Outdoors

Why isn’t the long-tailed duck more celebrated? It’s crazy looking, gregarious, easily seen, cackles like a stuttering kazoo, hilariously belly-flops when it lands, and hangs out in bad little duck posses. It’s even controversial.

I’ve lived here for 20 years under the Great American Robin Flyway and I had no idea, but recently started noticing them gathering en masse, as many as 5,400 of them, like black stars shooting against a white sky. Where were they headed?

If you are lucky enough to encounter one of these visitors from the north, the number-one rule is to simply keep your distance.

Love birds? Love someone who loves birds? These gift ideas from The Star's "On the Wing" columnist will help to nurture that passion, support bird habitat, and perhaps spark a deeper understanding of our avian neighbors.

In baseball parlance, the fishing season is now formally in the bottom of the ninth inning. There are two outs and two strikes on the batter at the plate, or in this case a fisherman with a rod and reel in hand. For my part, I did not want to strike out by not fishing one last time before the end of the year.

The Carolina wren, not six inches in length, is a skulky bird that wants to hide out in a log or a pile of sticks, but its song distinguishes it immediately, and can be heard all year long.

The other night, I came across my first fishing logbook, started back in 1978, in which I began to inscribe my saltwater exploits when I was 15 years old. Back then I considered it a chore to take time to make notations of success or failure in my fishing excursions and wondered how it would ultimately serve me. But now I finally know.

With my boat prematurely out of the water for the season with various and costly engine issues, I have to find other vessels to fish on. Many friends have already hauled out their crafts, so I’m resigned to fishing on open boats, and that’s just fine with me. Two weeks ago, I took passage on the Peconic Star 3 out of Greenport for blackfish. It is skippered by the ever-youthful Capt. Speedy Hubert, he of the age of 84. Spry and energetic as ever, he anchored us up on a wreck off Horton’s Point in Long Island Sound. I had not fished that area in probably over 35 years. It was nice to be back.

Rick Pickering, the owner of Ship Ashore Marina in Sag Harbor, broke the bad news: “The turbocharger on the engine of your boat needs to be rebuilt, or we can get you a new one.”

I was determined to find out for myself if the dire prediction of another terrible scallop season was in fact true.

Saturday’s marine forecast looked promising for a change. The bushel of green crabs that I bought two weeks ago would finally be put to good use for a few hours of blackfishing in and around the Plum Island area.

The East Hampton Town Trustees, in response to requests from baymen, voted on Monday to authorize a special season for harvesting soft clams by the method known as powering, or churning.

As the gusty east winds finally abated last week after a four-day blow, the opening of blackfish season was eagerly welcomed by a multitude of anglers.

Sadly, I’ve not been fishing on my boat in well over a month, and my 30-foot Nova Scotia-built craft is high and dry on land while it receives a new stern deck.

“Oysters are incredibly hardy,” said Kim Tetrault, who oversees the Cornell Cooperative operations in Southold. “They can withstand a lot of what Mother Nature throws at them.”

Owning a boat certainly has its ups and downs. Lately, it’s been more of the latter.

I was all ready to shuck clams at the HarborFest contest in Sag Harbor on Saturday, but . . .

Is Lake Montauk a "holdover" habitat for striped bass, an otherwise migratory species? The question was explored at a meeting of the East Hampton Town Trustees in July, and on Monday the trustees agreed to consider a donation toward the estimated $225,000 cost of a two-year study. While Lake Montauk is not under trustee jurisdiction, said Jim Grimes, "our interest in fisheries very much is."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries division has announced new regulations for the lobster and Jonah crab trap and pot fisheries in the Northeast to help save endangered North Atlantic right whales by reducing their risk of entanglement in fishing gear.

To the delight of many light-tackle enthusiasts, false albacore, also known as albies, have arrived in East End waters in recent days. 

The horrific tragedy that befell the open boat named the Pelican II, which took place 70 years ago this weekend, still resonates with many here who have firm roots in Montauk and beyond. 

There was none of the casual chitchat Friday morning as Tropical Storm Henri gained strength about 700 miles south of Long Island. 

It was readily apparent that the day ahead was going to be a hot one, even if the 72-degree water of the incoming tide outside the nearby breakwater seemed cool to the touch.

There seems to be a rush to move the seasons along more quickly than ever before, but I'm glad the fish in our local waters aren't following suit.

Bluefish are largely underappreciated, but the tide may be turning as people realize that not only are they one of the toughest fighting fish around but also a treat to eat, especially when smoked.

Lovers of the oceans and the life within them have just a few days left to experience "Science and the Sea," an exhibition of photographs by the marine scientist and explorer Gaelin Rosenwaks at the Montauk Lighthouse Oceans Institute that is but a glimpse into the life of an inveterate adventurer, an academic scientist turned storyteller whose career on a given day may see her swimming with blue sharks off Montauk, or hammerheads in the Bahamas, or 45-ton sperm whales off the island of Dominica.

I've had to be towed only in once in my life. It happened about 15 years ago when I broke down about two miles south of Orient Point in Gardiner's Bay.

We are getting close to August and it's clear that the fishing scene has shifted into full summer mode. The summer menu of fish includes everything from wahoo to swordfish, codfish to red hake, as well as dozens of other fish in between.

Ask any bayman, and all would agree that the bay scallop fishery in the Peconic Bay estuary system in the past two years was a total calamity. As such, it was no surprise to learn that the United States Department of Commerce recently declared the events of 2019-20 a fishery disaster. 

Rarely a week goes by when I don't receive a question from friends or readers about what to look for when buying fish. It's really a rather basic question to answer. Read on . . .