Nick Vos Wein reports:

Saw it this morning in the trees near the back parking lot, near Transco/LNR intersection.

(Thanks, Nick. Pic of  DeKorte YB Cuckoo is here.)

Ron Shields took this shot at the Kearny Marsh. He thinks it’s a female Red-breasted Merganser.

What do you think?  (Thanks, Ron!)

It now swimming near shore near  berm. Has been in two locations in Teal Pool, along Transco Trail, far parking lot.  “9” on map is the administration building.

Better pix from last week here.

Saw the bird the same spot as Friday with tide going out. Several birders have confirmed. Will post (distant) pix as time permits…

No one is happier than us to hear that funding is now available to repair DeKorte Park’s Marsh Discovery Trail, severely damaged by Hurricane Sandy.

The trail should be open again by the end of this year.

Scott Fallon, environmental writer for The Record, wrote an article recently on the extensive and expensive repairs.  The link is here. (Note: The repairs were approved at an NJMC Commission meeting this morning.)

Allan Sanford took this shot last Friday, just before the rains came.  (Thanks, Allan!)

Nj.com has an interesting story about how coyotes are becoming more and more widespread in New Jersey.

We are certainly more in the Meadowlands in the past five years, including this one photographed just months ago from Disposal Road by Mike Brandao.

Link is here.

It was just outside the Administration Building by the WTC Memorial Cove as of 4:45 p.m.

This revived weekly feature is brought to you by the Meadowlands Commission’s Parks Department to give you some historical background on how local places, landmarks, and geographical features  got their name.

We at the Meadowlands Commission are always scratching our heads on how to spell “Gunnell Oval” in Kearny.

The sign says “Gunnell Oval,” but everywhere we look, we see it spelled “Gunnel.”

The NJMC’s Angelo Urato did some investigating:

“Kearny’s Gunnell Oval Park was named after Benjamin E. Gunnell.  He was a popular youth in town, attended the Roosevelt School,  and was a very good baseball player.

He died in 1918 fighting the Germans in WWI.

The sign at the entrance of the park spells his name GUNNELL.
The  Web site for the Kearny Monument for soldiers who died in for WWI has his name listed as “Gunnel.”

Can anybody shed more light? (We are betting that “Gunnell” is the correct spelling.)

Neat story by Environmental Writer Jim O’Neill in The Record today about the need for more folks to plant milkweed to help save Monarch Butterflies.

The link is here.