Where Rare Owls Hunt in Shadow of Development Plan

By Jennifer Smith, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Mar. 2–On a recent winter afternoon in Calverton, two short-eared owls swooped low over coppery stands of waist-high broom sedge, on the hunt for rodents as meadowlarks sang out in the fading light.

“Bill, you see it?” Mike Vedder of East Northport said excitedly to his friend and fellow birder, Bill Heartt. It was the first time Vedder laid eyes on the owls, which are endangered in New York State.

The two men stood not far from the old Grumman test runways in Calverton, where an accidental ecosystem — beautifully suited for owls, hawks and grasshopper sparrows — has grown up around grasslands sandwiched between Route 25 and Grumman Boulevard.

By dusk, more bird lovers showed up for the avian airshow at the former Navy-owned property, now known as Enterprise Park at Calverton. They parked at the edge of crumbling pavement, in the shadow of buildings where workers once assembled fighter jets, and gazed enraptured at owls and a state-threatened northern harrier hovering high above.

For months, environmental advocates have urged that grassland birds here get special consideration as the Town of Riverhead moves to develop the 2,900-acre property. Plans include a resort with a 350-foot indoor ski mountain and a 90-acre artificial lake where the western runway now sits. Recent documentation of the short-eared owls’ presence by the state Department of Environmental Conservation could slow the projects.

Groups such as the Nature Conservancy on Long Island say Riverhead should preserve the grasslands and keep at least 60 percent of the property as open space to conserve rare species such as the owls and the endangered Eastern Tiger salamander. Riverhead Supervisor Phil Cardinale says that land has been set aside for open space at each of the three projects in the works for the property, and separate environmental reviews for each project will address concerns about rare species. The environmental groups are critical of that approach, saying the site should be evaluated as a whole because the species move from place to place.

The grasslands make up about 800 acres, or 27 percent, of the property, said Trish Pelkowski, the group’s Pine Barrens site director. Decades of mowing to keep the Grumman runways clear of obstructions held shrubs and trees at bay. The grass has grown taller since the plant shut. Now birds of prey comb the meadows for voles and shrews; bobolinks nest in the grass while horned larks nibble on wild grass seeds.

“It’s just about the only spot on Long Island that has sufficient grass and acreage to support the birds we’re concerned about — owls, the Eastern meadowlark and the grasshopper sparrow,” said Mike Morgan, Audubon New York wildlife ecologist.

Most of Long Island’s biggest historical grassland, the 60,000-acre Hempstead Plains, was long since paved over in the suburban building boom. Today, 30 to 80 acres of that prairie remain as patches of often severely degraded land scattered across central Nassau County, various agencies and experts have estimated.

Loss of agricultural land here and across New York State has further diminished the open foraging and breeding areas available to short-eared owls and other grassland birds. “These birds really depend on the hayfields and pasturelands that characterized New York State in the last few hundred years,” Morgan said. “But we’ve lost more than half of the agricultural land.”

Advocates and state environmental officials say those changes place increasing importance on places like this property, human-created habitat that lies within a 96,000-acre swath of Pine Barrens that New York Audubon has already designated as an important bird area.

Similar havens have emerged at a shuttered Air Force base near Buffalo and at the former Galeville military airport in Ulster County, said Peter Nye, leader of the DEC’s endangered species unit in Albany. Left unchecked, such sites often revert to forest as meadows become colonized by woody shrubs and trees that are less hospitable to grassland birds.

The DEC is working with Audubon to identify key grasslands in the state and has already mapped out about 10,000 acres upstate that the agency wants to buy or protect through conservation easements. The DEC also awards grants to private landowners who agree to manage and maintain such habitats on their properties; 22 have been handed out so far, none of them on Long Island.

While the agency has yet to focus its conservation efforts on Long Island, Nye said that the grasslands here are important. “It’s a moderate climate and it provides the opportunity for northern birds to successfully winter,” Nye said.

For now, the property’s meadows provide a front-row seat for observing the exquisite form of the short-eared owl at hunt.

Vedder gripped his binoculars and traced one owl’s slow, buoyant path above the sedge. Fringed feathers muffle sound, allowing the owl to fly silently. Flat facial discs and asymmetric ears help the owl collect sound and hone in on prey rustling in the grass below.

Abruptly, the owl dropped, but came up with empty talons.

“That’s gorgeous,” Vedder exclaimed. “The markings are beautiful, it’s like a butterfly.”

Ecologist say several species of birds, mammals and grasses are at a risk from plans to build a ski mountain, artificial lake and water park in grassland area in Riverhead Town.

NORTHERN HARRIER

Habitat: Also known as the marsh hawk, it prefers marshland from Alaska and Canada, south throughout the United States and into Central America.

Size: 18 to 24 inches.

Wingspan: 40 to 54 inches

Weight: 12 to 16 ounces

Diet: Mice, insects, small birds and rabbits.

Behavior: Daytime predator, soars 30 feet and higher to search for prey.

EASTERN MEADOWLARK

Habitat: Grasslands from southeastern Canada and eastern United States to South America.

Size 7 to 10 inches

Wingspan: 14 to 16 inches

Weight: 3 to 6 ounces

Diet: Crickets, grasshoppers, worms, other insects.

Behavior: Picks along grassy surface and also probes in the soil.

SHORT-EARED OWL

Habitat: Marshlands, from Alaska and Labrador in the north; as far south as Florida

Size: 13 to 17 inches

Wingspan: 33 to 40 inches

Weight: 7 to 15 ounces

Diet: Primarily small rodents and small birds

Behavior: Low-flying (6 feet), daytime predator.

VOLE

Habitat: Grassy and tundra areas around the world

Size: 5 to 6 inches

Weight: About 2 ounces

Diet: Seeds, conifers, needles, bark, grass and more.

Behavior: Voles tend to clip at plant stems and roots; they store food for use in winter months.

GRASSHOPPER SPARROW

Habitat: Found on open grasslands across much of the eastern U.S.

Size: 4 to 5 inches

Weight: One-half to three-quarter ounces

Wingspan: 8 inches

Diet: Grasshoppers, from where it gets its name, seeds and grain.

Behavior: Forages for food along the ground.

SHREW

Habitat: Woodlands, grasslands

Size: 3 to 5 inches

Weight: Worms, centipedes, slugs, plant materials

Behavior: Feeds at ground level or in tunnels or surface debris.

MILKWEED

Where it’s found: All throughout the U.S. but generally in nonagricultural habitats and wetlands. More likely to be found along field edges than within fields.

Field characteristics: Can grow to more than three feet in height. Erect stems have lance-shaped or oblong leaves on short leaf stalks. Flowers from June to August.

Why the name: Its milky juice is a favorite nectar source for bees.

BROOM SEDGE

Where it’s found: Eastern and southern U.S.; conspicuous in the autumn for its reddish tint.

Field characteristics: Culms are light green and three-angles; leaves can be one-quarter of an inch across and 16 inches long.

Why the name: Early settlers made brooms out of its straight-stemmed bunches.

SOURCES: Audubon Society; Cornell University Laboratory of Ornithology; Pennsylvania Game Commission; U.S. Geological Survey

RESEARCHED BY J. STEPHEN SMITH

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