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Environment & Nature

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The Eastern box turtle, above, is a native species to Long Island. Photo by 37and7 from Wikimedia Commons

Through the years, there have been scattered reports of the Eastern box turtle, a native species to Long Island, seen along the Setauket-Port Jefferson Greenway Trail, particularly at a 1/8-mile strip adjacent to the Lawrence Aviation Superfund site.

Though not listed as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation considers the box turtle of “special concern,” a classification for native species that “warrants attention and consideration but current information, collected by the department, does not justify listing these species as either endangered or threatened.”

The New York State Department of Transportation, charged with mowing the Greenway three times per year, was alerted to the turtle presence earlier this summer by the Three Village Community Trust, the local organization supervising and stewarding the trail.

“We became aware that there were some turtles apparently in the area in and around the Lawrence Aviation site,” said Herb Mones, TVCT president. “As a result, we requested that the state, when it does its mowing program, not mow that section or that area.”

The Friends of the Greenway is a subsidiary of TVCT that works to maintain and upkeep the trail grounds. Charlie McAteer, the organization’s chair, held that the mowing operation does fulfill a public end, limiting tall grasses, which can often yield ticks.

“If the tall grass is right next to the paving, people worry about ticks as they go past,” McAteer said in an email. “So these few mowings do help with our human satisfaction.”

But, he added that the organization strives to keep “mowing to a minimum so meadow growth and places for turtles [and other wildlife] can flourish again and trail users can see and enjoy nature along the trail.”

Joshua Heller, public information specialist for NYSDOT, indicated that the department was made aware of the presence of turtles and halted mowing for the area in question. 

“The New York State Department of Transportation prides itself on being good stewards of the environment,” Heller said in a statement. “We have received the Three Village Community Trust’s letter and are reviewing it. In the meantime, we have temporarily halted mowing operations in this area.”

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Photos taken Tuesday, Aug. 22, indicate recent mowing activity near the Lawrence Aviation Superfund site, an area with a known presence of Eastern box turtles. Photos by Raymond Janis

Aug. 22 walkthrough

A walk along the Greenway Tuesday, Aug. 22, painted a different picture.

Outside the Lawrence Aviation property, there was evidence of fresh mowing. However, there was no evidence of harm to wildlife observed during the walkthrough. 

Presented the photos of the recent mowing activities, Mones expressed possible miscommunication. 

“It’s unfortunate that the NYSDOT extended their mowing beyond the area we recommended to them,” the TVCT president said in an email. “In the past, the DOT has been responsive to our requests and recommendations. It’s obvious we’ll need to do more work to create a ‘protective zone’ in the future.”

NYSDOT did respond to a follow-up request for comment on the matter by clarifying that the recent mowing occurred prior to temporarily halting mowing in the area.

Possible solutions

A 2017 thesis paper by Margarete Walden explores the danger mowing activities pose to box turtles. 

To mitigate the potential risk of turtle mortality due to mowing, Walden suggests conducting “mowing activities [from] November to March, so as to coincide with the period of turtle hibernation,” during which they live underground. It is, however, difficult to mow during these months when there is heavy snowfall.

McAteer pledged that the Friends of the Greenway “will work with NYSDOT to try to work on the mowing distance/guidelines” for routine mowings.

For Mones, wildlife conservation and trail maintenance are not mutually exclusive. Rather, he indicated that both efforts could serve the coinciding interests of trail users and wildlife.

“Our motto is, ‘Protecting the places we love,’” Mones said. “We are the stewards of the Greenway, but we also have the residual responsibility to protect the open space and advance environmental protection.”

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'COVID Driveway Quince' by Bruce Lieberman. Image courtesy of Gallery North

By Tara Mae

It is an art form to recognize one’s daily surroundings as fecund food for thought despite their familiarity. Gallery North’s new exhibit, Poetic Visions: Recent Works by Bruce Lieberman, explores the eponymous artist’s appreciation and perception of his own backyard as he cultivates its curated wildness. On view from Aug. 24 to Oct. 1, the show will feature approximately 35 of Lieberman’s oil paintings. While canvas sizes vary, the world within them is universally expansive. 

‘Yellow Thirst’ by Bruce Lieberman Image courtesy of Gallery North

“The paintings are vivid, luscious, gardenscapes spanning summer through winter, when it is more bleak. Even then, he still pulls out colors and textures in the browns and other, more muted, [tones] that he paints,” said Gallery North’s Curator Kate Schwarting. 

Immersing the audience in a verdantly vivacious, incrementally abstract atmosphere, these renderings inspired by his Water Mill property are rooted in realism, yet blossom with imagination.  

“This is a presentation of paintings that blur the line between representation and abstraction. It also presents a painter who is very far along in his career trying to move into something new and push boundaries of his artistic practice. [Lieberman] revels in color and gets others excited about the interaction between color and form,” Gallery North’s Executive Director Ned Puchner said. 

Poetic Visions, Lieberman’s fifth solo show at Gallery North amid many group exhibitions, is the latest harvest of a long, fruitful relationship. Making their public debut, the paintings invite viewers to seek the serenity of soulful solitude.  

For Lieberman, these works reflect an introspection born out of necessity: they were primarily started during the COVID-19 lockdown, when he ceased teaching painting and figure drawing as an adjunct professor at Stony Brook University. 

‘Crape Myrtle Pool’ by Bruce Lieberman. Image courtesy of Gallery North

Informally referred to as the “COVID Driveway Series” by Lieberman, the paintings reference a time when circumstances encouraged him to find novelty in the known as he navigated the unprecedented pandemic.                                                                                                                                        “It has become rather a cliché to speak about how ‘COVID made me do it.’ Or how one’s COVID experience framed and affected their work.’ But…it sort of did. It gave me an excuse to cut my ties with everything. I stopped teaching, stopped going out, stopped going to openings, stopped going to New York,” Lieberman said in an email. “[My wife and I] canceled everything! It, the COVID experience, removed guilt from the decision…For us, we were lucky to have the ability—the luxury—to withdraw from the world.”

Setting up an easel at the furthest point of his property line and painting whatever he saw in all directions, Lieberman experimented with different points of view, paint techniques, and previously untapped styles of brushstrokes. 

Such interior creativity born of outside chaos is evidenced in the precise details and less defined boundaries of Lieberman’s paintings. Using the landscape as his muse results in a sort of inherent optimism; even as trees appear bare, traces of green can be found — the promise of fertile rebirth. 

“My garden has become a big giant motif — a living still life with endless variations…my Giverny,” Lieberman said. 

Almost impressionistic brushstrokes illustrate different types of foliage and lighting as well as rich bright colors for the plants, beautiful blue reflections on fencing, and similar nuances, according to Schwarting. 

“Bordering on abstraction, it is a very identifiable scene, but areas of canvas draw you in and almost become an abstract moment on the canvas. It happens very organically, a natural process of him exploring the medium through his paintings. There is an amazing juxtaposition of abstract, painterly brush marks, with drips of the paint. I love how you can have both in one place,” she added.  

A singular entity containing multitudes is a recurrent theme in the art of Lieberman, who began his career in the figurative art world of New York City. 

Traces of the genre are apparent in elements of Poetic Visions. Representative objects contrast and complement the somewhat subjective wonderland Lieberman’s paintings project, revealed to onlookers by the revelations of his paintbrush. 

“He developed a sort of a new vision of his home during [lockdown] and it came through daily examination of his surroundings. When you look at something long enough, you begin to see it differently and start to think about the larger meaning behind the growth of a flower, the changing of a season, or how light can illuminate colors,” Puchner said. 

Lieberman’s contemplative examination was a three year study that he now strives to share and shed. Like most acts of creation, the process of producing the paintings was a labor of love; Poetic Visions is a culmination of Lieberman’s efforts as he looks towards the next endeavor. 

“I worked hard, I worked for three years on these paintings. So I care about them. I look forward to getting them on the wall and looked at. An added bonus — [having] my studio clean so I can move on to the next thing. Trying to make great paintings is always the goal,” he said. 

Gallery North, 90 North Country Road, Setauket invites the community to an opening reception for Poetic Visions on Thursday, Aug. 24 from 6 to 8 p.m. and a free ArTalk with Lieberman on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 3 p.m. For more information, call 631-751-2676 or visit www.gallerynorth.org.

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Ribbon cutting for Wild Birds Unlimited in East Setauket. Photo courtesy of Three Village Chamber of Commerce
Ribbon cutting for Wild Birds Unlimited in East Setauket. Photo courtesy of Three Village Chamber of Commerce
Ribbon cutting for Wild Birds Unlimited in East Setauket. Photo courtesy of Three Village Chamber of Commerce

Members of the Three Village Chamber of Commerce, Brookhaven Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich, mascot Dee Dee the Chickadee, staff, friends and family joined Brooke Ramirez in celebrating the grand opening of her second retail location of Wild Birds Unlimited in Suffolk County with a ribbon cutting on Aug. 2. 

Ramirez (pictured with scissors) is also the owner of the Wild Birds Unlimited nature shop at 911 Montauk Highway in Oakdale, having been the manager of that store prior to her purchase in 2021. After successfully growing the business in Oakdale over 16 years, she has built another “nest” in East Setauket to “bring people and nature together” on the North Shore. 

Located at 4046 Nesconset Highway, East Setauket in the Kohl’s shopping center, Wild Birds Unlimited employs “certified specialists” who will help you shop for bird baths, feeders, houses and a large selection of birdfood for your backyard friends. In addition, the store offers a large selection of nature-themed gift items for the home and yard as well as personal care products. Members of their “Daily Savings Club” receive discounts on food products, earn points towards coupons called “bird bucks” and get member only specials.

Prefer to shop online? Wild Birds Unlimited delivers. The same people that help you in store will pack up your order and deliver it right to your door. 

“I’m happy to welcome a business like Wild Birds Unlimited because of the impact they have on building appreciation of our natural world. They are dedicated to not only benefiting wild birds and the broader environment but are also dedicated to educating residents about our local birds,” said Councilmember Kornreich. 

“This is a wonderful addition to our district, providing a haven for bird enthusiasts and nature lovers alike. I’m looking forward to seeing its impact in our community and ecosystem,” he said. 

Store hours are Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, call 631-403-4419 or visit eastsetauket.wbu.com.

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Former New York State Assemblyman Steve Englebright speaks during an environmental protest outside the William H. Rogers Legislature Building in Hauppauge on Tuesday, July 25. File photo by Raymond Janis
By Steve Englebright

Pure water is our most essential natural resource.

Suffolk’s economy is anchored by our two largest industries which are tourism and agriculture. Each of these forms of commerce needs clean water in order to remain viable. Polluted beaches and contaminated produce will not draw visitors from afar nor will they sustain farming. Public health needs, however, are more concerning. Living on top of our drinking water has proven to be very challenging because it is easily contaminated by our daily activities. The chemicals we continuously introduce into local ground and surface waters are what threatens the health of our families, communities and economy, each of which depends upon a generous supply of predictably pure drinking water.

‘How we manage this issue will guide the destiny of our county.’

— Steve Englebright

All of the water that we drink or use for everything from industry to personal hygiene is sourced from wells that tap Long Island’s aquifers which are natural water-bearing sediment horizons. Long Island’s aquifers are a reservoir of rain-absorbing sand and gravel that is everywhere below our feet. This fresh groundwater eventually seeps into the tidewaters that define our island’s edges. Virtually all of our fresh and salt waters are connected which is why pollution that enters the system on land eventually will contaminate our harbors and bays.

Scientific research has proven that the most widespread source of groundwater contamination in Suffolk is human waste, especially nitrate-rich urine, that is flushed into Suffolk’s more than 380,000 cesspools. Because cesspools do very little to cleanse the waste that enters into them they are a major source of nitrate contamination of our ground and surface waters. When any large amount of this chemical enters a body of surface water it may cause explosive plant growth. Seasonal decay of this overgrowth often causes ecological harm such as fish kills.

In recent years millions of state and county dollars have been invested into learning how to halt the progressive decline of water quality. This work led directly to a proposed referendum which is entitled the Suffolk County Water Quality Restoration Act. This legislation — which would require voter approval — economizes by consolidating numerous county-owned sewer districts and dedicating 1/8 of 1% of county sales tax toward installing both technologically advanced cesspool upgrades and new sewers for compact business districts. No property taxes are involved. Seventy-five percent of the sales tax that would be collected could be used to address the greatest need which is to provide grants to homeowners to cover most of the costs of installing advanced wastewater treatment technology within each cesspool.

If approved by Suffolk’s voters, money raised could be leveraged to attract matching federal and state dollars to further reduce local costs.

Because of the importance of protecting reserves of pure fresh water this issue has historically been a bipartisan legislative priority that has largely been off limits to red and blue bickering. Unfortunately, that wholesome tradition was compromised on July 25 when the Suffolk Legislature’s Republican majority voted unanimously to deny residents the opportunity to vote on the issue of pure water. By killing this highly anticipated public referendum, citizens have been blocked from directly weighing in on efforts to protect and improve ground and surface waters. 

It has been widely reported that this outcome was insisted upon by political party operatives who want to believe that this environmental referendum would bring out so many Democrats to vote that it would disadvantage Republican candidates in the election on Nov. 7. As the voter-approved $4.2 billion New York State Environmental Bond Act recently demonstrated this is just plain wrong. That referendum passed easily last November even though there was a low Democratic turnout. 

Tellingly, none of the Republican candidates for the many county offices that will be on the November ballot showed up at the hearing of July 25 to speak for passage of the referendum. Their absence made it clear that the county Republican Party has turned away from Suffolk’s most urgent environmental issue in an attempt to profit politically from a voter suppression scheme.

Cleaning up our water sources requires an informed and engaged citizenry. The county’s Water Quality Restoration Act referendum would enable vigorous public education on this subject to occur as voters of all political persuasions strive to inform themselves ahead of their vote. Unfortunately, by canceling the referendum county Republicans have lost their way; they should not have taken from Suffolk’s residents their constitutional right to say through their votes what the county’s future should be. 

Trying to suppress voter turnout in Suffolk by blocking public participation in the single most important economic and environmental issue affecting the county’s future contradicts the bedrock premise and promise of our democracy. It was wrong to cancel every local voter’s sacred right to express their opinion in a public referendum. 

How we manage this issue will guide the destiny of our county. Clearly, the people of Suffolk deserve to have a chance to vote either for or against clean water at the next opportunity which could be as soon as next year. This crisis demands that we again all work together. 

Restoring direct voter participation to the most critical questions relating to our sole source of drinking water and related quality of life issues is the best way to protect and enhance the equity of our homes, the health of our loved ones and the viability of our regional economy.

Steve Englebright served as New York State assemblyman for the 4th District from 1992-2022. He is a Democratic candidate this November for the Suffolk County Legislature, running against Anthony Figliola (R-East Setauket) for the 5th Legislative District.

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Photo by Elyse Benavides

TO CACHE OR TO EAT? THAT IS THE QUESTION

Elyse Benavides of Coram spied this blue jay with its favorite food, a peanut, in its beak outside her window on Aug. 13 and snapped this beautiful photo. According to the Wild Birds Unlimited website, blue jays will cache seeds and nuts to retrieve later, and make repeated trips to feeders to gather food and hide it in a safe spot. Research studies have recorded blue jays making over 1,000 trips per day when hiding food, earning them the nickname ‘the Caching Extraordinaire.’

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The Atlantic horseshoe crab. Public domain photo

From the shore, they can look like odd-shaped shadows with tails, moving in and out of the surf or approaching the shoreline.

Up close, they can have a collection of barnacles attached to their shells, particularly as they age.

Horseshoe crabs, who have been roaming the oceans for over 450 million years, have attracted the admiration of researchers and the dedication of volunteers around Long Island, who not only want to ensure they continue to survive, but also would like to know more about creatures that are more related to spiders and scorpions than to the crabs their names suggest.

“One of the things we’re trying to do is look at spawning in a more comprehensive way,” said Robert Cerrato, a professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University. “We’re trying to figure out if there are specific things that [horseshoe crabs] are responding to” when they come up on the beach to lay their eggs.

A closeup of two horseshoe crabs. Photo courtesy Matthew Sclafani

Horseshoe crabs have had a steady decline in their population over the last 20 years overall. In the last three to five years, however, not much has changed in the Long Island area, scientists explained.

The population is “still very similar to where it was,” said Matthew Sclafani, senior resource educator at Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County and assistant adjunct faculty member at SBU.

Scalafani and Cerrato have worked together for well over a decade and are hoping to address a wide range of questions related to these unusual creatures that have nine eyes and blue blood.

Apart from the fascination of scientists and volunteers, the horseshoe crab provides a critical food source for shore birds like the Red Knot, which depends on these eggs during their migration.

At the same time, horseshoe crabs and their blue blood provide a key ingredient in tests of pharmaceuticals. When exposed to endotoxins, horseshoe crab blood forms clots.

The use of horseshoe crab blood to test drugs does not occur in New York, however, as companies don’t catch these creatures in the Empire State for this specific test.

Cerrato and Scalafani explained that numerous towns have also limited or banned the harvesting of horseshoe crabs to maintain their local populations.

Areas around West Meadow Beach in Old Field, for example, are closed to hand harvesting, as is Jamaica Bay and Gateway National Recreation Area.

Such policies “theoretically will allow for more eggs on the beach to hatch and for shore birds dependent on them” to find food, Sclafani said. Such closures, including some during the last two weeks in May and the first two weeks in June during the peak spawn were “significant steps for conservation,” Sclafani added.

An aerial photograph taken by a drone during a horseshoe crab survey at Pike’s Beach, Westhampton. Photo by Rory MacNish/Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County

Ongoing questions

By labeling and tracking horseshoe crabs, these researchers and a team of volunteers hope to understand whether crabs, which are capable of reproducing when they are between 8 and 10 years old, return to the same sites each year to lay their eggs.

Cerrato and Scalafani are hoping to get satellite tags they can attach to adults, so that when they come out of the water to spawn, researchers know their location.

The researchers submitted a proposal to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to do a pilot study with these satellite tags.

Juvenile horseshoe crabs also present unknowns, as they have a different diet and migrate at a much lower rate.

“We started to look at” crabs that are 3 to 10 years old, said Cerrato. Moriches Bay is an “important habitat” for them.

Volunteer passion

Volunteers who help count the horseshoe crabs count these creatures often until well after midnight.

Frank Chin has been wandering beaches, counting crabs for 15 years. When he was young, Chin wanted to be a forest ranger.

“I realized that forest rangers don’t make that much money, so I went to school for engineering, got a degree and worked as an engineer,” he said.

Chin found himself at a Friends of Flax Pond meeting, where Scalafani asked for help from the community.

“I foolishly raised my hand and they made me a coordinator,” joked Chin, who counts horseshoe crabs with his wife Phyllis.

Every year presents something new to Chin.

This year, he has run into people who fish late at night. Chin said the fishermen, who have permits, are cordial, but that he’s concerned they might be scaring crabs away from their usual spawning spots.

In addition to counting the crabs, Chin, who is the director of the lab in the Physics Department at SBU, also tags them. He once caught a crab seven years after he initially tagged it.

Chin, who will count crabs in the rain but not in thunderstorms, appreciates the dedication of his fellow volunteers, who not only count the crabs but will pick up garbage and bottles along the beach.

Chin plans to continue to “do it as long as I can walk down the beach.” Some day, he “hopes someone else will take over.”

Volunteers can sign up to join the effort at nyhorseshoecrab.org.

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By Daniel Dunaief

A problematic atmospheric greenhouse gases, methane comes from natural gas, agriculture, and swamps. 

John Mak

Recently, John E. Mak, a Professor in the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences at Stony Brook University worked with an international group of scientists to demonstrate a process that removes methane from the atmosphere.

A mixture of dust from the Sahara and sea spray reacts with methane to form carbon monoxide and a small amount of hydrochloric acid.

In a recent paper published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Mak, corresponding author Matthew Johnson, who is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Copenhagen, and others showed how a novel process removes 5 percent, plus or minus 2 or 3 percent, of the methane from the atmosphere in specific areas.

“What we are showing is that some methane in the middle of the tropical Atlantic Ocean region may be removed” through this process, Mak said from the Gordon Research Conference on Atmospheric Chemistry in Sunday River, Maine.

The research validates a mechanism Mak had proposed in the late 1990’s, when he conducted studies funded by the National Science Foundation in Barbados. “When I first made the observations, I proposed that what we were seeing was a chlorine mediated removal of methane,” Mak explained.

At that time, he didn’t have the ability to make those measurements. The technology, however, has evolved over the years and researchers can now measure chlorine radical precursors such as Cl2 and other chlorine compounds.

Indeed, Maarten van Herpen, first author on the study and a member of Acacia Impact Innovation, approached Mak with a new theory and a new mechanism that he thought could explain Mak’s results from decades earlier.

“They were excited to hear that no one had solved the problem,” said Mak.

By working together through this international team, the group was able to take new measurements and utilize advances in their understanding of atmospheric processes.

‘New, but old’

Mak had conducted his studies towards the beginning of his time at Stony Brook University in the late 1990’s as a part of one of his first federally funded projects. 

“It’s a little unusual for people to make use of observations so far in the past,” said Mak. “It opens up a new, but old avenue of research.”

Mak, who is conducting studies in other areas including a recent project in New York to investigate air quality and air chemistry mechanisms specific to the greater New York City region, believes the research on this PNAS paper takes him almost full circle back to this earlier work.

“There’s a feeling of satisfaction that good measurements are useful for a longer period of time,” he said. 

In this study, Mak helped interpret some of the data his collaborators generated.

The reactions

The process of removing methane starts with sea spray, which is aerosolized by bubbles bursting at the contact point between the ocean and the air. The chlorine comes from that sea spray, while iron comes from the continental crust.

Saharan dust can traverse the globe, but scientists are not sure of the spatial extent of this process. They believe it could be throughout the tropical Atlantic, but it could be in other dust laden ocean regions in the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well.

That process creates what is described as a reactive chlorine species, which is on the hunt for a positively charged particle, such as one of the four hydrogen atoms attached to carbon in methane.

Once the chlorine removes a hydrogen, it creates a methyl group, or CH3, and an incredibly small amount of hydrochloric acid, or HCl, at about one part per quadrillion.

The acid, in fact, is so low that it doesn’t cause any acidification of the oceans. Ocean acidification primarily comes from the absorption of carbon dioxide gas, which reacts with seawater and eventually increases the amount of positively charged hydrogen atoms, decreasing the ocean’s pH.

Meanwhile in the atmosphere, the remaining methyl group is oxidized to carbon monoxide, which eventually becomes carbon dioxide. That is also a greenhouse gas, but is not as potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere as methane.

Now that the group has explored this process, Mak explained that the next step will involve proposing a field campaign in the tropical Atlantic with state of the art instruments.

Mak believes the journal PNAS likely found the subject matter compelling on a broader scale, particularly because this process affects weather and climate.

Outside work

When he’s not working, Mak enjoys boating and fishing. A native of Southern California, Mak is a commercial pilot, who also does some flying as a part of his research studies.

As for climate change, Mak suggested that the weather extremes from this year, which include record high temperatures in the ocean near the Florida Keys and high temperatures in areas in Arizona, are a part of a pattern that will continue.

“What we have been and will continue to observe are changes to the broad equilibrium of energy balance of the Earth ocean atmosphere system,” he explained. “There’s a lot of inertia in the system. But when you change the input by changing the forcing, you upset that equilibrium.” That, he explained, could alter the weather, which is generated as a response to differences in energy from one place to another.

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A Column Promoting a More Earth-Friendly Lifestyle

By John L. Turner

John Turner

If you’re one of the many thousands of Long Islanders who bring clothes to your local dry cleaning establishment, you know you get back those freshly-pressed and cleaned clothes on a wire hanger. 

That’s good news in that there’s no need to throw away or attempt to recycle by tossing the hangers in your curbside recycling bin. Just bring them back to your dry cleaners to be used again…..and again…and again!    

But many people don’t as approximately (and mind bogglingly) 3.5 billion wire hangers  are thrown away every year in the United States! That amounts to 312,000 pounds of wire hangers or 156 tons.  

Wire hangers can be used many times before they become sufficiently twisted or bent and can no longer be used and the dry cleaning establishment appreciates you returning them for reuse since you’ll be helping out their financial bottom line as they have to purchase fewer new hangers.

A resident of Setauket, author John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.

 

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Photo by Rajesh Rajput/Unsplash

By John L. Turner

John Turner

Travis and I got our chairs positioned to be comfortable waiting for the show to begin. Facing west about a half hour after sunset on this July 4th evening, Venus dominated the sky shining brightly over a dark grey bank of clouds. 

And then the show began, first a bright flash above us and to our left and then to our right and a third in the middle, higher still. And then several scattered across the sky in a triangle shape. A fireworks display to celebrate the holiday at a public park? Nope, a firefly display in our backyard!  

Each night in early summer brings this show — free of charge — to a location near you, perhaps too in your backyard. It’s the annual mating flash of the firefly or as one prominent firefly expert calls it: “Silent love songs flashing their hearts out.” This yearly show is one of the joys of summer with so many childhoods having been enriched by children dashing to and fro temporarily capturing a few in a glass jar with some grass blades to watch the flashing fireflies up close. For us it’s fun to watch but for fireflies it involves the serious business of reproducing.  

Firefly. Pixabay photo

I remember a firefly display I witnessed about a decade ago at the NYSDEC’s Oak Brush Plains Preserve at Edgewood (located in Deer Park). I was there in the dark to listen for whip-poor-wills, the population of which might represent the westernmost breeding group remaining on Long Island. I headed into the property and broke north along a trail bordering an open meadow.  

In the meadow were many fireflies and I do want to stress many — what had to number in the hundreds winking and flashing in and along the edges of the meadows. Some flashed while perched on the top of tall grass. There were so many fireflies I was mesmerized and after a few minutes of watching thousands of flashes and blinks I found it almost disorienting.      

Fireflies are also known as lightning bugs but to be accurate they are neither flies nor bugs. Rather, they are beetles belonging to the family Lampyridae. (This is one of the few insect family names I’ve remembered by playing a little trick: these insects produce their own light just as lamps do.) Currently 173 species have been documented in North America with the majority occurring in the eastern half of the continent.  

Staff from the New York Natural Heritage Program (NYNHP) have been assessing the diversity and abundance of fireflies in New York. According to Katie Hietala-Henschell, a zoologist with the state program, “27 species occur in NY” but believes the number  will very likely increase, as she notes “there could potentially be 37 species.”  

She further states: “For Long Island in particular, there are at least 10 species (probably more!) that have been documented. However, this is a very conservative estimate and likely an underestimate of the number of Long Island species.” 

The most common species both in the eastern United States and here is Photinus pyralis commonly known as Common Eastern Firefly or the Big Dipper Firefly, probably due to its flash pattern appearing reminiscent of the well-known star pattern. 

As for rare firefly species that may occur on Long Island, Katie indicates “The only documented IUCN Red List species that has occurred on Long Island is Photuris pensylvanica (Dot-dash Firefly) ranked as Vulnerable. … I suspect at least two other IUCN species that may occur on Long Island. It could be a long shot, but there is potential for Pyractomena ecostata (Keel-necked Firefly) ranked as Endangered and possibly Photuris bethaniensis (Bethany Beach Firefly) ranked as Critically Endangered by IUCN and petitioned to be federally listed as Endangered.”  

As I soon learned the dot-dash firefly is aptly named as its flash pattern consists of a short greenish colored flash (the dot) followed by a longer flash that lasts several seconds (the dash).   

We have a pretty clear understanding of the underlying but complicated chemistry producing the magical flash in fireflies. Using organs in their abdomens, oxygen mixes with calcium, a chemical named luciferin, an enzyme — luciferase, and ATP (adenosine phosphate; remember this from the cellular biology you learned in high school?). Oxygen, the release of which fireflies can control, appears to be the “switch” that sets off the process. Nitric oxide gas also plays a role. This illumination is extremely efficient with the firefly giving off very little heat while emitting lots of bright light. 

Their flash is an excellent example of bioluminescence — light made by living things. Bioluminescence is known across the living world — besides fireflies, a number of jellyfish, worms, squid (to be precise it’s the luminescent ink they shoot out to avoid predation), many fish species including deep-sea fish, algae, and fungi produce and emit light.  There are approximately 1,500 species of fish alone that are bioluminescent!   

In the category “the world is always more complicated than we think,” most female fireflies can’t fly since they lack wings or possess only vestigial wings, rendering them earthbound from where they flash (we know them as glowworms); the males of a few firefly species also cannot fly; and not all fireflies use flashing light to attract, with some employing scent attractants known as pheromones — species-specific chemicals that attract the opposite sex. And not all flashing is designed to entice mating. In some cases female fireflies mimic the male flash of other species to entice them so the females can dine on their bodies and incorporate the poisons contained within.  A firefly femme fatale, if you will.   

Fireflies, like so many insect species, are declining. Habitat loss and pesticide use are culprits. But perhaps the number one problem facing this iconic group of insects is excessive night lighting.  As more homes are built and more of us leave front and back  porch lights on, more ambient light is created, creating confusion for and competition to the flashing fireflies.  This brightening glow of night lighting disorients migrating birds, dims the stars and the Milky Way, and, now, is having an adverse effect upon fireflies.  

If you want to know what you can do to protect fireflies: Turn off outdoor lights as the lighting competes with the flashes of fireflies. Additionally, avoid using pesticides or chemical fertilizers and leave the leaves for the benefit of female fireflies and some firefly larvae which are found on the ground. 

Here’s to hoping that fireflies make summertime memories for jar-carrying kids and their parents for countless summers to come. 

A resident of Setauket, author John Turner is conservation chair of the Four Harbors Audubon Society, author of “Exploring the Other Island: A Seasonal Nature Guide to Long Island” and president of Alula Birding & Natural History Tours.

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Photo by Chris Bauer

FLY ME TO THE MOON

Chris Bauer of Crab Meadow (Northport) walked down to the Crab Meadow Beach parking lot on Aug 1 to capture the “Sturgeon Moon” as it rose but because of the angle it came up, the parking lot lights, and the trees, was not able to get any usable shots. 

He writes, “I walked back down on the following night but stopped short of the beach parking lot to avoid the lights and set up along Waterside Avenue shooting over the Jerome Ambro Wetland Preserve. Once the moon started rising above the trees I was able to get my camera settings correct for a great shot when I noticed the blinking red lights of an approaching jet airliner. With my remote shutter I waited hoping it was going to cross in front of the moon, as it did. I took about 12 shots in quick order but selected this one where I caught the red lights on. I will be out there again for the Blue Moon on August 30.”

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