Daily Archives: September 30, 2013

Tuesday-Teaser-palooza — With a Prize!

IMG_6601-002Starting tomorrow and running through October and November, our Tuesday Teaser will be a banded bird from this fall’s bird-banding project at Harrier Meadow.

To give you an added incentive, we are offering a prize to the person who correctly identifies the most birds. (In the case of a tie, the winner’s name will be drawn from a cap.)

The prize? Rick Wright of WINGS Birding Tours is graciously donating a copy of “The Warbler Guide” by Tom Stephenson and Scott Whittle. (Thanks, Rick!)

There will be nine total birds, some easy, some tough. Please e-mail your bird-ID to Jim Wright each Tuesday by midnight (just click” e-mail us” in the right-hand column of this blog). IDs received after midnight will not be counted. Also, the “comments” section of the Teaser will be closed so no one can post their answer.  (Just trying to be fair.)

Do not try to answer this first teaser until it is posted on Tuesday. It is a two-part question!

Mike Newhouse and his dedicated team of banders have come up with some real challenges, including this mystery bird above left. (Thanks, Mike and crew!)

To ensure a level playing field, the contest is closed to NJMC employees and banding volunteers. (Sorry, crew!)

Any other suggestions?

Helping Folks Get to DeKorte More Easily

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We realize that DeKorte Park is in the middle of nowhere (and yet in the middle of everywhere) and sometimes hard to find.

We also realize that folks who drive down Route 17 to get here have go through a gauntlet of traffic lights.IMG_6775

So here’s some good news. We have new signs pointing to the key intersection of Polito Avenue and Valley Brook Avenues (the previous signs disappeared).

And thanks to the NJMC’s awesome MASSTR program, all of the traffic signals in the Meadowlands region — including the traffic signals on Route 17 from Williams Avenue on south — now use image-based vehicle-detection linked to advanced software that adjusts and coordinates the timing of the lights based on the volume of traffic. This saves everyone time, conserves gasoline and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

You can read more about MASSTR here.