Newsday.com: Where birds of paradise say hello

MORTON NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE AND MASHOMACK PRESERVE

Where birds of paradise say hello

Morton National Wildlife Refuge and Mashomack Preserve

By Barbara Shea
Staff Writer

The clarion call "chicka-dee-dee-dee" ricochets around the tangled woods, and soon trailside boughs are dotted with portly little birds. Gently as falling leaves, one after another flutters down to delicately peck an offering of seeds from a visitor's outstretched palm. The black-capped chickadees of Morton National Wildlife Refuge have stolen another heart.

Since it became a nature preserve in 1954, feeding the unusually tame chickadees at the 187-acre Morton refuge in Noyack has been a treasured, if somewhat controversial, tradition. While not officially sanctioned, it is unofficially tolerated. "We don't recommend feeding wildlife," said a staffer, "but we know the chickadees are an attraction and we don't see it causing any great harm if it also has the benefit of making young children think about wildlife."

The birds certainly seem to enjoy the ritual (started, perhaps, by Elizabeth A. Morton, who bequeathed the land). Sometimes they even light on an empty hand despite an abundance of wild berries (and discarded store-bought seeds) along the grassy paths. (Unsalted, unshelled sunflower seeds are the recommended fare, but even these may not attract large flocks in summer, when the birds are busy catching more-nutritious insects to bulk up their new hatchlings).

While the numerous chickadees have come to view humans as their friends -- all right, as an easy food source -- the preserve strives to keep visitors at a distance from its endangered piping plovers. The 1.5-mile Jessups Neck peninsula trail is off-limits during the April through August nesting season. To encourage respect for the beach closure, a sign details the birds' plight: "Development destroys their habitat; predators eat eggs and chicks; hikers and vehicles crush their nests and young; storm tides wash out their nests; pets harass them; people destroy breeding adults, which exposes eggs to the hot sun."

At the much larger Mashomack Preserve on Shelter Island, just a four-minute ferry ride from nearby North Haven, shore birds are protected by design: The 20 miles of trails are all inland. But since the preserve's 2,039 acres -- a third of Shelter Island -- are edged by 10 miles of coastline, there are many waterviews. And the new Coecles Harbor Marine Water Trail is a five-mile round-trip route for canoers and kayakers; a map-brochure suggests 13 landing sites.

While Mashomack visitors can't expect close encounters with its residents -- including chickadees -- sharp-eyed hikers might spy these and other birds such as pheasants, ospreys and red-tailed hawks as well as animals from turtles and salamanders to deer. The preserve -- pronounced Mash-AW-mack -- belongs to the nonprofit Nature Conservancy, which calls it "a museum of life in process, a sanctuary where the natural cycles of flora, fauna and ecosystems are allowed to complete themselves free from human interference." Hikers thus are asked to look and listen but not jog, pick anything or stray from marked trails.

But there's plenty to see along the four main interconnected, color-coded loop footpaths. You can complete the 1.5-mile Red Trail in 45 minutes or tackle all four circuits for an 11-mile, four-hour hike through woods and fields. Though there are some low hills, none of the walks is strenuous.

There's also a barrier-freetrail, which is a one-eighth-mile loop with interpretive plaques in large type and Braille winding past a native-plant garden and a freshwater kettlehole. A one-mile hard-surface trail also is suitable for wheelchairs.

At the small visitor center, which has nature exhibits and a gift shop, you can borrow a map-brochure that expands on introductory information you'll see signposted at 18 spots along the Red Trail. They point out some of the preserve's more abundant and/or "interesting" highlights. Station No. 1: poison ivy.