Monthly Archives: September 2010

DeKorte Problem: Released Pet Birds

NJMC staffer Jim Wright's column in The South Bergenite today is about the gowing problem of released/escaped pet birds:

IMG_0632    First came the powder-blue Parakeet. Then a grayish cockatiel, followed by a saffron finch.

   The Meadowlands Commission’s DeKorte Park is known for drawing all sorts of unusual birds, but the one-square-mile park has been attracting the “wrong” kind of bird of late – exotic pet birds that have either escaped from their owners or have been intentionally released.

   Either way, the birds face a likely death sentence in the wild.

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DeKorte Bald Eagle

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Jeff Nicol took this shot of an immature Bald Eagle out by the Carillon on Disposal Road: "Big crop on the Eagle, it was up there a ways."

(We saw an adult Bald Eagle in Ridgefield Park on Sunday as well.)

Jeff also got the Osprey shot below at DeKorte on Sunday.  (Thanks, Jeff!)Meadowlands1

Today’s Walk: Great Turnout, Great Birds

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More than 50 people were on hand for our Third-Tuesday walk at Harrier Meadow today, highlighted by a bird-banding demonstration by NJMC IMG_1402 Naturalist Mike Newhouse.

Those who arrived at Harrier Meadow were treated to an up-close look at an American Kestrel. The rest of us got several (more distant) views of the kestrels, Northern harriers, Sharpie, Osprey, and Cooper's Hawk…

If anyone would like to put a list together, I'd love to post it.

More pix have been posted on this Facebook Page.

DeKorte Bird Update 092010

Mike Britt reports: "Best birds [Sunday] were 3 Caspians on the flats at DeKorte. Also, both Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitchers, all three peeps, Semipalmated Plovers, Pectoral, dozens of Snowy & Great Egrets, Green Heron, several Osprey, Kestrel, Harrier, GW Teal, Shoveler, etc." (Thanks, Mike!)