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| Fire Island Was Younger Than Springtime Anew |
by Bruce-Michael Gelbert
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| Photo by Bruce Michael Gelbertl |
| Warbler |
After half a year away from Fire Island, one looked forward, in the new season, not only to reunions with cherished friends and reacquaintance with favorite performers, but also to visiting favorite flowering trees and bushes once more-like the tamarisks and cherry trees on the west end of the Grove, the rhododendron, and the wisteria at the Golden Griffin; and seeing the first deer, first swans and other birds, first turtles of the season, the first spectacular sunsets over the Great South Bay.
Early in the season, a pretty gold-and-black warbler landed on our deck. The cats saw it first, but I shooed them away. They probably got close enough to shock it, but not to hurt it. I coaxed it onto a piece of paper and put it up on a railing, out of harm's way. The bird hopped onto my finger. "Bird," I said, "don't be my friend. This is not a good place to stay. Cats live here." I hoped the songbird could still fly, but was already envisioning taking it to a veterinarian in Sayville. I tried an experiment. I sang a few notes in the warbler's direction and it flew to a nearby branch. Good, but not good enough. I sang again and it flew to a branch a bit further away. Better, but not best. Then I sang out with abandon and it flew out of sight. I was more relieved that the warbler was well enough to fly than I was offended that my singing scared it off.
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Photo by
Bruce-Michael Gelbert |
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| Swan |
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One image I failed to capture with a camera this spring, although I had last spring, was that of a turtle, ambling along the sand path abutting the woods, returning to the swamp at the western edge of Pines, fresh, likely, from laying her eggs. She showed awareness of my presence a couple of times, pulling head and tail into her shell, so, not wishing to frighten her, kept my distance, but did watch her lumbering progress east for a long while.
It's good to appreciate these quieter Fire Island moments. I wish that all others who come to enjoy our communities, our beach and our woods had greater respect for our invaluable natural surroundings. My partner, Joe, and I are among those who devote time to placing trash bags and picking up and disposing of litter that accumulates in the 'Meat Rack,' the woods between Cherry Grove and Fire Island Pines. We know others, including Kent C. Dillon and David Samuel Menkes, who, similarly, care for the precious gift Nature has given us.
People say that spirits inhabit our woods, that if you're alone there, but you sense the presence of others, it's because they are indeed there. Now I usually don't hold with tacking things up on trees-my best friend and "citizen pruner" Greg has taught me to respect trees too much for that-but I want to share with you the words on a sort of memorial metal plaque that someone has placed on a tree in deepest 'Meat Rack,' words that moved me. I Googled the poetic phrases to see if they were from a preexisting, perhaps eminent source and found nothing, so must assume that the sentiments were written by the person who nailed them there. The plaque reads: "I heard them tonight as I walked under the canopy of the trees towards the ocean, the whispers of those who had come before me. Through the dark branches above the boardwalk the stars were glittering against the cool night sky, the reeds and rushes shivered in the breeze and it was possible for a breathless moment to imagine the long quiet voices of those who slept too soon returned on the wind from the earthbound silence of their eternal rest." Amen. It's been a good season!
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