By Herbert Goldstone
It's fun to stretch your imagination that far, maybe, but if you call suburban Long Island home, as countless thousands of us do, you're wasting a lot of mental energy.Wildlife is right here, all around you. All it takes is the effort and time to look at it.I'll give you one extreme example.I live in a big two-story garden apartment complex in Woodbury. The streets are lined with tall, leafy trees, many of them with colorful pink and white blossoms that paint their branches each spring.Neat, well-groomed lawns and shrubs surround the buildings. There's a big lake in the middle of the complex and thick woods with no signs of any buildings line the northern edge.I have a back concrete patio with sliding glass doors and about 20 feet of lawn between me and the thick woods. Weather permitting, it's nice to eat out back.One night, I went out to retrieve a small metal waste basket I use to dump meal garbage.Three visitors beat me to it. Not one, not two but three large raccoons were nosing into the basket helping themselves to the remnants of my supper.They looked so cute I was tempted to reach out and pet them. Then I remembered reading somewhere that a raccoon bite can be pretty dangerous, so I just stood there and watched them.I guess they were aware of me, but didn't pay any heed to me. They finished off my meal, nosed around a bit and then were off into the woods. There's a long wire mesh fence, about 5 feet tall or so, where the woods begin. I guess they found some way to get over it or maybe through a hole.With the lake nearby, I have lots of Canadian geese as neighbors. They can be a bit messy at times, but they have very cute little ones each spring who follow their parents around like little soldiers in line. The elders are very dramatic, flying overhead and honking loudly in a perfect V formation.We also have lots of ducks who swim around the lake and I once spotted a big dramatic-looking white bird that was standing on a fallen log at the far end of the lake. It looked like some sort of crane on long thin legs.I've seen lots of rabbits around the place and I found what looked to me like the skin that a pretty large snake had shed – a snake I was happy to miss.Plenty of squirrels, of course, on the ground and up the trunk of a tree when someone scares them. Those lively little grey furry animals are practically natives of the New York area.Dogs aren't allowed in the complex, but I do see someone walking a dog once in a while. There are lots of cats wandering around, most without collars or tags so I assume they're strays that don't belong to anyone.There's one wild, gray, striped cat that likes to hang around my back patio, looking for something to eat, maybe. I don't give him – or maybe it's a her – anything. I'd have a permanent house guest if I did.Besides the Canadian visitors, bird life is profuse. Plenty of sea gulls – you're never far from water on Long Island. I see the proverbial early spring red robin, plenty of sparrows and big black crows and I've had a pretty red cardinal visit the backyard. Also an occasional bluebird.There are those noisy grey cowbirds that scream at any cat in their vicinity, maybe at me, too.I hear lots of frogs in the lake at night and I've had crickets come right into the apartment if I leave a door open. It's a friendly kind of noise they make.I thought I heard a big bug up on the bedroom ceiling, but it turned out to be the battery wearing down in the bedroom smoke alarm. That's a handy signal that you need a new battery.I had a big bumble bee get in one day and he settled on a window in a small room I use for an office. He found a hangout behind a venetian blind and I cautiously tried to chase him out. I finally managed to swat him against a window. It's not the kind of insect you want to leave loose in your apartment.One final note. I have no idea where it came from, but I found a large scary brown tarantula on my pillow one night.I managed to swat it with a folded magazine.I didn't fall asleep so easily that night. I kept thinking he might have some unfriendly cousins around.I've seen a praying mantis once in a while. It's a dramatic insect with those big green eyes and two long front legs held in that interesting praying position that give them their name. They look a bit scary, but while they may menace other insects, they're harmless to humans.I remember once when we lived in Glen Cove, a neighbor spotted a dangerous looking hornet's nest attached to a low branch of a shrub. It looked like a gray paper football.I didn't dare touch it, but called an exterminator to knock it down and scoop it into its net.
