Educational Programs at Downs Farm Preserve

Group for the East End (GFEE) and the Town of Southold have partnered up to begin offering environmental education and stewardship programs at Downs Farm Preserve in Cutchogue. Over the last 10 months, the 51-acre parcel has provided GFEE an ideal destination to offer indoor and outdoor programs for children, adults, and families. Some of our more popular programs have included a Tree Identification Walk, Owl Prowl, Family Nature Scavenger Hunt, Storytime, Live Animal Presentations, and a community Bird Feeder Watch Program. Thus far, GFEE has conducted 22 programs and had almost 630 participants attend these programs.

One reason the Downs Farm property is so suitable to environmental education programs is due to its historical importance. The remnants of a Native American fort site, used from approximately 1640 to 1662, occupy a region on the eastern edge of the present day preserve. Corchaug Indians fished the waters of Downs Creek, farmed the land with corn, tobacco, squash, and beans, and traded with early English and Dutch explorers. Consequently, the

National Park Service of the United States Department of Interior designated the site to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and later recognized it as a National Historic Landmark in 1999.

Downs Farm Preserve is also considered a valuable natural resource with the property consisting of a variety of habitats including tidal wetlands and upland woodlands. Resultantly, there are an abundance of fauna and flora living in the preserve. One may expect to see red fox, deer, and muskrats, as well as songbirds, waterfowl, salamanders, and numerous invertebrates. The woodlands of Downs Farm Preserve are predominately an oak-hickory mix with non-native Norway Maple and Black Locust dominating the northern portion of the property.

When you visit the Education Center of Downs Farm Preserve or hike the grounds of the area, you will no doubt feel the stories that this land once told and experience the beauty that this area provides to its visitors today. ! ! ! –Missy Weiss

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GROUP EDUCATORS IN ACTION

WINTER 2013 - 2014

Photos From the Field

John Marshall 5th graders learned about ocean ecology at White Sands Beach, Napeague in October

John Marshall’s Project MOST students made slime during the after-school program, “Mad Scientists Club”

Springs 5th graders learned about plant and animal adaptations during their ocean beach field trip

John Marshall’s 5th graders studied forest ecology at Grace Estate, East Hampton

GFEE staff and Peconic Estuary Program volunteers helped remove trash at Paul Stoutenburgh Preserve, Southold

Participants enjoyed a “Meet the Animals” presentation by Quogue Refuge staff at Downs Farm Preserve

During an ocean beach field trip in mid-November, an observant student found a dead, almost completely intact Atlantic Ghost Crab, Ocypode quadrata. It smelled bad, so none of the students wanted it for a keepsake, but I was fascinated with the crab, so I took it home to observe more closely.

The carapace, or body of the crab, measures 1.5 inches in length (males grow to 2 inches at maturity), and it’s the largest Ghost Crab I have ever seen. But that’s not saying much, because I’ve only seen about three or four in my life, including the one pictured here! I realized I knew very little about Ghost Crabs, so I am sharing a few tidbits that I have learned in the past week.

Ocypode quadrata has a square-like carapace, large eyestalks, unequal sized claws (in both male and female), long “hairy” walking legs, and is colored light tan or greyish white. It is very well camouflaged as it moves across the sand, and is active primarily at night, so that might be where the common name “Ghost Crab” originates. Its general range extends from Rhode Island to Brazil, but I found an article published

in the Vineyard Gazette that reports a recent surge in its population on Martha’s Vineyard beaches, and local wildlife biologists speculate that climate change may be responsible for the crab’s expanding range. Its growing population, coupled with the crab’s aggressive nature, might mean that the Vineyard’s nesting piping plovers (a threatened and even endangered species in some states) are contending with an additional predator. The Ghost Crab eats plover eggs and has been observed chasing the chicks.

Ghost Crabs burrow in the sand and are generally terrestrial, heading to the water to wet their gills and, for females, to keep their eggs moist.

According to an article on the Chesapeake Bay Program’s website, Ghost Crabs can rotate their long-stalked eyes 360 degrees! They can also make three sounds by either striking the ground with their claws, rubbing their legs together or emitting a bubbling sound.

The dead Ghost Crab found by that student is drying out on my deck. I’m hoping a hungry raccoon doesn’t snatch it away, as I’d like to add this fascinating crab to our educator’s specimen collection.

WHAT’S THAT?

photo credit: Chesapeake Bay Foundation

NOW IT’S YOUR TURN!We found this item in September

at Landing Lane in Springs.

Can you identify the mystery skull? submit guesses to:

mweiss@eastendenvironment.org

December

Storytime Downs Farm PreserveCutchogue10:00- 11:00 AMMissy Weiss

The Art of RecyclingDowns Farm Preserve Cutchogue11:00 AM to 12:30 PMChristine Tylee

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Owl Pellet Dissection*Downs Farm PreserveCutchogue10:00 to 11:30 AM (ages 4-9)12:00 t0 1:30 PM (ages 10+)Christine Tylee

Family Nature Bingo*Downs Farm PreserveCutchogue6:30- 8:30 PMMissy Weiss

Storytime Downs Farm PreserveCutchogue1:00- 2:00 PMMissy Weiss

Green DietsDowns Farm PreserveCutchogue7:00 to 8:00 PMChristine Tylee11 16

January

String Bird Feeders*Downs Farm PreserveCutchogue10:00 to 11:00 AMMissy Weiss

Wildlife on Dune RoadHampton Bays10:00 AM to 12:30 AMSteve Biasetti

Christmas Bird Count 101Downs Farm PreserveCutchogue1:00 to 2:30 PMAaron Virgin

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Exploring the East EndJoin Group for the East End staff on one of our many explorations this Winter. For more information and to reserve your spot on any of these explorations, please visit our “events” page on our website: GroupfortheEastEnd.org

*denotes a suggested $2 to $5 family donation for these events

Chickadees of Morton Wildlife Refuge*Morton National Wildlife RefugeNoyack11:00 AM to 12:30 PMSteve Biasetti

ATTENTION TEACHERS: Group for the East End offers a wide variety of classroom and field lessons for

East End school groups of all ages. We are particularly available to schedule programs during the months of

December through March. A good sampling of our offerings (including program descriptions) can be found on

the education page on the Group website: www.GroupfortheEastEnd.org.

Funding for Group programs is available through Eastern Suffolk BOCES Exploratory Enrichment Program. For

more information, please contact Anita Wright at acwright@eastendenvironment.org or 631-765-6450, x206.

Mike Bottini came to the East End of Long Island in the Spring of 1987, and has been involved in a wide variety of environmental education activities ever since. Whether writing outdoor articles or nature books, leading naturalist walks or paddling excursions, or teaching about ecology in the classroom or field, Mike’s influence has been felt and greatly appreciated by the community. In this vein, we recently asked Mike about some of the people who influenced him in his natural history interests:

“My first introduction to the outdoors and natural history was through my Dad, who spent all his vacation time in the Adirondacks (ADKs) and was an avid fly fisherman. His love of the ADKs must have been contagious; by the time I was a teenager there were several dozen aunts, uncles and cousins who would join us in the Adirondacks for our two-week summer vacation. My Dad also loved birds. I had a very memorable experience raising a hatchling robin he found one summer.

Back when I was in grammar school and high school there was no such thing as a field trip for nature study. Yet I knew that there was something about biology that intrigued me, so I registered for the Intro. to Biology course my freshman year of college at St. Lawrence University. It was a huge lecture class that focused on mitosis and meiosis and other topics at the cellular level, very uninteresting to me at that time, and I dropped the course. That winter, I signed up for an independent study to examine the impacts of a large development project in the Adirondack Park, not far from campus. It was mostly upperclassmen, all biology majors, and our job was to complete a natural resource inventory of the property.

We cross-country skied and snowshoed all day long, collecting data on vegetation and wildlife, the latter based on tracks, scat and other sign, such as the black bear claw

marks on a grove of beech trees. Of course, I knew nothing about tree or wildlife ID, so I was essentially a "grunt" assigned the task of collecting water samples from beaver ponds and streams. But I wanted to know everything these upperclassman knew, and I was hooked on field biology.

It was on that month-long, independent field study that I first heard about the Field Ecology professor: Doc Green. He was an "old school" prof, an avid fly fisherman, duck hunter, canoeist and all-around outdoorsman. Getting into his upper level Field Ecology class as a Bio. 101 dropout was no easy task, but I was persistent and after two failed attempts to get him to sign my special exemption form, he gave in.

Doc Green was the classic absent-minded professor: totally disorganized and a terrible lecturer. But in the field he was a different person, something of a magician, revealing things about the natural world that were utterly amazing to me. Our first trip was to a classic freshwater bog, where Doc led us out across the floating mat of sphagnum and pointed out how the insectivorous pitcher plant managed to capture and digest tiny insects. This was unbelievable!

After college, I ended up working for the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Maine where I realized that I was more interested in teaching the natural history elements of the program than the outdoor skills. One of my favorite books at that time was Donald Stokes' Guide to Nature in Winter. It was there that I met a very knowledgeable naturalist, and inquiring how he managed to develop his nature observation skills, he replied, ‘Well, I learned a lot at Antioch / New England Graduate School in Keene, N.H. But a lot of the information you seem to CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

s

Teacher Feature: Mike Bottini

View from Peconic Bay:

Bayscapes - Peconic Estuary Rewards Program

be most intersted in I actually learned from someone who is loosely connected with the school. His name is John Kulish.’ I tracked him down the next winter on a Sierra Club snowshoe trip to look for bobcat sign. Kulish was the trip leader, 72 years old, and impossible to keep up with. He had been a professional fur trapper and hunting guide since he was a teenager, and retired sometime in the early 1970s when he realized that he could make a living teaching people about the outdoors. Later that year I enrolled at Antioch and became John's teaching assistant. Over the next decade, until his death in 1992, we became close friends and colleagues, canoe-tripping in northern Ontario, Maine and the ADKs and

snowshoeing whenever we got the chance. 

Kulish was curious about everything in the natural world, from the tiniest insect and flower to the largest tree. He never went to college, and some of what he knew can't be found in any books. His natural history knowledge was based on what Tom Brown calls "dirt time," or time in the field.

His favorite animal was the river otter, and it was his influence that prompted me to initiate the Long Island River Otter Project.”! !

Teacher Feature: Mike Bottini continued.....

One of the factors negatively impacting water quality in the estuary, along with nitrogen from sewage, is stormwater runoff.  This is water that picks up pollution and travels toward the bay bringing contaminants with it. Two good ways to deal with stormwater runoff include: eliminating/reducing the use of potential contaminants (i.e. pesticides and fertilizers) and giving stormwater a chance to be used by plants or be absorbed into the ground. 

In order to address this stormwater runoff issue, PEP is offering a unique rewards opportunity for residents in the Hashamomuck Pond (Southold) and Reeve’s Bay (Flanders) watersheds. This educational project will help homeowners reduce runoff from their property, which will decrease the amount of pollutants ending up in nearby waters.  It will also provide an opportunity for residents to learn more about the Peconic Estuary and ways they can help protect and restore this local treasure. 

A pool of $50,000 per town will be used to reward homeowners who use native plants by installing rain gardens or conservation landscaping on their properties. These types of landscaping projects reduce runoff by reducing the amount of water leaving a property after a storm, and reduce fertilizer use often associated with turf grass.  Also eligible for a financial reward is the installation of a rain barrel. Rain barrels catch water that would otherwise run off your property and put it to good use, like watering your flowers or vegetable gardens. 

This is a pilot project and, if successful, may be expanded to other areas across the East End in coming years. Homeowners in the Hashamomuck and Reeve’s Bay watersheds have received a letter and guidelines inviting them to participate in the project. For more information please visit www.PeconicEstuary.org or contact Jennifer Skilbred at Group for the East End (jskilbred@eastendenvironment.org). ! ! – Jennifer Skilbred

This winter, Group for the East End is offering an exciting field ecology session for young outdoor enthusiasts and nature lovers (ages 7 to 10 years old). We are thrilled to be utilizing the Downs Farm Preserve buildings and property, in Cutchogue, for this program. Scheduled during the school break in February (February 17 through 21), participants will enjoy a host of outdoor and indoor activities from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day.

Does exploring the woods during the winter, learning to identify trees without leaves, making bird houses, investigating anima tracks, and competing in outdoor scavenger hunts sound like fun? Then this adventure- and discovery-filled week is for you! The Winter Field Ecology

Program is best suited for children who have a curiosity and desire to learn about nature and enjoy being active outdoors!

For more information, please contact Steve Biasetti (631-765-6450 ext. 205; sbiasetti@eastendenvironment.org) or Missy Weiss (631-765-6450 ext. 219; mweiss@eastendenvironment. org).

GFEE’s Winter Field Ecology Registration Form

Child’s Name_______________________________

Date of Birth _______________!Sex ____________

Parent/Guardian ____________________________

Mailing Address ____________________________

City & State ________________Zip Code _______

Phone ______________Cell __________________

E-mail ____________________________________

I am registering my child (age 7-10) for _____ February 17- 21 (Downs Farm Preserve)

This program is $175 per child. Please inquire about discounts for multiple siblings.

I am paying by: Check or VISA MC AMEX ! ! !

Credit Card #:_____________________________

CVV number:________________________

Expiration Date: __________________________

If paying by check, please make payable to “Group for the East End”

Please send registration form & payment to:

Group for the East EndP.O. Box 1792

Southold, NY 11971ATTN: W.F.E.P

or fax registration form to: 631-765-6455

Winter Field Ecology Program During

President’s Week

PINE CONE BIRD FEEDERSA few months ago, during the Group’s Summer Field Ecology Program, our youngest participants – the PONDHAWKS (ages 7 to 10) – made bird feeders out of a few simple materials. While the PONDHAWKS enjoyed their creations, Pine-Cone Bird Feeders can appeal to people of all ages. These nature crafts are easy for younger children to make, and the final products allow for interesting wildlife observations for older children (and adults).

! ! ! WHAT YOU NEED

Pine Cone! ! ! Paper Plate! ! Spoon or Butter KnifeCrisco Vegetable Shortening! Birdseed! ! Aluminum PanRibbon or String or Yarn! ! Scissors!! ! Aluminum Foil (Optional)

! ! ! HOW YOU MAKE THE FEEDER

1. Cut the ribbon/string/yarn to an appropriate length for securing to the pine cone and hanging it from a tree.

2. Tie the ribbon/string/yarn around the pine cone near its top and tie a loop to the other end of the ribbon/string/yarn.

3. Use the spoon or butter knife to put a large clump of vegetable shortening on the paper plate. Then use the spoon/knife to spread the vegetable shortening in and around the edges of the pine cone.

4. Roll the pine cone into the aluminum pan filled with birdseed, and make sure to sprinkle seed into any areas that need it.

5. Hang the bird feeder in a tree and watch the birds as they feast!

[Optional: If you will not be hanging the pine-cone feeder right away, you may wish to wrap the finished product in aluminum foil for the time being.]! ! ! ! ! ! ! - Steve Biasetti

Steve BiasettiDirector of Environmental Educationsbiasetti@eastendenvironment.org631-765-6450, ext. 205

Missy WeissEnvironmental Educatormweiss@eastendenvironment.org631-765-6450, ext. 219

Anita WrightAssistant Director of Environmental Educationacwright@eastendenvironment.org631-765-6450, ext. 206

Jennifer SkilbredPEP Education and Community Outreach Coordinatorjskilbred@eastendenvironment.org631-765-6450, ext. 212

Education Staff

KIDS FUN PAGE

photo credit: Donna Greve

photo credit: Doreen Aveni

photo credit: Durell Godfrey