Next week, the NJMC is hosting two events in Ridgefield.

    On Monday, Oct. 19, the NJMC's Jim Wright is giving a free talk and slide show, "The Meadowlands: Past, Present and Future," at 7 p.m. at the Ridgefield Public Library. The show features great archival photographs as well as amazing nature photography – including images taken in Ridgefield.  The show will run approximately one hour, including a question-and-answer session.

     The library is at 527 Morse Ave., Ridgefield,  (201) 941-0192. Click here for directions.

     On Tuesday,  Oct. 20, our free Third-Tuesday-of-the month Bird Walk with Bergen County Audubon Society starts at the Ridgefield Environment Center in Ridgefield and runs from 10 a.m. to noon. After a walk around the nature center, we will drive to Skeetkill Creek Marsh (above) to do some more birding. Along the way, we will stop to see how the Ridgefield Monk Parakeets are doing on Railroad Avenue. 

   To rsvp for the walk, contact Don Torino of the BCAS at greatauk4@aol.com or 201-636-4022.

   Click here for earlier posts on Ridgefield, the Monk parakeets and the Nature Center.

   Click here  for directions to the nature center. The nature center is on Shaler Boulevard just to the south of Ray Avenue.

   Saw the above migrating Monarch in (of all places) the DeKorte Butterfly Garden Tuesday. Also had nine Cabbage Whites and a Clouded Sulphur. Aside from the Cabbage Whites, butterfly activity has really fallen off with the cooler weather.

Exhibit A

   Click "Continue reading … " for Exhibit B. Viewer discretion advised.

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   Birder Ray Duffy reports: " I visited Laurel Hill Thursday evening around 5 p.m.  I walked the waterfront path behind the Xchange Place complex. With a spotting scope, I saw a Pied-billed Grebe and a Clapper Rail across the Hackensack River in the Saw Mill Creek Area a. 

   "Other notables included Savannah Sparrows, 3 White-throated Sparrows, Palm Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Common Yellowthroat and 8 Killdeer.

   We got this guy on our "First Sunday" walk at DeKorte Park this week.

   We are thinking this is a Yellow Bear Caterpillar — not to be confused with a Woolly Bear Caterpillar, which, according to folk lore,  can be used to predict how cold the winter will be.

     Water levels are still historically low in the main impoundment at DeKorte, but the maintenance work is almost over and there is a need to bring water back in to rehydrate the mud, flush the impoundment, replenish the fish population, and (soon) bring water levels up for the wintering ducks.

    Water levels should be low throughout the weekend, though,  and we still have plenty of shorebirds around — including this Black-bellied Plover and six of his buddies.

   We saw him toward the end of the Transco Trail, near the Turnpike. Smaller photo shows his "black armpit," a good diagnostic. We took these photos Thursday.

   We also have plenty of Semipalmated Plovers, a Semipalmated Sandpiper or two, and a Pectoral Sandpiper or two — in addition the dozens of egrets and gulls and yellowlegs. Also seen: Green-winged Teal, Ruddies, Black-crowned Night Herons.

   If breeze is strong , the birds tend to be hunkered down in the back. Best viewing is from blind on the Marsh Discovery Trail, second-closest to the Transco Trail.

   The last reported Sora was last Sunday but they could still be around. Ditto the Least Bittern.

     This guy is hanging out with a bunch of Semipalmated Plovers and a Pectoral Sandpiper on the rocky beach along the Transco Trail.

    If anyone can help ID this guy, please e-mail Jim Wright.

    NJMC naturalist Mike Newhouse and a small bunch of great volunteers have been busy banding birds on or near the closed Erie Landfill as part of a larger research project aimed at creating  more habitat for threatened and endangered avian species.

   One of the stars of September: the threatened Savannah Sparrow (above). More than 150 were banded last month. We also banded 50 Indigo Buntings.

   Many of our Tuesday Teaser close-up photos were taken of these banded birds.

   Click here for previous blog posts on bird banding.

   Click "Continue reading…" for the entire list.

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    We have had nearly a dozen Semipalmated Plovers along the rocky beach on the Transco Trail in DeKorte Park in recent days.

    Not only are they beautiful little birds, but they don't seem to mind humans much.  

    When we were looking at some shots we took of the little guys this week, we realized that some of the shots actually showed the "semipalmated" part of the plover.

   More on Semipalmated Plovers here.

  More on the term "semipalmated" here.

  More on pronouncing "Plover" here and here. (Glad we got that settled.)