By Annette Hinkle
In the depths of winter — even mild ones like this — it’s easy for East End residents to forget where they live. Shorter days and longer hours at work or school often conspire to keep year rounders from getting out of the house to remind themselves of why most of them moved here in the first place.
But when it comes to the beach in winter, Sag Harbor’s Jennifer Skilbred notes there are a lot of very good reasons for bundling up and heading into the elements to explore it.
“It has a different feeling,” says Skilbred. “You don’t have a lot of people walking on the beach at this time of year. And often there’s a wide variety of things to see washed up on shore that haven’t already been picked up by people or covered over by bonfires.”
“In winter people tend to get in the hibernation mode. But it’s great to brave it and go outside,” she adds. “Once you’re out there you think, ‘Why don’t I do this every day?’ It rejuvenates you to explore a quiet beach in the winter.”
Which is why this Saturday, Skilbred, an environmental advocate at Group for the East End, will lead one of the group’s Explorations, an outing entitled “Winter Beachcombing Walk” along Circle Beach in Noyac.
“This is our 40th anniversary year,” says Skilbred of Group for the East End, “and we’ve been doing our Explorations almost as long to raise awareness of habitats and wildlife and get people outside.”
Skilbred notes that one of the best (and most helpful) reasons locals should walk the beach in winter is so that they can act as sentries for sea turtles passing through the area.
“There are a number of turtles that pass along Long Island on their migration,” explains Skilbred. “When the temperature is below 50 degrees, if they haven’t migrated south by then, they can suffer a hypothermia reaction and cold stunned turtles will wash up on shore.”
The most likely turtles to be found on our shores are green sea turtles and the endangered Kemp’s ridley and patrolling the beaches for them just after high tide, particularly after storms or extremely cold weather, is the best time.
“They’ll generally be in the wrack lines, half buried and look dead,” adds Skilbred. “But they’re really alive. We’ve been working with the Riverhead Foundation in the last five or so years to get the public educated and raise awareness so if people see them they know what to do.”
Skilbred says the first step is to call the Riverhead Foundation so that a biologist can begin to determine the breed and condition of the animal.
“It’s important that people not warm the turtle up,” cautions Skilbred. “If it’s not done properly, or is done too quickly, it can cause other issues and they may not survive. So don’t put it in your car to warm up. Mark its location and let the Riverhead Foundation know where it is.”
Last year, the Riverhead Foundation recovered close to 40 stranded sea turtles and while the milder conditions this year may be advantageous to the turtles, it’s still important to keep a keen eye out for them.
But beyond turtles in trouble, there are lots of other things to discover on the winter beach. This is the time of year when seals come to the neighborhood, and they can often be spotted in the Peconic Estuary playing in the water or basking on nearby rocks. Last year, one even came up Sag Harbor Cove and was spotted frolicking in Otter Pond. But Skilbred warns that if you come across a seal on the beach, give it a wide berth.
“Stay far away, they can be aggressive, even the young pups,” she says. “And it’s not necessarily true that they’re in trouble if they’re on the beach.”
One of the big benefits of the beach in winter is, of course, the lack of human foot traffic, which means animal tracks tend to stick around for a while, offering clues about the birds and mammals that have been there in the hours and days before.
Then, notes Skilbred, there are the small and simple finds of the winter beach— the icy white border of a recent high tide, the whelk egg case washed ashore and filled with miniature versions of its parents or the frozen sculpture of a scallop shell encased in ice.
On occasion, storms (which have been mercifully absent in recent months) bring in samples of rarer finds.
“Sometimes I’ll come across pieces of sponge — including the red beard sponge that’s actually not red when it comes up and dries out,” says Skilbred. “Sometimes things come in that are in deeper waters we wouldn’t often see.”
Skilbred recalls that in late fall, she and other staff members from Group for the East End were leading a class trip for the Springs School on the ocean side of the South Fork when the unexpected was found. Steve Biasetti, the group’s director of environmental education, came across a live sea mouse, a fur covered marine worm, that had washed up on shore (he blogged about the odd find on the group’s website — http://blog.eastendenvironment.org/ ).
“It’s really rare and was very interesting,” notes Skilbred.
And at this time of year, the beach is rarely the same two days in a row. Wind conditions, storms and temperature fluctuations all have an effect on what might be found where on any given day. It’s the surprise of the possibilities that keeps avid beachcombers coming back, and outings like this Saturday’s walk furthers Skilbred’s mission of keeping East Enders, particularly children, connected to their environment.
“We have a lot of programs that are continuous through the school year and see the same students maybe six times per year,” says Skilbred who also works with classes in Sag Harbor. “We really make sure there’s connectivity between what they’re learning and what they see in nature. We’ll do field trips with students, try to find places close to the school where they can get a hands on experience learning and seeing the ecology of Long Island.”
“That environmental connection will definitely play a role in how they think in the future,” says Skilbred.
A winter beach walk sounds like a great place to start.
“Winter Beachcombing Walk” in Noyac is Saturday, January 21, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The walk is free, but reservations should be made to Jennifer Skilbred at 537-1400 ext. 212.
Top: Jennifer Skilbred checks out a frozen scallop shell on the beach in Sag Harbor. (Michael Heller photo)
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