Monthly Archives: February 2009

DUCK FEST on the Hackensack

IMG_7890    We saw quite a bit of duck action on the Hackensack River Thursday near the New Jersey Turnpike's eastern spur bridge just south of the Saw Mill Creek Marsh and the Conrail Swing Bridge.

     Our favorite performers were female and male Red-breasted Mergansers.

     These ducks areIMG_7894-2 amazing. We timed the pair of diving ducks when they dived, and they could stay underwater for 35 seconds and more a time in the bone-chilling Hackensack.

   At left, the female takes the plunge.

       Also on view were several Northern Pintails and Hooded Mergansers. 

   And some very colIMG_7895d Mute Swans were hunkered  down on the ice so as to almost appear invisible.

 Click here for more info on Red-breasted Mergansers.

    Click "Continue reading…" for photos of the other other mergansers, pintails and swans..

  

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HARRIER MEADOW IN WINTER

Muskrat lodge
   We visited Harrier Meadow with NJMC naturalists last week and saw all sorts of neat stuff — including a Muskrat lodge (above), pheasant tracks in the snow, a small-rodent tunnel, a carp skull embedded in ice and raccoon scat.

   Click "Continue reading…" to see the photos. If you would prefer not to see scat, do not click "Continue reading…"

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Free Meadowlands calendars

NJMC Anniversary Calendar Cover
   The Meadowlands Commission has some extra copies of our beautiful 40th Anniversary calendar, and we are now offering them free of charge.
   Each month has a wonderful photo or painting from the Meadowlands — from Tree Swallows to Great Egrets to Daylilies — along with a memorable nature quote.
   You can pick one up the next time you are at DeKorte Park in the Meadowlands Environment Center of the administration building, or you can send a check $3 for postage, made out to the NJMC, and your name and address to Jim Wright, NJMC, 1 DeKorte Park Plaza, Lyndhurst, NJ 07071. Limit one per person.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 020409: Local Tuskegee Airman

     The Meadowlands Commission is honoring Black History Month with a weekly post on this blog. Today the focus is a Tuskegee Airman from Rutherford.

    In future weeks we'll  look at the Underground Railroad in Jersey City, a slave cemetery in Little Ferry, and a famous black actress and civil rights activist who worked in Kearny.

   Calvin J. Spann, who grew up in Rutherford,  served with the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Spann
    From 1943 to 1946, 1st Lt. Spann served in the US Army Air Force, 332nd Fighter Group, 100th Squadron, as part of the famed Tuskegee Airmen — the first-ever group of black Army pilots. 
    Spann was among an elite group of Tuskegee Airmen who escorted B-17 bombers and reconnaissance  planes over Nazi Germany during World War. Spann flew 26 combat missions.

   In a phone interview yesterday from his home in Texas, Spann said: "My growing up in Rutherford inspired me to be a Tuskegee Airman. Planes from Teterboro Airport took off right over my house.

   "I was able to do everything any young man in high school did, and when I got into the Air Corps and they said they didn't think I could learn to fly, I thought that was preposterous. I'd been doing everything everyone else was doing all my life, and it really stuck with me. That was my experience growing up in Rutherford."

    Click here for more with Tuskegee Airman Calvin Spann.

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Audubon Magazine blog post on Snowy Owl invasion

IMG_0060    Audubon Magazine's blog, The Perch, has a nice post on the Snowy Owls that have been appearing in spots like the Meadowlands where they are infrequent fliers.
   Better yet, it offers some basic rules of owl etiquette, including this one:
   "Do not disturb a sleeping owl, or chase it to get a better view or a photograph. This can be extremely harmful to owls, many of which are already stressed from their arduous journeys to unknown territories."
    The post is here.
 

DUCKS GALORE

Green Winged Teal
    Now that the tidal impoundments at DeKorte Park have thawed a bit, we are getting a nice variety of ducks again.
   Above, a Eurasian ( or common) Green-winged Teal hangs ouIMG_0107-1t with his more-often seen cousin.
   A check of the impoundments on Monday afternoon found Black Ducks, Canvasbacks (with that female Ringneck thrown in), Hooded Mergansers (right), Red-breasted Megs, a Northern shoveler and the usual Mallards.

    Birder Linda Gangi reports that quite a few Pintails and  Buffleheads were around on Monday morning as well. She also reports seeing two male Eurasian/common Green-winged Teal.

GROUNDHOG DAY VIDEO


In honor of Groundhog's Day, here's a video we did last June, before the blog was really up and running. We will check on Lyndhurst Lindy and report any activity.

The one-minute video features a woodchuck looking out of its den on a path in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst, when Junior butts in. (Best played with audio on.)

For more information on this abundant Meadowlands mammal, click here.

Note: We realize that it is a bad idea to take hang out in front of birds' nests or mammals' dens in an effort to get a family portrait. The animals feel threatened and cannot escape.

  For this video, we used a trick we learned minutes earlier from a professional cameraman: You put the video-cam on a tripod not too far from entrance, hit "record," and walk away. 

  Later on, you come back, retrieve the camera  and see what you caught on video. 🙂