Ray and Bill Q Ship (1952)

This story is true as I remember it; only the names were changed to protect the innocent ducks.

This story begins in November around the fifth, it was rabbit, squirrel pheasant, quail and I believe woodcock season. This was the first time the 3 of us (Ray, Peter and I) went in the boat together.

The boat was a 12 foot Sharpie that was a custom made boat by Ray’s grandfather in Bishops Boatyard before the war. It was about 12 years old when Ray got it. The boat was sort of an experiment, it was a little higher than most 12 rowboats, which was good, but he left out the centerboard, which was not so good. The floor in most boats went crosswise and the centerboard went from the bow all the way to the stern. That made the bottom stronger. This boat had only the boards that went crosswise with no centerboard down the center.

The boat were using this day was his Grandfathers original one and it was rated for 300 lbs. With Ray, Pete and I, (now we are over the 300 lb. limit) we did not have much wasted space. We allowed 100 lbs extra weight to be safe to carry in the boat, However, the 3 guns weighed 45 lbs, ammunition another 12 lbs, life preservers, 20 lbs, food 15 lbs, anchor rope, 25 lbs gas and tank 25 lbs. We were already about to sink before we got started.

We set out it was dark about 6:30 AM at Ray’s dock in Sterling Creek and we had no lights and we had to ply our way around all the boats moored there. The trusty motor we had to get us through enemy waters was a powerful 2 hp Evenrude. As soon as we left the dock we had the motor wide open, why not it was just as fast at ¼ throttle as it was wide open which normally with 2 people is about 2.5 MPH.
Our goal this day was to land on shore at Shelter Island, a couple hundred yards past Hay Beach Point, about 3 miles away. We got of the creek at Sandy Beach and the motor slowed down and finally stopped.
“Why are we stopping here?” Said Pete.
“Well,” said Ray, “I thought it would be a good idea to get out and take a leak.” (I was just kidding) Ray said “I have to exchange the plug when it hits the real cold water it stalls.”
I said “OH! That’s just ducky, I can’t wait until we get out in the middle of the bay and it conks out. It will great if it happens in rough water.” (We were lucky as far as it not been rough.)

Shortly we were on our way again and the next obstacle was to get around the breakwater that was 800 feet long with rocks. If the tide was coming in around the breakwater we might have a problem. Rounding the end of the breakwater, we found the boat would not go any further because of the tide and the waves. With the motor wide open we were going slightly backwards. So we had to tack back and forth to gain any forward motion. It took us nearly a half hour to go 200 feet further. Shortly we were on our way again and made Hay Beach in an hour.

The beach was nice and sandy on the lee side the other side was a sandbar that went out about 1000 feet. It was only about 2ft deep in some places as far as 500 feet out and was easy to hit (if you had a boat fast enough to feel it) if we ran into it we would not realize it until we were not moving.

Ray and I had explored that area several times. We knew Hay Beach had a small marsh in the low beach area and a high wooded area behind it. Ray wanted to see if there were any ducks on the pond. Getting into the pond area he frightened a flock of 100 or so gulls including about 15 Great Black Back Gulls. Also, in his lumbering sneaking up about 50 sandpipers were flushed out of the upper beach area. Ray, also, wakened a bunch of plovers; I did not have time to identify. The grass in that area was tall nearly 3 feet in some areas and they were always wet especially in the morning. As Ray was rapidly finding out. We tried wearing layers of long socks, short boots and some kind of spats, but to no avail. We always go our feet wet and that can be mightily uncomfortable all day.

Pete said, “Do you think he realizes that it’s not duck hunting season yet.”
“I don’t think he much cares.” I said.

Pete and I did see 2 ducks fly up from the far end of the pond to far away. We followed behind Ray maybe 40 ft. He motioned us down with his hands; we could see all of this end of the point from where we now stood. We were above him now and could see quite clearly. But, Ray was still after something, he pointed to a spot that had several tree branches sticking out of the water. (we saw nothing) he even knew what kind of duck it was and kept motioning us down. We were already wet enough and Ray was nearly crawling in the grass getting wetter. Pete motioned to me and handed me a pair of opera glasses. (We all had binoculars home but knew we would ruin them in the salt water) Pete pointed at what Ray was sneaking up on. It was the early morning light glancing off the water and a branch sort of V shaped with a piece of bark on the high end sticking out of the water. That was Ray’s American Merganser (a duck). It had more white than a red breasted merganser so he new for sure which one it was. We stood up and jumped up and down, Ray was set to yell but then his duck did not move.

Now we were all wet, not any where as near as Ray. We were lucky though because it was at least 50 degrees out and was supposed to be in the 30’s. Anyway we pulled the boat up and put his wet pants in the bow of the boat to dry. We put his long sock over the trusty motor and ran it 4 or 6 times until it got hot and the socks started to burn. They dried out pretty well, but putting his wet muck lucks back on was something else.

Well later it was about noon by now, we left the boat and walked about a mile to the spot were looking for. It actually was a large piece of land probably owned by the Golf Club above it. But, there were no signs coming from the water direction, and it was a piece of land about 500 feet deep and over ¼ mile long. It had all sorts of brush and berries, a great spot for pheasants, rabbits, quail and all other kinds of wildlife.

We didn’t realize until several years later when we took our car over to explore around the area. That the reason it was soon good was that all the signs were out on the road on telephone poles telling you that this was a Shelter Island Wild Life Refuge. “Gee” who would of thought?

We had our food, life preservers and extra stuff in an 8 ft piece of canvas. When we pulled the boat up further on the beach it seemed rather heavy maybe the 3 inches of water covered by all our crap it hid our leaks pretty good Pete and I unloaded the boat and baled it out we must have lost our bailing can but you can always find another on any beach ‘not always” we did find a couple small cans. We finally tipped the boat over to get most of it out. “

I thought these “Sharpies” didn’t leak!” I said,

You think that’s a leak. You should see some of the bigger row boats some times they almost sink before you cross the creek. OH well, I really was not looking forward to going back, especially not being able to swim a stroke. Not that would help you much on a December day. We decided to walk down the beach to our special Wild Life Refuge it was about 3/4 of a mile. Pete and I let Ray go on ahead
I sure didn’t want to shoot anything. The shoreline was rather in and out and the sandy beach turned into rocks the further you
went the bigger they got, they made good cover to sneak up on
what ever might be there? The last bend had a large pile of rocks from up on the bank to about 75 ft above the water. Ray was about 100 feet ahead of us. He motioned us to sneak up to where he was. I was sort of leery of what he was motioned us for. I got to his position and he motioned to keep down. I looked over and what appeared to be 25 or 30 ducks possibly Scuap ducks possibly but
something didn’t look right. One thing I was pretty sure of I never
saw a duck rock back and forth in the waves and they all had their heads in the same position.

“There decoys,” I said

“No they are moving around.”

From what I saw they were not moving around like any ducks I ever saw plus the fact they would all be males. Ray insisted he was going to move a little closer to be sure he would not miss. I motioned to Pete we got to get out of here “NOW” Rays going to shoot someone’s Decoys. Both Pete and I made haste to get out of there. This was really an amazing twist of fate, that’s the only way to explain it; it was sure luck on our part. The same time Ray was sneaking up on these (DUCKS) decoys another (HUNTER) was sneaking up from the other side, which was a beach with tall grass. He got within 60 ft and Ray got about 100 ft on our side and they both opened fire. The other hunter fired not more than 3 or 4 seconds before Ray. Ray got off one shot the other guy got off 3 shots. I don’t think the decoy owners even noticed that they took fire from both directions. They apparently thought the one hunter fired at their decoys, anyway we three took off. But thinking someone might be coming after us, we cut into the woods above the beach. That wasn’t the smartest idea the, the woods along the bank were real overgrown with briars brambles and brush of amazing strength. We plowed through that mess not going around anything. All three of us had the same shotguns. We got them at the same time we had to have the most powerful guns available. We knew nothing about guns, I picked them out myself they were truly Cannons in our hands. The guns were 12 gage bolt-action 3 shot full choke deadly weapons. We ordered them from Sears in 1952. There is an amazing storey behind us getting these guns is funny but true and unbelievable. That fact that the safeties on all three were not working most of the time meant all three of them had the same faults.

Our chances getting back to the boat unscathed was slim.
Apparently I tripped once too often and my gun went off Pete’s
head blew off, I thought, but luckily it was just his hat I think
All three of us turned white, Pete never swore but he had some
real choice words some that I had never heard before. After a few
silent seconds past and we could see he wasn’t hurt.

“Ray quip and said “maybe we can find his hat if it has any holes in it he may not be alive.”

“ I m sure glad I was a lousy shot” I said.

We all agreed that we should unload our guns before we went any
Further. We did know that there was a problem with the safeties.
The safety was just a short piece of tin sticking up near the trigger a certain amount of shaking would make it fall down to the off position. There was a little yellow paint on the tip of it so you could find it, get your finger nail under it and pry it up to the on position. We eventually broke off a matchstick and wedged it under the safety to keep it on or off at the time. We bought these guns from the Sears catalogue. We knew nothing about guns we only knew that they had to be the most powerful guns available. The closer to a cannon that you can get. The guns we got were 12-gage bolt-action Full choke deadly weapons. That should have a tag attached with a warning (must be over 50 to operate).

When we finally made it from the woods opposite the boat Ray slid his gun down over the bank in front of him, the bank was about 4 ft high, so it was safer to put the gun ahead of you. He slid the gun down the embankment and when the barrel hit the sand, the gun went off and the sand blew back on us. We were really upset then. I guess that you could say that was the worse part of the day, Of course, we still had the boat to contend with. We felt relief that no that one was following us.

We got the boat packed up and pushed it off the beach right away
the water spurted up between the boards. In a couple of spots the water shot up a good 6 inches whenever we hit a wave and with the boat going forward all 4 boards in the middle were leaking, they sort of played a tune something like uppity ump bumity mph.

Buy the time we got to the end of the breakwater about half way back Pete was gradually losing the battle with the leak. I had found a smaller Campbell’s soup can and bailed all I could. It was
hard to tell how much water was in the boat as it sloshed around.
We almost made it back to the beginning of the breakwater when
the engine conked out and the over loaded boat sloshed to a halt.
There was more than 4 inches of water in an already overloaded boat. Pete tried to get in a better position to bail but instead lost the can overboard the can was still floating on top near the boat
Pete grabbed a paddle and tried to reach the can but the paddle
went away with the can. We only had one paddle and it was running away from us. We did some new word swearing some
words I never herd before. If we could only reach Sandy Beach it would be possible with a paddle before we sunk. Pete said I would
get us there and he grabbed his shotgun and held it by the barrel, and like a crazy man he paddled that boat close enough to the
Sandy Beach houses to get a hold of a boat tie up pole with a line that went to the beach house and saved us all. The End


I have other true but sometimes-crazy stories of my first days hunting. I have at least 10 started Every time I start another I
Remember another.

Why Osprey’s And Ducks Hate Guns?

The hawk I associate closest with is the fish hawk (Osprey). The Osprey I remember from my child hood days. That was a time when I could spot or identify 5 or 6 birds. You know seagulls, robins, sparrows and ducks. The certain excitement it met to see a big bird take a dive in the middle of the creek, and the feeling of wonder when Mr. Fish Hawk rose from beneath the water with a slippery shaking fish and rose up a hundred feet or so, than somehow flipped the fish around so the fish was facing the right way to give less wind resistance (at the time I had no idea why he flipped that fish).
In 1950 there were at least 25-30 nests on the North Fork, 10 active nests from Greenport to Orient Point. Most of us always thought of Fish Hawks as a type of Hawk, but is not a hawk or eagle it reality is a Pandion Haliaetus. Although not an Eagle, for me a being on earth, having touched a Fish Hawk, the honor for me was as great as if I had touched an Eagle. It was just as good and an honor to have done such…
There was this Mansion at the end of shipyard lane in East Marion it stood where the condominiums are now. It was abandoned before the war. We would hear there were ghosts that flew the halls at night and some one hung himself by tying a rope to the chandelier, the rope was still there the last time I went in there. There was an easy window on the East End of the mansion right in the garden, it was a little high but we managed to get in. Usually there were at least 3 or 4 of us that would take the dare and see how deep into this above the water Titanic would allow us to go. There were two huge wood meat lockers one on each side of the hall one for women and one for men??. There was a huge kitchen with enough iron stoves to cook a couple of steers at once. Opposite that was a dining room for 50. I could go on but I will keep the rest of that mansion on hold. I have to explain that there were 3 stories and an attic above that which was unfinished. It had no windows but all the walls were mahogany that was a heavy real shiny wood. There was a heavy ladder to the roof, it was as far as I ever gone but this time I was determine to go the rest of the way. There were two brass-sliding locks that held the door down; the 3rd time I got that far but never opened the door. This time I opened it. Just behind the trap door was a huge chimney about 4 feet high and the on top of that was a huge Osprey nest, it seemed huge a few feet away from me and was occupied. The Fish Hawk and I didn’t move, it was about 4 ft or less to the nest. I thought in the dark he or she might stay there so I took a chance and ran my fingers down her the back of her head to her wing she did let out a slight squeak (not loud). I touched the back of her head and backed up nearly falling over the trap door and said "Goodbye nice Eagle". I will never experience any thing like that again.
It’s a good thing that Ospreys and humans can tolerate each other; otherwise one of us would have to leave. In the past we usually did not try to get along with most animals and birds if they seem to be in completion with us. The fish hawk ever seemed a threat even to most fishermen. Its distinction as the only species in North American of Osprey sort of gives it first place as far as I'm concerned. Its size and the way it holds its wings in a W shape and it's whistling call from overhead. Its size helps us identify the Osprey, and of course its eating habits. No other (Hawk) hunts fish exclusively.
Just before World War II, about 1940, our family went to Orient State Park on a picnic. There were 25 Osprey nests, some on the ground, and in the branches of low growing pines. I think that was unusual even then. Ospreys are easy to identify, besides their size, their large nests and their keel over dive bomb attacks. Most of their dives are from 60 to 100 ft and the dive was steep usually about 60 degrees. Their dives are about 30 mph to 50mph the speed that was dependent on the depth of the fish. The wings of an Osprey were stronger then most Hawks. On a dive first the talons shoot forth then the powerful legs followed by the long wings. At 50 mph hitting the water they would need something like Kevlar on them.
Ray and I camped in a place we called Fordam's Woods. The exact location was across RTE 25 at Breck Knock Hall, a huge granite building about 500 ft from the highway. We defiantly camped close enough to the nest tree; our tent was white washed by morning. Needless to say we could not use that tent again. Ray and I both lived within 10 minuets from the nest. The best vantage point to that nest was the north side of the cemetery. The dirt road in the cemetery was about 400 ft from the nest. The nest tree had been the tallest pine in that 10 acre wooded area. I know that tree had held a pair of Ospreys for at least 10 years from 1948 until 1958. The tree just couldn’t take it any longer and fell over. It was to Osprey's advantage, they didn’t mind and tolerated humans to the extent they would even nest in parking lots and parks. It would be no surprise to see a nest in a high tree in a person's back yard.
Ray and I kept an eye on 5 separate nests. There were 3 nesting pairs on the far side of Sterling Creek. Ray and I lived on this side of the creek, so we very well knew the coming and goings of all the hawks on the creek. Sad to say we witness the demise of 2 fish hawks by practicing hunters and in 1953 found 3 that were shot beneath the nest that was on Gull Pond.
Ray and I always considered ourselves (self-proclaimed conservationists) not much went on the crick that we didn't know about from 1946 to about 1955. We were hell on wheels when we came upon something that was wrong. Just an example of what we had to up go against.
It was September 1951, Ray and I had been hiking in the forest (woods) near Gull Pond (some years hence the inlet from Gull Pond had been dredged) part of the woodland became a mudflat with tall reeds taking over most of the open land. When they pumped out the inlet they didn’t want it to all wash back into the just dug channel so they built about an 8-ft dike between the woods and water. This made it a good vantage point to hide out behind the dike and shoot at the fish hawks on the other side of the inlet. Ray and I caught them red handed. We just walked right up to them and shouted, "What the hell are you doing." One of them even in this situation said, "get down they will se ya" We didn’t have any guns with us all we had was our army knives. If they pointed their guns at us I don’t know what we would have done. "It's against the law to shoot Fish Hawks" I tried to make myself sound tougher. "Yeah" said Ray "There is a $100 fine if you are caught with one " "Well we ain't going to take them home. We just wanna kill em." I recognized both of them; they had quit school a few years ago. "For one thing there is no season for anything in September, and we were told by the town police to turn anybody in on this property. " They got up from the bank and slowly went back down the road. I remember when they got out of earshot, I held my hand over my mouth and said in a muffled voice, ''and don’t come back again''. Both Ray and I were shivering in our shoes. We knew some vague stories about them getting into trouble.
We had to turn in several other happenings on the creek. However, we never got anywhere with our complaints. The very worse thing that I ever saw was down at the bulkhead at the end of our street. Our house was only about 300 ft from the bulkhead. Ray and I were crabbing behind the house next to the bulkhead. We could see something was going on but there was no way we were going over to see what was going on. Within a few minutes, two cars pulled up and all the guys about 6 got in They took off in a hurry
We just had to see what gives, the two neighbor kids that lived next to us, came running down, when we got there we wished we had not witnessed this crime scene, worse than any movie we had ever scene. There were two
16 ft open row boats and they were both covered from bow to stern with the blood of at least 100 or more ducks in each boat. It would be impossible to identify most of them and a few of them were not even ducks. The sadist part was as Ray looked down into the boats… He exclaimed, "There were some still alive." Without thinking about himself, he started down to the boats; he tried the best he could to get the ducks that were still flopping around. Ray slipped and fell a couple of times it was an impossible task. Dick from next-door also made an effort beyond his ability or anyone else's. I told Fred, Dick's younger brothers, to run home and have his Mom to call the police, a doctor, or something. Fred had just a fleeting look of horror and he was just about gagging. "Just keep an eye on the road and yell if you see the cars coming back!" I yelled at Fred. I managed to untie one of the boats and worked it up to shore. From there I could reach over the side of the boat.
I don't think you can fathom such a tragedy even if you were in the middle of such a sad situation. Ducks have a will to live that is hard to believe.
Some of these ducks had lost wings or legs and were still trying to go somewhere. I pulled out a couple large birds you couldn’t tell weather they were Loons or Cormorants. There was just no way of counting all these bodies and there was little we could do. I doubt if even one of these ducks survived. Fred yelled, "Some cars were coming" our cue to get out of there. It was the fire dept. They were at odds about what to do with 250 ducks in the boats and 25 mortally injured going around in circles.
Ray and I were only about 15 at the time, we new something about the hunting seasons and what we did know was if the authorities wanted to do something about it they could (if they went by the laws). It was 3 days before any duck open season, if it was open season they could fine for the amount of ducks each person could shot over 10, so these six men would be allowed 60 ducks with 200 more that they would be fined for. Both of their boats were illegal, one had two 33 hp, motors and the other had a big racing outboard apparently used them to chase them down. We were never sure what became of the men or there boats.
Getting side tracked, the Ospreys in the past 50 years had all sorts of persecutions, being shot, even trapped and eggs collected. Not to mention what might have been the Osprey's demise DDT. The chances of Osprey's eggs not being able to survive the weight of the mother bird plummeted in 1946 to 20 % of the eggs not hatching to less than 40% in 1950 and in 1969 about 95 %. This epidemic was world wide the largest colony in the world had 150 nests for generations in 1972 there were 2 left. Ospreys have colonized most of the world.
A majority of Osprey sub adults spend winters in Central and South America, not the best place to be. Young Ospreys endure tremendous stress and a battlefield of hardships. Starvation is a constant menace to young birds, the use of DDT and other pesticides is still wide spread throughout Central America If the Osprey can survive its first sub adult year 1 in 3 will make it back home. Providing we care enough we can save some of our brothers and sisters of the sky so they may live in our sight and hearts many generations to follow…
A few other Osprey facts their feet are larger then Hawks with more rough surface that keeps a better grip for holding slippery fish and there talons or more like hooks and are made to get a powerful grip on a fish, Their wing area is greater than most hawks for the size of its body. This gives them more lifting power when pulling prey out of the water. They can lift nearly twice the weight of a hawk there size, about 3 to 4 lbs., but usually their usual catch is much smaller than that. Nature sometimes doesn't think of everything. When the Osprey hits the prey and the talons lock on the Osprey cannot let go of the fish. If the fish is too heavy it is a sad ending for both fish and bird.
Another way the Ospreys are unique, they migrate while holding a fish in their talons (Osprey packing a lunch). The Osprey has made remarkable come back. They became the poster child for species lost to pesticide use in the 50's and 60's, How the Osprey can be seen nesting on telephone poles, even cell phone towers, and other man made towers. The more I think about and remember those Fish Hawks of Sterling Creek and Gull pond and how wild and free they were.
Another hi light of my Osprey watching was how they fought, When another Fish Hawk ran into a pair's territory, they would rolled and would sometimes lock their talons together and would drop 50 to 100 ft and climb again with all sorts of aerial feats it looked dangerous, but I never saw one get hurt. During the courting season both of the couple would perform a somehow gentle more passionate feat of aerial combat.
(Long Live the Fish Hawk.)

Bill Reeves 9/9/08

ADLER T0 ZEDEL

The names of two we never heard of cars I guess we feel Better with Ford or Pontiac (maybe even Edsel) Myself having to be to young to have a real close association with cars in the thirties One thing I do remember was that every body seemed to have car trouble. We had about 12 cars on that street, maybe 4 more in garages. My dad used to guess the temperature by the number of cars with their hoods up.
It seemed colder the crick froze over sometimes all the way to the bay. I remember myself I was out on the crick when you could see the bottom mud
The cracks were 5 or 6 ft. That must have been in
1940s. I remember there was a chart in the door of most cars showing the percentage of water to kerosene to use as antifreeze there were other liquids like alcohol or Dad said he knew a few from the gas station that would put cheap whiskey in there radiators (I think my ford runs best on four Rose) He couldn’t keep the car going strait it weaved back and forth. May be the heaters were inadequate for most of the more airy and not sealed that well. Undoubtedly the number one problem with cars in the 30s and b before that was the poor quality of tires Any trip of 25 miles or more would quire 1 or 2 tire changes, We (mom and kids) had part of the problem solved, We called tire changing time Our Picnic time. It depended on how far we were going. Riverhead was about 25 miles each way so that meant 2 Picnics. Our longest trips back then was 120 miles road trip. We had 4 flats on one of those trips. You have to realize that all those tires had inner tubes and they would have to be patched also. Dad was the tire-changing king of the highway.

Just Getting to School

My father always hated school, as it seemed half the high school as well, as soon as most of them reached 16 he or she was out of there. The truant officers had their hands full; some of the officers had acquired bicycles to go after kids not on foot. Gradually some of the students were getting automobiles making things even more difficult. My farther around this time got his first motorcycle at14 but he couldn’t take that to school. You were probably wondering why my grandfather would have allowed such a thing (he wouldn’t). Dear old dad new that would make my Grandfather Blow his stack for sure. Anyway dad and his "mob" Kept there cycles at a house on the other side of town. This house was called a "Safe House" apparently The owner of this house lived upstairs and he kept up To 20 Illegal cycles down stairs they paid him enough plus supplying him with booze. Dad was not Part of any of the (Mobs). Some of these truant kids started gangs of 5 to 10 kids. Dad had a few friends he sort of hung with until one of his (friends) Mr. X acquired a 22 pistol he sold another t o another of our small group. It’s amazing that a little gun would change a person from just a face that you really did not even notice to some one you suddenly did notice. In this case the ruler of this no gang. Insisted that the other 3 buy a pistol from him (so they could do what).
This Mr. X said “He would shoot the other 3 of them if they did not buy one. “
They were at the end of the Greenport dump at the time. This Mr. X told us them they had 10 seconds to run. They didn’t run but walked away. It was a good thing it was winter all 3 of them had heavy coats on, when three shots pop-pop-pop rang out two of them hit my dad one about 6 inches below the collar and one in the center of his coat. None of them ran, then two more shots and a misfire. They were about 35 ft away by that time. None of the 22 bullets made it through the coats. I am sure these two characters didn’t know how serious it could have been.

For a year or so my father’s "Indian” motorcycle went to school "sometimes" until he was 16 although he had to hid it along way. After leaving school he found several jobs. He had a great mechanic ability electronic ability, however he never applied himself to these abilities. But, he did a lot of home-based radio repair and later short wave and T.V. Most of his talents went to house building and interior finishing.
The Kissel 1918.

Dad’s first car was a 1918 Kissel. There are cars and cars some you can’t think of anything interesting or any thing exciting about it. Some of them are just plane boring. But even the boring ones somehow come to life if something unusual happens to them. My father liked cars especially unusual ones. Most of my father’s car stories were hard to come by. The rest of the family never got to hear his stories, I came by them only by being in the right place at the right time. He was secretive about his past life and I doubt if he thought any body else new or cared about his exploits. All these stories are true and to my knowledge as far as I know he never told any of these to anybody outside the family.

Dad bought this car in 1922. The Kissel Car Co. was officially set up in 1906 the cars sold well 10 years after it became established they could be supplied with four, six, or twelve cylinder engines. They were reliable and reasonably cheap. In 1918 the company entered the sport car market-They introduced the Kissel Kar Silver Special Speedster. In 1918 The Kissel Gold Bug was on display at the New York Motor Show. They introduced other larger cars The "White Eagle" But their cars became two expensive for the world wide economic crisis. And there cars became hard to sell in 1929 only 931 were sold they went out of
Business in 1930…I m not sure, but the car he had
He liked it because it was red with yellow wire wheels. Kissel started making the sporty models in 1918 so we assumed it was the sport model. He bought the car soon after leaving school.

The Kissel and My Mom

A friend of his told Him that he knew where 3 girls lived in town that were still going to school maybe they could somehow get a chance to talk to them. Knowing my father he probably said what for..
So dad & Joe decided to take a ride over where these girls are supposed hang out. They found the place all right it was a two story house right on the corner. It was a big house and it had a wrap around porch in the front and a single porch in the back. The guys chugged past noticing there were only two girls.
“I wonder were the third girl is?” said Joe,
Lets go around the block again but they still are not sure what to do. The 5th or 6th time around the 3rd girl arrived. By this time for some reason they were laughing harder than ever. The next time around they seemed to be more anxious or overly excited. Now this just getting ridiculous two of the girls were at the porch railing the third one was by the road. The two girls on the porch were just about going crazy they kept jumping and yelling some thing but the car was so noisy the guys couldn’t hear anything. This was the last time they were afraid they had excited them so much they couldn’t resist us. They thought they had better leave before they exploded. This time though the 3rd girl stepped out in the dirt road and the Kissel had very little brakes but luckily what little brakes they had could handle doing ten or fifteen miles an hour. Russ (my Dad) hit the brakes, and the Kissel fell over a bit. Your wheel fell off. Both of them in the car were dumfounded. We just could not believe that it, we had only been turning left all that time.
The girl exclaimed your wheel rolled down through the next 4 yards it went thru a couple gardens and took a clothes line with it. The 3 girls were nice to help them find the wheel. They had no idea where it could end up. It was all down hill and it looked like the wheel might end up down town. Dad was embarrassed to say the least. When they found the wheel on the front step of a church was that a premonition or something else.
All three girls helped with getting the wheel back on.
Dad had always thought women were pretty useless around cars, however these three girls changed his mind on that score. The girl that stepped out in the road was Mildred (my Mom) who became Dads (Russell) wife a few months later.
Dad had several cars before I was born. The first one was a 1929 model A 4 dr black he bought it secondhand in 1933 it cost him $350. Dad bought another second hand Ford a 1931 model A 4dr black he did not care for either one. I’m not sure but one of the Fords would have to be driven backwards up any steep hill such as Kenny’s Road in Southold LI.

#2 A mile in a minute with me in it.

After the Fords Dad was looking for something flashier he got a good deal on a 1926 Buick This was a two-tone 4 dr convertible with side curtains. Russell just couldn’t resist the car. The price, the prestige, of owning a Buick and it had a lot of room as our family had grown to 6. This car when new cost over $2300.
The previous owner said the car would do an honest 70 miles an hour he had no idea about how fast the Kissel was probably 60 the two Fords would not touch 55. It was only about a month after Dad bought this car that my three Uncles and a few other people that just had to get into this Buick story. All of them wanted to see if Dads Buick would do 70mph. The problem was finding a road that was long enough and fairly strait. My father settled on a road in East Marion N.Y. The road was the life savings stations road. It would start at the Sound turn around and run about 2 1/2 miles to Rte 25. It was a totally stupid idea it really didn’t prove anything. Except to show how many dimwits can you get in one place to see something other even dumber dimwits would enjoy?
My father didn’t have to prove anything he knew the car would go faster then 70 mph. every body there wanted to go but we couldn’t fit 20 people in the Buick. The Rte 25 end was mostly a farm with several barns and two houses none of which was on the road. If the owner of this farm knew what we were doing I’m sure they would have called the Sheriff. The thought the less they know the better.
They finally decided who was going there were 7 in the end that insisted they wanted to go. Dad thought with the extra weight about 900 lb it would never reach 70 even down hill. They took it slow to the turn around with 7 people jammed in the car 4 in the back seat. They all were having a hard time seeing the dashboard and with no lights on the dash it was hard for Dad to see.
They did a leisurely 45 to the turn around. H turned the old Buick around the engine seemed to be rumbling and the exhaust muffler something seemed louder for some reason.
He said “Everybody hold on, here we go.”
It took all of a 1/4 mile to reach 45, Dad shifted to high at 45 then he really burned up the road. By the 1/2-mile point he was tooling along at nearly
55. Dad had never had it over 60. When he hit 60 the side curtains began to pop and slap. The front end had never been aligned and the wheels were beginning to wobble, he was not worried about that. However the strange grumbling getting louder from under the car concerned him, then a loud bang and a thump from the rear.

“Just as some one in the back seat.” He said “I think we lost something the muffler no doubt as I could see in the vibrating rear view mirror pieces of what once was the Buicks muffler bouncing behind the car.” It looked like the pieces were trying to catch up with us. Everybody seemed to have lost interest in the speedometer. The speed of 75 was the last time he glanced at the speed. One of the side curtains broke loose and whipped back catching on the rear bumper for a few seconds. The end of the road was a little more than a 1/4 mile or about 1500 ft he was going faster than he figured and he knew the brakes were not to good. Dad was just on the edge of the road when he turned the steering wheel to get 1/2 of the car on the farm soil. Dad knew the car would sink in the soft dirt and help them stop. He turned the wheel "turned the wheel"- turned the wheel” The front wheels had separated from the steering wheel. He could do nothing but push the brake through the floor. He applied the parking brake that was not much help. The burning brakes kept hem from knowing were they were going. The car was about 400 ft from the end. They had lost control it sure was not in his hands. They hit 2 10-inch apple trees which both jammed themselves pretty good under the front of the Buick. Took a few smaller trees and a white fence before it stopped. If it wasn’t for those two apple trees slowing them down they would have went across the main road into a barn. No one had even thought of looking at the speed in the end. Dad was pretty sure it was 75. The were lucky those trees were just the right size to stop them, if they were much bigger and didn’t move they would probably have been killed.
The Buick (except the bumper grill and radiator and 1one tire, and the steering connection,) was back on the road within a week. The owner of the farm was away for the weekend. That was lucky for them as they all spent 4 hours to clean up the mess. One of my uncle’s friends had a wrecker and he extracted the apple trees from the Buick. They contacted the owner and explained that their steering mechanism came apart and had no control of the car. The farms owner got back to them and said not to worry about it they were just glad no one got hurt.

Something to Crow About

Who would you pick to win a popularity contest for birds in our area as a matter of fact just about anywhere in N.Y. State? My guess it wouldn’t be Mr. Crow right. Well why not. I think some of us may be intimated by his intelligence. Even if we had feathers and wings few of us would be clever enough to be Crows. They remind us of some of the people we don’t like perhaps some of the traits that we don’t like to perceive in ourselves. Crows are clever and boisterous and have a penchant for getting themselves in trouble. There is no place you can go down town along the river, in the fields in the woods or even in your back yard that a crow will not show up in a few minuets. Our local crow (common Crow) is the most obvious to us but he has a smaller cousin the Fish Crow. Our fish Crow may be only 10% of the local population. As we drift in the McDonald’s area you are likely to see more. If you shop at Oneonta you will notice that both the Fish Crow and the Wal-Mart gulls (Ring Billed Gulls) prefer Wal-Mart’s 3 to 1 over other Shopping malls. Actually Fish Crows prefer marshy or low lying places to live these other areas they show up at non breeding times they are more or less slumming. Our crow has never had a easy time of it he has been persecuted like forever. Any bird or animal that competes with us for food (the only good crow is a dead crow) philosophy Farmers in general still have no great liking for crows. From working a couple of years on a dairy farm on Long Island what damage to the corn at least was not as bad as the hired help caused to the crops? That however is another story.

Apparently there is still a lot to learn about crows every thing you read brings up more questions than answers. From fall through winter crows gather in large (noisy) flocks. They have a habit of gathering in large communal roosts. They return to the same spot each night and may fly to the roost along certain established flight lines. If you are on one of these preroosting spots 50 to 150 or more gather before heading to the primary roost that may have 10,000 or more by night fall. Every thing I have read or seen first hand still intrigues scientists on the ultimate purpose of these gatherings. They chase each other do aerial acrobatics and spend most of the night jus t babbling with each or. It to me seems a down time or just a general get together to talk over old times. Like did I ever tell you why the scarecrow got hit by a freight train? These roosts might be a sort of protection or safety in numbers thing... However The Great Horned Owls should have easy pickings at those roosts but maybe the mass confusion may be a
Good thing undoubtedly the owls have success at these roosts. The mobbing the Owls get when they are discovered in the daytime by the crows gives you a good clue.. Several years ago a Midwest group of townspeople and farmers insisted the government do something about something about the crows. They did something alright. They attached dynamite bombs to the trees in the roost in the daytime. Then at night they set off the bombs when all the crows were back. They annihilated 328,000 crows Of course dealing with mankind safety in numbers means very the entire season of crows in that state...
In a few states they still allow crow hunting with no limits or rules I think several states will not allow cruise missiles tanks with greater than 188 mm cannons against the crows but every thing else is legal.

My best friend and I took up hunting on Long Island I think in 3 years I shot one duck (I’m sorry I didn’t really mean it)..My friend was more of a hunter than I however we had very little luck when we went together? I was to into bird watching to hunt and bird watch at the same time. My friend Ray and I had lived across the street from each other from the time I was four in 1934. We have done so many things together and there is more than a good book in there. Not to change the subject but we both were great conservationists at a time when ecology was in the back page of a. unknown book somewhere. If there was a law against doing something against nature we knew what it was and we sometimes made some enemies.

On long Island Crows had no friends but us. Ray and I had worked on two dairy farms in 1951 and two vegetable farms in 1952 and 1953... Even at that time we were not naive enough to assume that crows were not to blame for their own transgressions. Some of our camping excursions took us where no man has gone before. By the time we took up hunting we were pretty well new where Crows and we fit in. Guess what (we are the Crows) Humans are so like the Crows its scary Mr. Crow giving the chance will become an opportunist and will grab what he can when he can and keep a sense of humor while doing it. Before I hang up this Crows lamp there was an experiment that we tried while we were camping and hiking... This spot was actually (eventually became a state park) Orient State park. We were at the time 1951-1952 the only people that camped there. I don’t think it was legal to go past the no trespassing sign. It was a good Three and a half miles to the end. To us it was easier because we landed on the point by boat and pulled it up in the reeds and kept it well hid there were boats that patrolled from Orient Point to the end of the park then around that point it was about 16 miles round trip. We knew it took them about two hours to get back our position. We usually had the Place to ourselves. If they saw any boat land they would kick them off. We always got there before dawn and left before Dark. We were lucky to have had been able to spend as much time with nothing to bother us. It seemed to us it was like having our own island. The deer at the time were the last deer on Long Island... I think the fox on this lonely spit of land was getting to friendly or we were becoming just part of the scenery.... Ray had to go back to the boat to find something. I was pretty tired and was looking for a place to sit the whole area was mostly Poison Ivy it grew over everything. It even climbed over some of the smaller trees. The whole area was heavy brush mostly Poison ivy it even covered some of the smaller trees, the tallest trees on the point were maybe 15 ft tall but likely 75 to a hundred years old. The wind and salt air kept all the trees low to the ground... I pushed myself up on the strongest looking branch and leaned back against the trunk this left my feet about two and a half ft off the ground... I might have dozed off for a minute…But something woke me there was something coming towards me. And through the brush appeared a red Fox about 15 ft from me. He had his nose to the ground going back and forth. He seemed in no hurry when he got about 5 ft from me I became comatose and couldn’t move .The fox didn’t show he noticed me at all but when the long fur on his tail brushed the back of my leg I sort of felt faint, he just kept on his merry way deep into the nice pretty poison ivy. When Ray got back about 10 minuets later he asked what was wrong and a few minuets later asked me how come I couldn’t speak English any more. I took a while to say (Duh) flx nrlly fted. Thte mgt watr bshs w. tail... (it took me awhile to explain myself but it was pretty exciting. Anyway it made my day.

P.S. tune in for crows no.2 what experiment did we try on Mr. Crow.
Crows are great comedians some true local funny crows.
How we fought the farmers for equal rights for Crows?


Bill Reeves

Trees

Trees are among the most beautiful and useful products in nature. Trees have been cherished since ancient times, besides providing food and shelter for wildlife as well as “us.” we can’t imagine trees having a heart and soul. But they have been here millions of years before us and somehow I can’t imagine God in his infinite wisdom would not give them something that we cannot fathom and may well is beyond our senses.

We have used and abused the trees, but they are steadfast in the way they watch over us. Gods plan is to have trees watch over us for all time, and we were given the privilege of being able to use them as we saw fit. But, also, to care for them and enjoy them, try to imagine that by looking out your window all the trees as far as you could see were gone yes gone of course that meant your yard was turning to sand and your flowers had shriveled down to the roots. All that sand made you thirsty, so you went to the sink for a drink when you turned on the faucet only a puff of dust came out. The water table was so low and the ground was no longer able to hold back the coming dust bowl, you rushed to the window to see if you could see the river as now there were no trees in the way, you could make it out but it was no longer a river just a river bed. That would never do in this part of the country. Greenery from the crops in the fields, orchards of apples trees peach, and cherry trees. Plus all the thousands of trees we have faithfully planted. Nothing could ever take, that away from us could it? Falls bounty was always a blessing, and would always be there for us wouldn’t it?
We always had plenty of water in NY State we still have forested hills and sparkling lakes held there by the forests. We take all this for granted and believe it will always be there. As the sad facts however more than one third of the land in the world has turned to dust and more than 70% of the forests have been destroyed and burned and most of that in the past 25 years. By the year 2015 half of the world will be sand (dust) and 80 % of the forests will be gone....

We always imagined Africa as a country with huge jungles with Tarzan swinging through the trees that was 50 years ago. Tarzans days are over. But the furious rate of logging will not let the jungles recover. . If Tarzan could find a tree to swing from his last swing would end him splattered against the side of a semi trailer.

South America has the same problem nearly 70 percent of the forests have been cut and burned in the last 25 years after they cut 500 acres or so they burn everything. They had the false impression they would grow crops on the remains of the forest. But the soil there needs the forest to hold on to the poor subsoil in 4or 5 years the soil will not stay and it will not grow anything and of course they burned the trees and the stumps so no native plants or trees will return. It may take 300 years to get started and over a thousand to become a forest and that might not even be possible. We can be proud of our efforts in united states as well as Canada for fighting to save our last protected areas remember our trees are part of us...as far as we are concerned most of the changes that will effect us is the weather and the weather patterns. Some of these changes are noticeable already will be noticed worldwide. Most changes will be in the northern hemisphere .we probably will get aggravated brushing off 4 inches of snow off your windshield in June and some states like Virginia getting up to 125 degrees. Tornadoes and hurricanes will appear more prevalent and show up in places that never had them. These storms are already blazing new trails across the country. .

Tree what am I really I am a large perennial plant made of wood.
No I’m not a shrub I have to be able to grow 15-2o at least
I must have branches and a main stem called a trunk.
Compared with most other plants I am long lived, some of us getting to be several thousand years old and grow up to 375 ft tall.
I keep you breathing by producing oxygen and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I am the principal component of erosion and have specific weather-sheltered ecosystems under my foliage like my human counterparts. I sometimes brag a little there always been people for centuries trying to find the tallest the heaviest and the type with the biggest trunk diameter there has long been arguments over which country had the biggest but until now there never has been a reliable way until the laser rangefinder came along.. maybe a little late to measure the record trees that we already destroyed so now we know, or do we? If a tree was in a heavy forest you might still have a problem, but we are closer than ever and the top 5 trees are. The coast redwood at 379 ft a coast Douglas fir at 326 ft, Australian Mt. Ash at 318 ft a Sitka Spruce at 317 ft and giant sequoia 311 ft the Sequoias trunk was 29 ft wide. The record diameter is 37.5 ft held by a Montezuma Cypress.
Of course some of us live to be pretty old the record so far is a bristlecone pine who has been watching us for at least 4844 years that’s 2837 years before Christ was born an d that was about 1000 years before most of the pyramids were built there are many other trees that exceed 3000 years the oldest verified tree planted by a human is the Sari Madohi sacred fig planted in 288 BC Sri Lanka and is now 2293 years. Other interesting things about us you might not know trees have played an important in many of the worlds mythologies. The tree of life, the tree of knowledge, the
World tree the New Year tree, the Christmas tree, etc.

The tree with its branches reaching up to the sky, its roots deep into the earth, can be seen to dwell in three worlds-a link between heaven and earth, and the under world.



Trees!
A good end of this little story maybe really a beginning. I believe that every one has a favorite tree or a group of trees that will always be in your mind .I have several favorites I lived across the street from a hospital on Long Island on the grounds of this hospital was a big Norway Maple it was near the entrance the time was 1944, near the entrance door my friends and I would climb to the top and pretend we were in a B-17 bomber. We had a pilot, co pilot and a bombardier. The path went right under the tree we kept score by the size people we bombed kids would be jeeps teenagers might be a truck a heavy set man or a real big woman might be recorded as a half track or a tank. That tree as far as I know is still there. Our initials were carved on one of the highest branches. Still wonder if they are still there. A neighbor friend and I had a platform in my back yard in an apple tree for several years we fort many battles in that tree and I don’t think we ever lost one.

Another favorite tree I have is a 60 ft tall white pine in the back yard of a house I lived in Harpursville for 15 years I went back there one day when I was depressed I put my arms around the tree I could only reach about half way. I started talking to it I didn’t expect any answer, but I was surprised when I did hear from the tree it wasn’t in words as much as it was a feeling. It felt I was talking to a spirit that lived in the tree. I had called him (the tree) Prince John. When I married my wife Lynn I took her to visit Prince John got along great I was afraid at first Lynn would think I was crazy. We would ask the big white pine a question sometimes he would not answer he said some hinges he thinks its unto us to find the answers ourselves. He had his own stories to tell. One of them surprised us he told us that he was much older then we guessed we thought he might be about 100 years old; but he showed us there graves of his mother I found it in the place he described to me it was about 350 feet from prince johns place she had been .cut in1915 and shipped with 10 others to N. Y. City, her father sadly was struck by lightning in 1870 at that time he was 150 ft tall and his trunk as over 5 ft. he she said he found out his grandfather was cut by the British for a ship mast in 1760 the British were the only ones allowed to cut the big pines. The British ships were big and they needed the main masts to be nearly as long as the ships the masts had to be strait and 150 ft tall, and grandfather white pine was over 160 ft tall and his trunk was over 6 ft. masts of this size were no longer available in England. While pines of that size were becoming hard to find, this mast was to replace one lost in a battle. If a colonist cut one of these trees he would be hung or shot or both.…all white pine trees belonged to the crown, as they needed 2 150 ft main masts. The other 4 masts were 120 ft was one other 150 ft mast and 4 120 ft mast they thought it was an honor to be on the biggest British war ship. I learned a lot about trees from prince john the most amazing thing yet was that even after a tree was cut or destroyed the trees spirit will live on possibly forever or until it was burned or destroyed and they still could communicate with each other until that end.

PS: A secret arrangement the Chinese government made to their people is that china has set side 150,000 square miles of forest as a permanent wild life refuge this would be a piece of land about 1000 miles long and 150 miles wide. a good piece of news..

the end………….

How to See New England in a Blur

How To See New England In A Blur.

This is part of a longer story about my early cars. This particular car was my 1949 Mercury, my second car I bought it in 1954. Id does not fit into the lemon series, as it was a better car than some. The rest of the 49 Mercury story fits into a section I have nearly completed. I’m not sure of the title yet, however, it has to do with early car racing and playing chicken and other smart things.

I had my ’49 Mercury for about 4 months at this time. It was only my second car. I had bought in early 1954. It was a pretty good car all around, the only thing wrong with the Merc. Was it would stall for no reason and there was nothing you could do but let it sit for an hour or two. It would do this 4or 5 times a week, I kind have gotten used to it. Ray, Pete and I often talked about New England; Ray’s family always took trips to Vermont sometimes to Maine, and even Canada. My two friends thought it would be a fun thing to take a trip to Vermont. I said I would not trust the car to go that far. However, that did not discourage them any. They insisted that we take the chance, and I was anxious to go as they were.

We took only 2 changes of cloths, we figured with what we were wearing that should be enough. Ray and I had sleeping bags made out of boat canvas that his Grandmother had made us for our camping times. Pete only had an extra blanket. We had never been out of the stat on our own, so we did not have the foggiest idea of traffic conditions and what most of the signs meant. The only thing we had etched in our heads is that we had to get out of N. Y. State as fast as possible. We had to find the Whitestone Bridge first; we were lucky to have found any bridge at all never mind the right bridge. Without a map we had no idea how to get to the Whitestone Bridge. Crossing the bridge was a thrill. It was almost as much of a thrill for all the other drivers who were trying to cross the bridge at the same time as we were. There seemed to be a lot of screeching tires all around us and to us that seemed unnecessary. We thought, also, there was an awful lot of horn blowing. We didn’t understand that either. It seemed to us that was also unnecessary. But came to the conclusion that all of these people were practicing to play in a band or something. We thought it was foolish to practice in all this traffic, we found out that blowing your horn and giving the finger must be a New York custom as just about everyone was using it.

We were a little confused by the toll booths the first one we came to we breezed through at about 50 MPH, I didn’t notice the 50 cent toll sign, I thought it was a speed limit sign and went on through. Later when we had the chance to talk about it we realized that guy jumping up and down in my rear view mirror might have bee upset.

Later we came to the conclusion as what the tolls were for. The tolls were like an admission ticket like you would buy if you went to a zoo. I figured that people in the city were not able to grown their own food, so all these entrance fees were probably a way to feed them.

It’s a good thing that we were all high school graduates or we would not have been able to figure all these complicated things out.

We had driven about 230 miles and we had used about 12 gallons of gas. Gas cost us about $5.76 @ $.48 a gallon. We had figured on traveling 400 miles a day and gas would cost us about $10.00 a day.

It started raining about noon, there seemed to be a lot of water on the road when we got to Massachusetts. It apparently had been raining there for a couple of days. We were not too happy with that. Besides the traffic was not moving more than 30 MPH by the time we got to Pittsfield, Mass. Traffic was at a standstill. We decided to take Rte 9 East so we turned back to Rte 7. We still went north, it had stopped raining and it was after 7 o’clock. We had stopped for lunch earlier and had hamburgers and root beers. That didn’t hold us long. We bought some snack type crap from a gas station, hopefully that would last us until morning.

We didn’t have enough money to eat out more than once a day. We figured $25.00 each would be enough money for 3 days. We had no plans about where to sleep; we could not afford a motel in Vermont or New Hampshire. They were about $6.00 a day at the time. We were in Massachusetts when it was getting dark. We had no idea what to do buy we knew we would not sleep in some parking lot. There were a lot of forests along Rte 7, but we had no tent so a park was out. “Who planned this trip anyway” Said Pete. “I though you guys had an idea where to stay.” This was no bid deal even though by now it was dark, and all the wooded areas looked ominous to us. “The next dirt road we see we are going to take no matter where it goes. “ said Ray. We did just that. It was a winding road but not to rough, it was strange though we passed a big brick chimney and several other foundations also brick but no more than 5 ft tall, we had no idea where we were but all those big white pine trees were cool. We came to a small bridge it was wide enough for a car. It was maybe 30 ft across. We could not tell how safe it would be, besides it being so dark and there was tall grass on both sides of the bridge we all got out. We really could not see much, under the bridge was too overgrown with brush. Ray said “Bill you drive over just keep the wheels in the center on those old boards” (Yes over those old rotten boards) Pete laughed. The bridge was made out of logs and there were two cut boards going over the logs about the width of you wheels, if you had a truck that is it. I tried it. The trouble was I could fit one wheel or the other on the boards. I only tried it for about 3 ft and my wheels were not wide enough either one side or the other would be on those boards. Ray put his hand up stopping me (I was not about to go any further anyway)

We were at least ¼ mile for the road so I thought we were pushing our luck anyway. There was a real nice stand of white pines bout 100 ft or so just left of the bridge, as long as we stayed near the road we wouldn’t get lost. We grabbed our sleeping bags, blankest, what snacks we brought and of course our flashlights. It was dark so even our flashlights did not give us much light. Once you turned off your light you became completely blind. “I wonder what kind of animals live up her?” Pet said. The only thing I knew was Massachusetts had a lot of bears. Maybe some wolves or foxes but I would not worry too much about the foxes, because the only time they will come near you is when they have rabies. I brought up some others like skunks and weasels. “Enough already.” Sad Ray “I may go back to the car if I hear much more.” It was real comfortable under the pines the needles made a good mattress.

We talked for a while, those guys ere falling asleep and I was wide-awake and bored. So I felt around and was lucky without moving very far, I found a pine branch about 10 ft long. It was pretty dried out and it was easy to move about. The three of us were lying in a row about 3 ft apart. Pete was next to me they Ray was about another 3 ft. It was easy for me to reach over Pete and run the stick down Ray's sleeping bag.

“What the hell is that?” Ray exclaimed.

“What the matter?” I said

“There’s something walking over my bag.”

“Oh it is probably a chipmunk, or maybe under these trees a weasel”
“Great!”
I ran the branch back and forth,
I’m getting out of here this thing is getting Bigger!” Said Ray
Pete said, “Let’s go back to the car and sleep”

Ray got up and started kicking his sleeping bag around. He became frantic and ran into a tree and fell over Pete in the process. I found the flashlight and showed him the weasel stick. It took some convincing to prove there were no creatures walking over him (he didn’t think it was funny then, but saw the humor in it later)

Well after realizing that we were pretty stupid we decided to get some sleep. But that wasn’t that easy. It was probably around midnight I began to hear a far off train whistle. It must have been at least 10 or 12 miles away. (The fact was I always liked trains and this one was a steam engine by 1955 90% of them were gone.)
Anyhow the train was getting closer and closer and louder and louder.
“What the hell is that?” exclaimed Pete.
“It sounds like a steam train to me.” I said

By that time Ray woke up, “What’s going on? There is a train coming and I think it’s going to come right thru these trees. I think you better feel around for tracks, I think we may be lying right on them.”
Everybody got up looking for the flashlights. They were actually kicking at the pine needles looking for the tracks. By this time the headlight of the engine was flickering through the trees and even I was beginning to think, could it be… Not but the sound especially this time of night carries so well, finally it came to a climax and the train passed about 300 ft from our camp. Here were 3 men of the world holding on to all our stuff, thinking we could actually be sleeping on the tracks.

I doubt if we got 3 or 4 hrs sleep. How could you sleep with all the bears, raid foxes, probably rabid raccoons? (I forgot to mention that one.) Between 6 and 7 o’clock I thought my feet were frozen, it must have been 45 at best, boy the car was looking good to me, but thinking what we were having for breakfast, cup cakes & crackers “ugh” I didn’t want to get up.

It was so foggy I couldn’t even make out anything beyond the edge of the pines where we camped. I finally was able to see a little. The cupcake wrappers, and pretzels papers, paper cups and who knows what else. Any clothes lying about were wet from the fog and dew. Half of our clothes were wet and took all day to dry. But what wasn’t there was the important thing.

Ray was still sleeping in a fetal position it looked real comfortable.

Pet was not there. It sure seemed like I would have heard him leave or something I said his name several times. I was not going to yell. I had no idea if there was a house nearby; I shook Ray 2 or 3 times.
“Where the hell is Pete?” I exclaimed
“I have no idea,” said Ray as he goes back to sleep. I waited a little longer. But the fog was unbelievable. I grabbed my flashlight; I had no idea what good that would do. The car was white so even though I knew were it was I swore it was gone. I was about 15 ft from it. Before I saw it. I looked in it, nobody there. I thought I would follow the road back a way, as long as I stayed on the road I couldn’t get lost. I stayed on the trail for about 200 ft until I came to the first brick foundation, I have been saying Pete’s name about every 15 or 20 ft. I eventually thought I heard something; it was more like the sound of a sheep or goat. I heard a muffled yell barely perceptible form somewhere on the other side of the foundation. I went around the bricks, they were 2 to 3 ft high, I said to myself, If I don’t leave the brick just keep my hands on them as I went around, Maybe find where he is.

I roamed out about 15 ft from the foundation as far as I dared. But I could not see any signs of him. I decided to go back and get Ray it I was going to get lost U was not keen on getting lost alone. Ray was still half asleep but he followed me to where I was last. The fog was still bad; Ray had no qualms about yelling Pete’s name. We could hear something but it was faint we crisscrossed the area behind another foundation. There was mostly brush and weeds. We could definitely hear him now ad it seemed right in front of us. We almost both took the fatal step at the same time. We couldn’t believe it there was a hole about 3 ft in diameter, and we cautiously looked over the edge and could see with the flashlight the hole was a good 3 ft deeper that Pete’s head.

“How the hell did you ever fall in there?” said Ray.

“Why---what the, well.” Said Pete “I had good company.”

He sure did, he had a nearly full grown doe in the hole with him.

Pete explained, “He went for a walk down the road and herd this weird cry of sorts and tried to find out what it was. Fell I n the hole with the deer.

Pete got his arms around the deer’s legs and pushed her as high as he could. It was quite a struggle but we got the deer out. It stood and shook herself then bounded off no worse for the wear. We all felt good about that and were glad we were in the right place at the right time. We didn’t go down in the hole, but it was a good 8 ft across. We had no idea what it was for. But we could imagine a hunter might fall in such a hole and never be found.

Everything we had on was wet, as were our sleeping bags. We didn’t waste any time getting out of there, we dept the heat on in the car all morning, we had to have dome dry clothes. We had breakfast in North Adams, Mass. It started to rain again and out front window must have gotten sap or something on it overnight. Everything seemed like a blur, we had to stop when the rain became too heavy. We went throgh Bennington VT and reached Rutland about 1
;00 and had lunch there.

It seemed to be raining wherever we were. It seemed to be following us; we decided to cut across to New Hampshire. We thought it might be dryer over there so we took Rte 25 looking for Rte2 that would cross Northern New Hampshire and maybe hit Maine somehow. It was now ½ way into our second day, and we hadn’t taken a picture yet. It was either raining or so much fog the only pictures I have of the whole trip is on Hogs Back Mt.. We took 2 pictures of the back of the car, one of a road sign, and one of some wood steps we rested on for a few minuets. We just drove. If we had one of those army trucks or came-a-long on our trip with some kind of PT boat or something it would have been more enjoyable.

I was glad Ray was doing 90% of the driving, I have no idea how he could see where he was going 7 or 8 hour starring at a blurry windshield. This actually was not fun anymore (was it ever). We barely slid our tires at a gas station about 5 miles into main, just enough to say (we went to Maine and the rain was a Pain.)

It really was not a fair trip to New England. We were amazed when we saw a sign on the post office. It said something like the flood of 1936 reached this level. Flood from What? From Where: We had no idea where the water would have come from, when we walked back to the parking spot we crossed a little bridge maybe 16 ft across We didn’t see any other source of water anywhere.

Be for we left Maine we sort of had a breakfast-lunch. We had only 2 decent meals so far on this trip. We had wanted to get some real Maple Syrup and pancakes. I wasn’t feeling so hot by this time and the pancakes didn’t sit well with me at all. We all agreed we should start back as the weather was terrible.

We drove until it was near dark. Again we were stuck looking for a place to stop and sleep. We drove until about 8:00 PM there were a group of motorcycles riders, about 10 of them. They had sleeping bags and tents on their bikes. We figured they must have a place to camp, somewhere. We stopped and asked them it there was any places to camp in the area. They only suggested a couple of logging roads near by. We took off on the first logging road we came to. The road was slippery and wet and more rock strewn that the 1st place we stopped. We got only about 6 or 7 hundred feet and the car stalled. The first time on this trip. It would not start again. We pushed it off the road as best we could. Water was coming down the road like it was a streambed. It was kind of cold that night about 40 I would guess. I fell asleep in the back seat, Ray slept in the front and Pete took one of our sleeping bags and an extra blanket and found a spot maybe a foot high than the water running down the road. I kind of felt sorry for him but there wasn’t much we could do. I stayed awake most of the night worrying about the Car.

By morning it had been raining off and on, everything was cold and wet. During the night about 10 groups of motorcyclists had passed our car. They didn’t come back. Were we had pushed the car off the road; we were now in the middle of a stream. There was water running down the hill about 50 ft wide on both sided of us. Pete had giving up trying to sleep outside and was in the trunk. It was a good ting the trunk was pretty big.

When I got up I said, “If this car starts were are getting out of this hell hole country.”

Luckily the Merc started first time. We couldn’t turn around so we had to back down. With the curvy road with the water making the car slide sideways and almost getting jammed between trees and bushes. When we got out to the main road. That was something else again.


There was water running off the bank. The bank was about 18-20 ft above the road and there was a waterfall on one lane. It sure was a strange way to put a road under a waterfall. We drove for 40 or 50 miles trying to get out of the flooded area. We didn’t know that New England was a rain forest and was subject to monsoons. We drove through some towns that looked like the streams were about ready to overflow their banks. We finally go something to eat about 1:00. It seemed like all we did was drive, drive. We had breezed through New England like we were jut propelled. It sure was a good thing Ray was driving because we wanted to see al of New England in 2 days even though most of it was under water. I fell asleep on the way home through both Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The first time I stuck my head over the front seat and saw the speedometer wavering from 70 to 75 MPH on rte 7. I said “Do you realize how fast your are going”

“Don’t worry about it” said Pete, “We have been going this speed for a couple hours.”

How wonderful I though Ray yelled
“We were just trying to keep ahead of the flood that’s been chasing us, we can’t slow down or it will catch us.”

“I hope the cops will believe that story…On the radio the next day, they announced that it was one of the worst floods in 40 years, and please those madmen in that white 49 Mercury please don’t come back our traffic patterns will never be the same. We’re still pulling some of the cars you cut off out of the ditches. If we had a choice of having the flood or you driving through our states we would chose the flood.

Do birds have wood stoves?

Do birds have wood stoves if they are to survive in the north?
Especially at night, of course they do. Most of us standing at our windows are amazed how such little mites can take whatever nature throws at them. What is different about these birds that stay with us all winter while most of our feathered friends Head for the south. Staying this far north for hundreds of generations has winterized the birds that stay with us. The majority of birds that migrate from the north are the, real snowbirds. If they can stay in the northern parts of U.S. and southern Canada where the lakes and ponds stay frozen all winter. They are the true winter birds.
Most of the birds that alive are the real insect eaters about 75 % of them are the song Birds. Of course, there are some that stay, such as the nuthatches, and the woodpeckers even they will try to find a richer source of food like suet and certain seeds from a bird feeder. If the food supply does not meet the bird’s needs they must move, usually to the south.
The best time for us to see some of Canada’s more exotic birds such as the Pine Grosbeak, a large plump Finch most sought after by birders. They long tails and have short stubby curved bills the Male has a rich pink red body with dark wings and two white wing bars. They are bird’s the northern spruce forests. Their melodic voice is loud and it carries a great distance.
In December of 1974 I was exploring a back road by, chance drove past some old apple trees in Harpursville N.Y.
In an old apple tree next to the road a small flock of Pine Grosbeaks nearly hanging over the edge of the road somewhere gray & black at leas 4or 5 were a pinkish red I didn’t know what they were right away but there was no doubt what t they were There might have been more I must have been only about 10 ft from them when I drove past I backed up and they were in no hurry to move (no camera) Phooey.
The Red Crossbill and Red winged Crossbill are also just most birders dream I never had the luck to see either of these birds they like others only appear when pine cones have a poor year. They may appear in the western states on occasion a bird that most of us are familiar with who comes down from Canada quite often is our noisy friend the Evening Grosbeak, back in the 1950s were little known locally. On Long Island I saw my first Grosbeak in 1956 a small flock of 5 or6 by 1969 nearly every other winter we had flocks as many as 25 or so.
Any way with this in mind I decided to research this a little. I knew at one time they just were rare here, however I found they did drift down to the western states when there food supply was dwindling. That was in the early 1900s. During the winter of 1916 there presence in the eastern U.S. was known. The first record of the Evening Grosbeak in New York City in 1911 the
First report of them in Main was in February the same year. The birds in several flocks remained there until May it was a treat to many to see them and they marveled at there beauty and there fearlessness .  Up state in Harpursville it was a rare winter not to have them. I had flocks as many as 75. You could be in bed but they were noisy when they arrived you sure knew it. I enjoyed having them wake me. 

I am getting off the track of the birds and there wood stoves.  The key to survival is to keep warm and to keep their body temperature enough by getting food every day. A bird’s body
Temperature is from 108 to 110 they must stay that temperature all day and have enough energy remaining to keep their wood stove going through the night. Most small birds must eat constantly and eat 20 times the amount they eat in warm weather. Birds must have a richer source of food in winter that’s why suet and higher quality seed are important for woodpeckers and others, who normally eat insects, if you have feeders I know that some days most of the birds seem to be missing. Usually most of your birds are of mixed flocks. They usually stay together and move a mile or so from your feeder even 2 miles from your feeder is only 4 or 5 minuets from you. Of course there could be a hawk somewhere out in your yard. If so the birds will be back in less than hour. Feeders are a great attraction for a hawk a fly in Diner Dove a la Carte with a little Junco on the side.
About 3 weeks ago when I had the largest flock of Doves 34 and 50 plus Goldfinches and 20 tree sparrows Juncos, House Finches, Chickadees and others. It was about 7 o’clock herd this crash and then some one was firing a machine gun at the side of the house And at the window in the kitchen birds went in every direction I was in the living room at the time near our picture window the opposite side of the house but I could see at least 25 birds come over the roof. When I got outside there were feathers on the siding and the window the window had a small crack already about 8 inches in one corner now there is a 30 inch crack all across the window. About 15 minuets later I saw a Sharp Shin Hawk on the fence in the back yard is about 150 ft from the feeder I don’t know if he got one of the birds or not but he seemed not interested when some birds started drifting back.  As much as I like the small birds I still like the Hawks and Eagles and of course The Owls just as much if even more.  It had always been a mystery to me where did all these birds go at night I never found them in my yard. Every town must have
A secret cave (with a wood stove) they sure hide it well until you find out some of these mysteries yourself you might as well believe the wood stove theory. I always just figured they would make it to the nearest standoff pines Spruce or other evergreens. That is somewhat true but the tip of the icicle. I knew they used birdhouses and former nesting holes, In Harpursville I has 12 birdhouses 6 were used as nests the other 6 were used all winter as well. If you explore tracks of evergreens look on the bottom branches, of spruce & hemlock trees you almost positively will see signs of birds roosting there. Sometimes they will pack themselves together in a line they fluff up their feathers and keep each other warm. . Several years ago National Geographic photographer took a picture of 13 male Bluebirds huddled in a Bluebird house that’s pretty fantastic. That will keep you warm for now.

PS: A year in the Adirondacks, did I come back alive if so why
Bill Reeves

Newsletter # 2

I cannot remember when I wasn’t interested in birds, my parents were not the least bit interested. When I was about 12 my father would drive my sister and I to the beaches just to enjoy the ride. I remember him telling us that Terns were baby Seagulls. I didn’t have any thing to go by but I knew that terns didn’t come from Gulls, “Give me a break”. I got my first bird book on Christmas 1947. I remember I was really thrilled with that book. However it was sure a let down when you tried to use it. The name of the book was the Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Birds by Leon Augustus Hausman P.H.D. This book even for the time was not for anyone starting birding. It had 540 pages of the poorest black & yellowish pictures all hand drawn. If you didn’t know what the bird already was you sure didn’t know after you looked for it in that book.
Everyone knows what a Red Wing Blackbird looks like “ Right” I thought for sure there was no doubt in my mind. However this book had all sixteen sub species all with 16 black and white Drawings all looks the same I probably could have picked out a more exotic Name for the Red wings I saw like the Rio Grande Redwing or one of the other 16.
One funny part I kind of liked was there description of a black bird. It goes like this….the bill is always stout, and sharp, sometimes short or long, but never longer then the head, the tail is not longer than the wing And is usually rounded or squareish at its tip not forked and has 12 feathers In general the bird is black or blackish which ever is prominent the voice is usually rich and full or harsh and guttural. What other description could you ever need?
We have come a long way with field guides for birds, especially, you
should have one real good guide if you do any birding at all. Two is better I Find sometimes you get a better feeling if 2 books compare exactly then you’re sure its right.. I have 5 bird guides all the best ones any way but I found you never need that many. I keep about 15 other guides Trees, Wild flowers Butterflies, Moths, etc. I find the Stokes Nature Guides as The best books for any advanced reading on Bird behavior, wild flowers, Insect lives, animal tracks, etc. The guide to Winter is what I am reading now. I read it once a year.
Now that I have difficulty getting out I built a feeder on the end of our deck
The end of our deck just about reaches our kitchen window now I have 4 Feeders all together about 8 ft I covered them with hemlock and spruce Boughs The birds seem to enjoy it I have one squirrel proof feeder. The only one that works, I have a covered feeder on top of a 8 ft pole about 2 feet beneath the feeder is a (Beer Ball). Finally have the squirrels stumped. They just can’t get around that slippery ball. I Always make sure they have one store bought feeder a year to destroy for about$ 15 a year it keeps them busy and they think they outsmarted me another year.
My feeder this year is a success the only problem I had was if it rained or we had snow the birds had to use the covered feeders. I solved that by putting an old umbrella in the middle. They thought they were in Florida for sure.. They kind of liked it the titmouse would go up inside the top of the umbrella and hop around the cross pieces. When they went down to get seed they slid down the metal center pole like a fireman. About 2 weeks ago our feeders reached there high point so far this winter... day and time we had 23 Juncos and about 50 Goldfinch 4 titmouse 6 Chickadees 15 \Tree Sparrows the usual Hairy & Downy Woodpeckers a Red Bellied Woodpecker has been coming to the feeder daily for several months.
On the north side of the house facing the road there is a horse ranch of sorts.
About 500 ft past the horse ranch is the Susquehanna. River we have a 10 ft picture window facing the river I have my scope set up in the window permanently
A Red tail Hawks frequent the trees along there as does the occasional Bald Eagle. The hawks on occasion will stop over for a Dove.
Changing the subject, a little was asked about the Christmas count Yes they are still doing that. This is the 108 th year of the count, Binghamton N.Y. was
the nearest to our area about 25 miles they counted 68 species. The long Island
area was counted by NassauCounty Bird club 57 counters 241hours tallied 113
species. The total Christmas count was 28,826,444 which was lower than usual.
The sad part is in the past 40 years of Bird counts including Bird breeding counts
In the U.S. most of the more common birds song birds and a lot of northern birds have lost 68 to 80 % of there numbers it is hard to recover as situations for them is deteriating.
One example (due in part by global warming) is that the permafrost and ground temperatures melt or the effect it has on the earth itself is moving the food source further and further north if birds and other creatures tied to living on what was once there even 10 or 15 years ago. Migrate north to less and less. That includes most shore birds of which there are millions food will soon have the same affect. Try to imagine what the figure 80% means thinking about they are only birds after all putting that figure in human terms the population of U.S right now is
301,147,000 say we had a major nuclear war at least 1000 bombs that would kill.
80% about 240,000.000 more or less that would kill every person in the U.S.except the state of California 36,400,000 and Texas 24,000,000
The rest of the country would be 100 % gone. So that is what is gone in the
Bird world if there was a bird keeping track. Even at that we would have a better chance at a come back then they will.
Bird of the month (Junco Slate Colored) One of the easy birds to identify
Mostly slate colored grey white bottom an white outer tail feathers. Actually Juncos are sparrows in winter they travel with other small birds such as Chipping Sparrows, Tree Sparrows Pine Warblers and others if you come upon a flock of mixed birds they will all fly up the top of a tree at once and scold you.
Juncos were until 1830 called snowbirds. A group of scientists didn’t think the
Bird was in the right class by the time they finished with it they changed it to
Latin name Junco meaning a seed. Generations called it Snow Bird and were
Not two thrilled with the change Juncos are true cold weather birds they
Nest as far south as the mountains of Pa. and high elevations of N.Y.
Bird of the month (Tree sparrow) this sparrow is easy to identify it is a clear
Breasted Sparrow except that give away spot in the center of the breast the rest of him has the usual brown back with light wing bars and rusty top hat.
One of the hardiest sparrows they winter in Northern N...Y. and southern
Canada. I have seen them nearly every place in winter on Long Island and]
The Adirondacks I have had them at my feeder the past month. They are on
A decline the northeast.
P.S. the next nature news # 2
How the birds keep there wood stoves going when it’s so cold and plants too;


Bill Reeves
1/27/08

Newsletter #1

January 20, 2008



I was trying to feel my way around for a better idea. I was thinking of writing a nature-orientated column that I would send out every couple of weeks to interested parties. This is the first one. I have been an amateur naturalist and photographer for nearly 60 years I have been writing several stories about my memories and these will be available for those interested

I think it would be a good thing to go back a month to the Christmas bird count I think it would give us a better perspective on birds in general. The first Christmas count a few people got together forming sort of a club. There were only 27 individuals and they picked one area to count in. The only thing it accomplished was to start the idea. That year was 1900. The counting of birds and keeping records became a countrywide thing the 2003 count was broken up into 1,000s of sections taken in most of the country the count took about 2 weeks December 14 through January 5th. On this count 56,000 observers counted
73 million birds. .
I took part on several Christmas counts 1970 1973 & 1974
One of them was at Sapsucker Woods (Cornell Ithaca) it was kind of interesting but I didn’t see anything unusual. I had a total of 16 species. Some other observers got as many as 34 types they identified. Although some of those 34were discredited later. I think some observers feel they will not get recognition if they don’t come up with something unusual they credited me with all 16. Depending on the area you were assigned some areas identified as many as 65 confirmed.

According to the Fish and Wild Life Service in 2002 there were 62.9 million bird watchers in the U.S, and bird watching had the biggest following of all wild life watching activities
And bird-watching had the biggest following of all wildlife-watching activities…It was amazing to me that we spent over 32 Billion dollars in 2001 on our feathered friends. If we considered special optics, canoes, tents rents of cabins and other travel expense such as food & gas that would be about 85 Billion. And that’s not counting supporting 863,000 jobs. Gee with all that money we could support at least 2 more wars. Or maybe buy a country like Brazil. But I believe the bird’s care they really don’t ask for it and they do not try to take over our space. However we seem to be taking over there space at a ..madding pace. Wherever we are they are there beauty and the way they fascinate us with some of the things they do makes studying them well worthwhile. God left them for us to take care of and enjoy. In the past we kind of made a mess of their lives,

Before 1900 the birds were on there own and it sometimes hard to imagine there was enough left for us to enjoy. Before 1800 birds in North America were not given much thought. The only time they were mentioned was how many there were and as food source. Ofcourse the birds were very important to the Indians, the white man did not see any importance to them until the 1940s.
Most history of Ornithology begins in the early 19th century Alexander Wilson and Audubon among the first to get the interest In birds There study and exploring and of course paintings started a real interest in birds there paintings along with others realy brought birds to the forefront. There will always be those that were skeptical of how Audubon painted his famous birds pictures shoot them how else, he was ridiculed then and still is today. The quantity of birds he shot personally or had others kill them for him was defiantly negligible. How could anyone imagine getting the true colors and the right details of hundreds of birds? You have to realize there were no binoculars field glasses or any other equipment to get that close to get an accurate life like painting. Some of Audubon’s early paintings were not of the same quality and were never published some of them were from guessing or without the right props.
There were several other bird and nature painters at the time just about all of them also shot birds if there was no other way. Usually they had shooters that would bring back whole birds or skins for the painters to work with. Of course most other naturalists or real birders with a interest in identifying new birds or birds they were not sure of also (up to 1900 at least were called Shot gun Ornithologists. That was the method used for at least 150 years. These collectors would not make much of a dent in the bird population. However some egg collectors eventually had an effect on some of the larger birds such as condors. The bird population in America will never be known. But most science and Ornithologist believe we only have 15 to 20% of our birds left. And many will not recover. The top ornithology naturalist “Wilson” took the first calculations on a regional bird population He estimated that 100 million birds entered (Pennsylvania) each spring. Figuring 400 nests per square mile Scientists now consider those figures grossly low. It was likely there were twice that count especially in the early 1800s.

Every one knows that the Passenger pigeons had some of the largest flocks of birds in North America. Wilson also used some a shewed back of the envelope figuring to estimate the size of a Passenger pigeon flock he witnessed in Kentucky, the flock was a mile wide and passed for 4 hours at a rate of a mile a minute he said assuming each square yard of space held 3 pigeons that would give two thousand two hundred thirty millions two hundred and seventy two Pigeons A similar flock seen by Audubon over the banks of the Ohio in 1813 that darkened the sky. His estimate was one Billion one hundred 15 million 36 thousand. That was
1,115,136,000. There are many others that witnessed the. Flocks at the time, The birds were shot, trapped, stupefied by smoke under there roosts, netted, stoned, clubbed some were used for food most ended up as fertilizer. Probably the sadist day in the bird world as well as ours….the last passenger pigeon a captive in a Cincinnati zoo in 1914 and there were a few there that it brought tears to there eyes knowing only then that extinction is forever.
Habitat loss and the demise of all the forests\ was more than they
Could cope with. JUST TRY TO IMAGINE WALKING OUT
YOUR FRONT DOOR AND SEEING A FLOCK OF SAY CROWS ABOUT A MILE WIDE MAYBE 25 FT DEEP AND 50
MILES LONG WOULD THAT MAKE YOUR HAIR STAND UP. To witness such a thing
P.S. Just a idea to see if this sparks an interest I have written other stories on my own experiences with birding and what you
Might call hunting How can you be a hunter without shooting any thing ,,,that’s easy. .

Bill Reeves


PPS: I hope I got all the spell, grammar and other checks taken care of. However the story is the most important part. Lynn