Butterfly Day at DeKorte Park is receiving some great media coverage!

Michael Copley of The Record wrote in part:

While families and others were able to take in the winged-wonders under a blue sky, butterfly day also was a showcase of the environmental restoration that’s transformed the Meadowlands from a dump into a sanctuary.

“The day is about celebrating the environment here,” said Don Torino of the Bergen County Audubon Society. “The butterfly is like the canary in the coal mine – it’s a good way of demonstrating what the area has become.”     The link Michael Copley's article in The Record's is here.

Miles Ma of The Star-Ledger and NJ.com wrote:

"Fostering that kinship between families and nature is one of the goals of Butterfly Day in DeKorte Park, held on a sunny Sunday by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. The Smilon family was among more than 400 visitors expected at the park. [Note: The event ultimately drew more than 650 people.]

The link to Miles Ma's story on NJ.com, and lots of photos, is here.

Finally, there's a terrific video by Colleen Hagerty on NY1 — the link is here.

We had an amazing 21 species of butterflies yesterday at Butterfly Day.

We are posting the full list here, and will post photos from the day all this week — so please feel free to share yours.

Note: If you got a photo of the rare Meadow Fritillary or Horace's Duskywing seen briefly yesterday, please share!

Full list follows.

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A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our third annual Butterfly Day. We had 21 species of butterflies, and hundrds upon hundreds of terrific people. We will post a full list of butterflies this week.

As part of National Moth Week, we are having our first-ever Moth Night at DeKorte Park on Wednesday, beginning at 8:30 p.m.

We'll have a short talk by David Moskowitz, a co-founder of National Moth Week, who is bringing two awesome light set-ups to attract moths from all around.

Says Dave: "We will set up lights and a free-standing sheet near the butterfly garden and a second one down the parking lot a bit and run it off my generator. One  of the light setups is an amazing one that Todd Dreyer — one of the NMW team — built. It has a 400 watt mercury vapor light. It should be great!"

Full info follows.

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Don't forget. Butterfly Day is this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at DeKorte Park, and it's free and fun for the whole family!

Full details follow.

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We are happy to report that as of mid-afternoon yesterday, Dennis the Menace, the aggressive Red-winged Blackbird, was no longer defending his nesting area along the Marsh Discovery Trail.

(Thanks again to Dennis Cheeseman for the photo; no relation.)

Ron Shields reports:

"Attached please find a sampling of images taken from the growth surrounding the "puddles" along Disposal Road before the drought wiped them out.  If you look real close, you'll note that the female indigo bunting (left) is banded.  [See link from earlier this week; must have been a double ring ceremony.]

"In addition, raptor action continues to heat up with Peregrine Falcons perching on the towers and hunting over the landfills. As many as four kestrels have been spotted in the fields as well."

Two more pix follow.

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Susan Elbin of NYC Audubon passed along this shot of the tagged Great Egret seen in Morris County earlier this week, photographed by Jonathan Klizas. (Another tagged egret was seen in Lyndhurst this week, by Chris Takacs).

The Morris County bird hailed from Jamaica Bay. The Lyndhurst bird possibly hailed from Hoffman's Island near Staten Island.

Susan Elbin asks birders to be on the lookout for tagged egrets  — please report any sightings to selbin (at) nycaudubon.org.

Thanks, Jonathan and Susan!

Link to a blog post on the Morris County sighting is here.

Link to earlier post on Lyndhurst tagged egret is here.

Our latest "Focus on the Meadowlands" post for wildnewjersey.tv features two butterflies and an unusual diurnal moth.

The link is here.

On Tuesday morning, Chris Takacs saw a wing-tagged Great Egret at the Clay Avenue wetlands in Lyndhurst.

Susan Elbin of NYC Audubon, which runs the Harbor Herons wing-tagging program, writes …

"That's one of my babies (young of the year). It's either from Hoffman Island or from Jamaica Bay.

We need to know the numbers on the tag to be sure.

It would be FANTASTIC if birders in the Meadowlands would report any sightings to you (ideally with photos)!

Nellie Tsipoura of NJ Audubon and I are also trying to figure out where the egrets roost (at night)…especially as migration approaches.

Can birders in the Meadowlands help with that, too? If you know of any areas where Great Egrets congregate in large numbers during the evening….

Hoffman Island is a small artificial island off Staten Island, more than a dozen miles south of the Meadowlands. Photo of Hoffman is on right.

Contact Susan Elbin at selbin (at) nycaudubon.org if you see any wing-tagged or banded egrets — or know of roosting sites.

(Thanks, Chris and Susan!)

For a link to a post about banded egrets from Hoffman Island from two years ago, click here.