult task: finding parking for 800+ people and getting them safely down to the property – all while keeping the race course clear.  I didn’t hear a single complaint from the participants this year.  Again, our volunteers made a difficult task look easy.

• It was great fun to be at the front of the race for the start – there’s nothing like the pre-race buzz that builds in anticipation of the starter’s horn.  It was heightened by a beautiful rendition of our National Anthem by Elizabeth Edwards and Rebecca Goess, by Terry Bisogno’s stirring sentiments about our troops serving overseas, and by The Selects horns piercing the crisp morning air.  And it was electrifying to watch over 500 runners surge forward at the sound of the starter’s horn.  Our fastest runners took off with such a burst that they briefly overtook our lead car!  The whole thing gave me chills.

• It was an honor to see Bea Huste Peterson at our race today.  Bea is the force behind the awesome EJ Autism Foundation and their annual East Islip race (which attracted 1200 runners this year!).  She has also been a valuable mentor and coach – giving generously of her experience and expertise in helping to get our race off the ground.  And she’s not just a run organizer, but a runner, too.  She was the 3^rd female finisher in the Owl Prowl.  She seemed pleased; she told me she had been running, but not really training.  The difference is somewhat lost on a plodder like me, but I translated it to mean one thing: she can go faster.  I don’t doubt it.  Maybe for next year’s Owl Prowl!

• It was fun to watch our great friend Kay Erwood (one of Seatuck’s longest standing members) hand out the costume awards after the race.  Her full enthusiasm, charm and grace was on display as she presided over the ceremony – it’s no wonder she’s one of Islip’s most beloved residents!  And I have to say that she and her co-judge Martha Pinnola did a fine job whittling down an impressive field of contestants.  It was no easy task!  Thanks to everyone who came out in costume and congratulations to our winners.

 • I mentioned Mark Boyd earlier (he was one of those guys out in the cold, wet and muddy pre-dawn darkness helping to ready the property for the race).  Later in the morning – at about 16 minutes after the race start, in fact – I watched him out in front of our gate as his son, Michael (a sophomore at Islip High School), lead all runners down South Bay Avenue towards the finish line.  Mark’s usually pretty reserved, but he couldn’t help but beam as it became clear that Michael was in the lead.  But he quickly shifted gears from proud parent to coach, urging Micheal to stay ahead of Chris Richards, who was right on his heals in second place.  Michael didn’t disappoint - he held on to win in 17:59.  Chris, from Connetquot High School, finished just a few seconds behind in 18:03.  Third place went to John Theissen, who finished in 18:39.

• A couple of other impressive finishes I noticed:

-  Islip Councilman John Edwards – sporting his favorite Giants jersey – won his division (again!) in 21:17.

-  Carlie Leogrande, another Islip student, won her age group in the 16-19 division.

-  Kate Hanley – one of Seatuck’s star volunteers – not only worked the registration table all morning, but rushed off to join the race and WON HER DIVISION!

-  Our race results show Cole Cantin of Oak Beach, who finished 12^th overall in 20:08 at being 10 YEARS OLD!  Is that right?  If so,

-   Did everyone see that Forrest Gump was in attendance?  He took 3^rd place in his division in an impressive 21:44!

-  Congratulations to John, Carlie, Kate, Cole, Forrest and everyone who completed the race!

• The Monster Mash Dash was totally cute, wasn’t it?  It may have been a bit chaotic, but you just can’t beat the sight of dozens of costumed kids running their hearts out!  I was especially proud of my daughter, Jasmine, who was the first finisher in the 6-8 year old division – if you ask me, I thought she looked awesome motoring towards the finish in her pirate costume!  Thanks is owed to Regina Jacoby for not only organizing the (not so) mini-event … but also adding to the fun by dressing up like an owl!! 

• Terry Bisogno was fantastic as always.  What can I even say about this guy?  He does so much to elevate the quality of our race.  We're lucky to have him.  Perhaps my mom summed up his impact best: she said it "was so cute" the way he said something about every runner;  he got her "interested in just about every finisher."  That's Terry!

• How cool was it to have live music at the finish?  I thought it was a nice touch - I hope people liked it.  Thanks to The Selects for coming out on a cold morning to play!

• For any of you who may not know, it takes a HUGE effort to pull off a race like
the Owl.  I can’t begin to name and thank everyone who was involved.  Suffice it to say that we at Seatuck are deeply grateful and indebted to everyone who pitched in to make it possible (you know who you are!).  It may sound cliché, but we simply could not manage an event of this size without our incredible team of talented and dedicated volunteers.  Thank you to everyone!  And just one special note of thanks to Stephanie DerGarabedian and Andrea Wexler – as everyone involved with the race already knows, they did an amazing job! 

 - Enrico

 

Autumn Decor

The crisp autumn air hasn't been the only refreshing shift Seatuck has received the past two weeks.  The building has received its annual fall makeover which wouldn't be complete without diligent volunteers, flying bats, a staircase spider, and mice climbing the light fixtures.  There's more to the decorating than just atmosphere however.   All of Seatuck's Halloween displays are designed to mimic the natural world by including only native animals you would find locally this time of year. 

Everyone joined the creative process.  The Great South Bay Garden Club devoted hours to beautifying the Scully Mansion entrance and walkways.  Seatuck friend, volunteer, and decorator extraordinaire, Lisa Smith, took to the ladders to make sure the moss was perfected and the overhanging, lighted trees had plenty of spooky crows to keep the Halloween aura.  Enrico hand painted a fall moon for a shadowy owl display.  Families spun beautiful spider webs in the bird room.  We couldn't have done it without our numerous volunteers.  It's truly a work of art.

If you haven't visited us recently, come on down and see what we've down with the place.  Believe it or not, we stumbled upon another baby box turtle this week also.  If they like our designs so much, surely you will too. Maybe we'll even see you tomorrow
night for the Bats-N-Brews Fundraiser, which in keeping with a natural theme, will feature a lecture on bloodsucking creatures and plenty of local brews to enjoy!

-Jessie

 




 

Digger The Box Turtle

It was a memorable day at the Environmental Center this past Sunday.  There was already a buzz of excitement in the air with the beautiful fall weather, the launch of the Halloween decorating effort and a garter snake caught up in a visitor's sweater. But all that was only a prelude to the day's main attraction: a baby box turtle crawling across the front terrace!  The tiny turtle, which was about an inch and a half long, was probably only a few months old.  How rare is it to find such a turtle?  Consider this quote from Davidson University's box turtle website:

"Little is known about the lives of young box turtles because they are so secretive and hard to find. In fact, it is very rare to find a box turtle much smaller than about 3.5 or 4 inches long. It is thought that these young turtles spend most of their time concealed in brush and leaf litter and feed primarily on insects."

So why were we so lucky?  What was this turtle doing walking across the leafless, dry bluestone on our front terrace?  It's anybody's guess.  But I have a theory ...

We had another special visitor that day - Evie, a young lady from Brightwaters who readers of this blog might remember from this post from about a year ago, when we posted a photo of her with another young (but much older) turtle found at Scully. Since then, she has become a box turtle lover.  In fact, when she came to visit us on Sunday she brought something to show us from her first day of school.  It was a project for the students to introduce themselves to their teacher and classmates.  Evie drew a picture of herself with a box turtle and wrote, simply, "I like to hold box turtles."  

So it was all too fitting when a few minutes later Evie's mother spotted the little turtle walking across our terrace towards the building.  I like to think (if you'll forgive me a little anthropomorphizing) that the turtle was a bit turned around and needed a helping hand.  I think she (it was a female) was trying to get to Evie; she recognized a friend when she saw one.

Evie named the turtle "Digger."  We put her in a tank for a few days, but plan to release her back to the property later this week.  With a little luck, Digger will be around for years and years.  Box turtles can live to be 50 or even 100 years old. Who knows, maybe she'll make it long enough to be around to help turn Evie's children (or even grandchildren!) into nature lovers, too!

- Enrico

Here are a few photos of Evie and Digger ...

Songbirds!

Eastern Bluebird (photo: Scott Whittle)     

With summer officially here, it's time to get out and enjoy all the wonderful open space and natural resources that Long Island has to offer.  And whether you're sitting in your backyard or hiking through a national wildlife refuge, one wonderful part of the outdoor experience - especially in the early morning - is the songs and calls of our resident songbirds!  And here's your chance to brush up on your knowledge of these feathered melody makers:  Join us on Thursday evening (June 24 - 7 p.m.) at the Environmental Center for a lecture by professor Shai Mitra of the College of Staten Island.  Dr. Mitra is the editor of The Kingbird, the journal of the N.Y. Ornithological Association, and one of Long Island's foremost bird experts.  He's sure to provide an insightful and entertaining look at our region's songbirds.  The lecture is part of Seatuck's year-long series featuring topics from Dennis Puleston's book, A Nature Journal. More information about the series can be found here.