Monthly Archives: March 2016

Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: Why We Love the Meadowlands

On this past Sunday morning nine Black-Crowned Night Herons stood like sentinels along the banks of a small marshy area constrained by the New Jersey Turnpike and surrounded by countless other stone and asphalt structures of our Garden State.

Like many of our Meadowlands birds and birders we all seemed oblivious to the roar of the cars, trucks and airliners overhead. These most regal and stately of birds seemed to ignore the gazing binoculars as one of our group members dropped her binoculars, looked up at me and said “The birding is wonderful, you are so lucky to live here in the Meadowlands!”  The comment at first took me by surprise. It was music to my ears and such a wonderful thing to say, but I was taken back, not use to hearing those kind and flattering comments.

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Pollinators Paradise

tenafly-nature-center-032116
There’s a story in today’s Record about the Tenafly Nature Center tearing down an old, ineffective fence and building a new one around its wildlife garden to prevent deer from eating the plants that attract pollinators from honeybees to monarch butterflies. Nature Center representatives want to enclose part of the garden in netting to let visitors observe the butterfly species as they progress through their life cycle, with visitors being able to enter the area with foam brushes soaked in a nectar-like liquid, and see the butterflies land on the brushes to feed. Read the article here.

Yoga Class This Monday!

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Join us this Monday, March 21, from 6 to 7 pm for Evening Yoga at the Meadowlands Environment Center.

Adults of all ages/levels welcomed — focus on alignment, flow and warmth followed by a restorative pose to unwind the body and mind for bed.  Open to all levels of students-beginner to advanced, ages 14 and up. Poses can be modified to accommodate all levels. Additional session on Monday, April 18.

Cost is $10. To register, click here.

Hope to see you Monday!

Greetings from Costa Rica!

We’ll end the week with a dispatch from Central America. Sandy Sorkin has been in Costa Rica and sent the amazing photos below that he took at Rancho Naturalista, the country’s premiere birding lodge. Enjoy courtesy of Sandy, and have a great weekend!

Gray-necked Wood-Rail

Gray-necked Wood-Rail

Gray-necked Wood-rail

Gray-necked Wood-rail

Spectacled Owls

Spectacled Owls

Laughing Falcon

Laughing Falcon

 

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Rufous-tailed Hummingbird

Female Passarini's Tanager

Female Passarini’s Tanager

Long-billed Hermit

Long-billed Hermit

Palm Tanager

Palm Tanager

Great Potoo

Great Potoo

Green Thorntail

Green Thorntail

White-necked Jacobin

White-necked Jacobin

Summer Tanager

Summer Tanager

Yoga Class This Monday!

jessica-verdina1-A

Join us this Monday, March 21, from 6 to 7 pm for Evening Yoga at the Meadowlands Environment Center.

Adults of all ages/levels welcomed — focus on alignment, flow and warmth followed by a restorative pose to unwind the body and mind for bed.  Open to all levels of students-beginner to advanced, ages 14 and up. Poses can be modified to accommodate all levels. Additional session on Monday, April 18.

Cost is $10. To register, click here.

Hope to see you Monday!

Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: What is a “Birder” Anyway?

DeKorte Walk 3.6.16 4

A while back a news reporter came along on one of our field trips, and as reporters often do, they ask a general question to allow the readers to learn something about the subject of their story.  “So what is a birder and why do you consider yourself a birder?” the young correspondent asked me with kind of a smirk.

Now, for those that know me, I am rarely at a loss for words, but at that moment I found I was more than a bit speechless.  How was I to explain with a quick comment what it is we love so much in just a few sentences? And why does someone consider themselves a birder?  I think I remember answering his question by saying something dumb like, “We are birders because we enjoy looking at birds.”

Not  very informative to say the least  and a little lacking trying to explain what I have been doing with my life the last 40 or so years, but to this day I have not entirely learned how to answer that question, and I have not come to terms with what exactly is birding and what makes someone a birder ?

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Early Spring Arrival

Horned Grebe 2

Chris Takacs took this shot yesterday of a Horned Grebe at DeKorte Park. Chris writes that while it’s common to see the waterfowl in the winter in Liberty State Park and Newark Bay, it’s pretty uncommon here. But the Grebes appear to be making their way north. More than 40 were spotted in the Bayonne and Jersey City area this past weekend.

Laurel Hill Walk Recap

Don Torino of the Bergen County Audubon Society reports that yesterday’s nature walk at Laurel Hill Park in Secaucus proved very fruitful, with sightings of Bald Eagles, Great Cormorants and much, much more.
Below is a bevy of great photos from the walk taken by Joe Koscielny.

The BCAS’ next free Meadowlands walk is Sunday, April 3, from 10 am to noon at Harrier Meadow in North Arlington, a beautiful natural area which is normally closed to the public. They’ll be keeping an eye out for lingering waterfowl and early spring arrivals. Meets outside the gate to Disposal Road, which is accessed off Schuyler Avenue. For more information: 201-230-4983 or greatauk4@gmail.com.

Enjoy these photos!

Cormorants

Cormorants

Great Cormorant

Great Cormorant

Adult Bald Eagle

Adult Bald Eagle

Adult Bald Eagle

Adult Bald Eagle

Gadwall

Gadwall

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Herons

Great Blue Herons

Northern Mockingbird

Northern Mockingbird

Peregrine Falcon

Peregrine Falcon