The Meadowlands Commission has been trying to draw down the Shorebird   Pool at DeKorte Park for a few weeks now, but has encountered several challenges that hampered the effort.

   All that changed this afternoon. The Shorebird Pool is mostly mudflats now, and we are getting a slew of waders and shorebirds. We only wish we could have gotten the water levels down sooner.

  The water has been pumped out so that repairs can be done to the pilings that support the Meadwolands Commission's water's-edge buildings.

   With a little luck, mud levels should be like this for a couple of weeks. Come see for yourself!

    Bergen County Audubon Society and the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission would like to thank everyone who turned out on this beautiful September day to participate in our monthly third-Tuesday Walk.

    We did not see the Wheatear, nor were we looking for one, but we had plenty of good birds, including great views of this Caspian Tern fishing in the Shorebird Pool.

  We will post the full list when it becomes available, along with a lot of pix of neat birds and bugs.

    Pete Bacinski of NJ Audubon's Sandy Hook Bird Observatory writes: 

   "A friend of ours here at SHBO was birding by herself yesterday near DeKorte and encountered a Wheatear.  The bird was seen on the dike that separates the Kingland inpoundment and the large tidal flat.

    "She had taken the recycled boardwalk across the marsh and got to the dike and made a right toward the parking lot and had the bird in a short distance in front of her.   She gave a good description and described its habits.  Hopefully, someone could go out today to take a look. Please let us know if you find the bird."

   Please call the NJMC's Jim Wright at 201-7855-6604 if you see this bird.

   We saw this beautiful Parakeet flying around DeKorte Park near the Lyndhurst Nature Reserve. It is still hanging around, as far as we know.

   If you've lost a Parakeet, e-mail jim.wright@njmeadowlands.gov.

   DeKorte Park seems to be a popular place for escapees and, heaven forbid, released birds. 

   We have had other releasees and escapees in the past including Chukars and Parakeets.

        The Meadowlands Commission and Bergen Audubon are holding our monthly third-Tuesday walk at DeKorte Park tomorrow at 10 a.m.

   As you can read in the posts below (and see from the shot at right, taken moments ago), we have been getting some good looks at some very good birds at DeKorte lately. 

   If you missed the Meadowlands Festival of Birding this past weekend — or just cant get enough birding — meet us in front of the Meadowlands Environment Center. 

 We'll even keep an eye out for migrating Broadwings and Monarchs…

  More on tomorrow's walk and other upcoming events here.

  We are posting more bird reports from the Meadowlands Festival of Birding here. We will post a full list of birds when it becomes available.

   Click "Continue reading…" to read reports from Mike Britt and Scott Barnes.

Continue reading →

     This weekend's Meadowlands Festival of Birding was a big hit.

      Edna Duffy of Secaucus summed up the first day nicely (Thanks, Edna!):

      "Two-hundred-plus people enjoyed themselves [Saturday] at the sixth annual Meadowlands Birding Festival.

   "Great birds, including flyover Hudsonian Godwit and Red-necked Phalarope. Early boat ride this morning on the Hackensack River had a Bald Eagle steal a fish from an Osprey. Yellow-Crowned Night-Herons and Common Moorhen seen as well."

     Staff Writer Rich Cowen of The Record had a great story on the event in the Sunday paper.

     We especially loved this part: "Birds know — and so do bird-watchers — that the best place to escape all that concrete, steel and glass is the 8,000-acre swamp-turned-sanctuary that we call the Meadowlands. This green oasis, a favorite stopover for nearly 300 species of birds, on Saturday played host to the sixth annual New Jersey Meadowlands Festival of Birding."

   The link is here.

    A big "Thank-you" goes out to all who participated.

     Harrier Meadow in North Arlington is getting three new Barn Owl nesting boxes, thanks to Matthew Schelhorn of Boy Scout Troop 65 in Cedar Grove.

   Schelhorn constructed the three boxes  as part of an Eagle Scout project.

   Barn Owls have been seen at Harrier Meadow during last year's Christmas Bird Count and other times, and are known to nest in a few spots in the Meadowlands.

  More on these spectacularly beautiful owls here.

  More on Harrier Meadow here.