Don't forget: The Meadowlands Commission and  the Bergen County Audubon Society are sponsoring a  free nature walk  at Harrier Meadow in North Arlington on Sunday, Aug. 2, at 1 p.m.
   Because Harrier Meadow is ordinarily closed to the public, you will need to sign a standard release to visit the site. Download it here: Download HARRIER Release

  We are limiting the walk to 50 people (broken into smaller groups), so please rsvp here.

   By the way, if you are wondering what the attraction of Harrier Meadow is, be aware that the photo on the top of this blog was taken at Harrier early one August morning last year.

Click "Continue reading …" below for directions to Harrier Meadow.

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  The Meadowlands Commission is pleased to announce that noted birding photographer and author Kevin Karlson will be at DeKorte Park for three free special events on Saturday, August 22, starting with a Shorebird Walk at 8:30 a.m.
   The events are part of the Meadowlands Commission's 40th Anniversary Celebration.
  We will post the details about Kevin's Meadowlands Shorebird Extravaganza on this blog next week, with examples of Kevin's amazing photography, so stay tuned.

   Late last month, several old-time Muskrat hunters convened at a Carlstadt restaurant to talk about the good old days of muskrat hunting — as far back as 60 years ago.
   We were on hand to video-record their reminiscences, and we have posted them on our sister blog,
   The Meadowlands Oral History Project. Click here for the link to the post.
    If you have not checked out the blog yet, it's worth seeing (and hearing).
    Several of the posts are audio files, and you can listen to long-time Meadowlands resident talk about the region, in their own words, in their own voice.  Link to the blog is here. www.meadowpast.net.

We are declaring yesterday's boardwalk bird walk at DeKorte Park a success, even if we did have a pouring rain and a low turnout. (A coincidence? We think not.)
   Highlights included four Forster's Terns, a Black-Crowned Night Heron, Snowy Egret, Great Egret, two Kingfishers, several peeps, Black Duck, Mallard, Gadwall,  and more than swallows than we could count scooping up bugs along the Transco Trail (above).
    The hour-long walk went along the Marsh Discovery Trail to the Transco Trail and back along the main drive, with a stop at Teal Pond.

   Joe Barnaskas of Rutherford called to say he saw a huge Wild Turkey hen with a baby in his backyard last week.
   "To see a Wild Turkey, especially one that size, down here is really something," said Joe.
    The first record of Wild Turkey in the Meadowlands in recent memory was during an avian study done here a few years back.
   A link to a South Bergenite story on the study, mentioning the previous rarity of Wild Turkeys, is here.
   

  
   Yes, we had a walk in the rain, and yes, we actually had two brave souls join us for the first monthly third-Tuesday bird walk with Bergen County Audubon Society and the Meadowlands Commission.
   We will post pix and a bird list tomorrow, after we have dried out.
   At upper right are Forster's Terns hanging out in the rain along the Transco Trail. (Juvenile is in the foregound.)