Daily Archives: February 8, 2016

NJSEA Celebrates Black History Month: Underground Railroad

We are honoring Black History Month with a weekly post each Monday throughout February on people and places related to the Meadowlands. The posts are taken from our archives and were originally done by former staffer Jim Wright.

Mapnj

      Runaway slaves from the South took were several routes through New Jersey before and during the Civil War, but those escape routes all had one thing in common: They converged at Jersey City.

  By one estimate, as many as 70,000 runaway slaves escaped through Jersey City.

    If you click on the map on the right (from the state of New Jersey’s Web site), you can see the major New Jersey stops on the Underground Railroad.

   More on Jersey City’s role in the Underground Railroad here.


More Super Bird Sunday

 

Banded Canada Goose

Jim Macaluso, who participated in yesterday’s Super Bird Sunday, sent the following disptach:

I was on the BCAS walk at Mill Creek Marsh and photographed a couple of Canada Geese with neck collars. I did a little investigation on the USGS website and found out the following:  Orange collars were used in the Canadian portion of the Mississippi Flyway, and Blue collars were used in the US portion of the Mississippi Flyway.”

Thanks for the info, Jim!

Super Bird Sunday Report

The Bergen County Audubon Society reports a great turnout for yesterday’s morning’s annual Super Bird Sunday nature walk. More than 50 people participated in the walk at Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus. Those who were the first to spot birds with the same names as professional football team mascots were awaraded prizes and had their choice of an Audubon baseball cap, an Audubon tote bag or an Audubon backpack.

Pictured with BCAS President Don Torino in the middle picture above are prize winners Icram Khalil, who spotted a (Seattle Sea) Hawk and Bob Galvan, who saw an (Arizona) Northern Cardinal. Not pictures are Karen Heifetz and Flo Rutherford, who both glimpsed (Philadelphia) Bald Eagles.

The BCAS’ next Meadowlands Nature Walk is Tuesday, Feb. 16, from 10 am to noon at DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst. They’ll be looking for waterfowl, raptors and wintering birds.The walk is free.

For more information contact Don Torino at greatauk4@gmail.com or 201-280-4983.