Just a  reminder to set your clocks back an hour Saturday night — especially  if you're planning to go on the First Sunday walk  at DeKorte 10 a.m. this weekend.  We are still getting yellowlegs and assorted egrets, and some ducks are arriving as well.

   Here's the listing:

Sunday, November 1, 10 a.m.

First-Sunday-of-the-Month Bird Walk with Bergen County Audubon Society
   This free two-hour nature walk starts outside the Meadowlands Environment Center in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst,  and runs from 10 a.m. We’ll walk around the 110-acre park, looking for straggling shorebirds, newly arrived waterfowls and other birds.  To rsvp, contact Don Torino of the BCAS at greatauk4@aol.com or 201-636-4022.

    Sign of the season: Ray Duffy reports that [Thursday] "I made a quick stop at Mehrhof Pond, and there was a float of approximately 75 Ruddy Ducks with 3 Lesser Scaup (1 male snoozing and 2 females preening)."

     Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us last week and confirmed our identification of this warbler. 

    NJMC naturalists thought the bird above was a Black-throated Blue. Most of our warbler-eyed readers agreed.

   The NJMC's Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute takes amazing aerial photos with an unmanned helium balloon. Pictured above is a shot taken recently in Secaucus, including part of Mill Creek Marsh and Mill Creek Point..

    Click here to see earlier MERI aerial photographs and other projects.

   Click here to link to the MERI Web site.

   Click "Continue reading … "  to see more Secaucus aerial photos.

Continue reading →

    Just a  reminder to set your clocks back an hour Saturday night — especially  if you're planning to go on the First Sunday walk this weekend.

    The DeKorte walk begins at 10 a.m., and birders arrive early enough as it is.

    Also mark your calendar:  Bergen County Audubon and the NJMC have added another Sunday walk in December:

Sunday, December 13, 10 a.m.
Bonus  Bird Walk with Bergen County Audubon Society
    This free two-hour walk starts at the entrance to  the Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus.  We’ll look for winter raptors, waterfowl and other birds in this 225-acre natural area. The Meadowlands Commission restored the site and opened it to the public in 2002. It is a great place to watch birds, take a walk, or just chill. To rsvp, contact Don Torino of the BCAS at greatauk4@aol.com or 201-636-4022.  Directions to Mill Creek Mall are available here; the marsh is on the north side of the mall.

    NJMC Naturalist Brett Bragin took this shot of a jet's contrails and a waxing crescent Moon last week.

    More on the Moon's phases here.

   The 5 p.m., Nov. 2,  deadline is just a week away for NJMC's Amateur Photography Contest, part of our 40th Anniversary Celebration. (Link to more information is here.)

   We now have the rules and the forms on one download. and the prize money is is sweet.

 We'd love to see your photographs!

  Download Web_contest_packet