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.