Daily Archives: December 22, 2009

Disposal Road Shrike Continues…

IMG_3793       We had the Northern Shrike at 10:50 this morning — great views by the retention pond across Disposal Road from the Carillon.

  We were in a vehicle across the road from the retention pond, and the bird flew in and perched in the tree above for about 30 seconds (above).

   IMG_3824 It then hung out on a nearby strand of barbed wire, dipped down into the tree behind the barbed wire, then flew  across the pond and disappeared from view. We also had a male Northern Harrier fly overhead almost simultaneously.

    If you are planning to look for the shrike, birding from your vehicle does not seem to be a bad approach. You are out of the wind, and the bird seems oblivious to vehicles.

   This is the 10th day out of the past 12 that the bird has been seen.

   Click "Continue reading …" for more shrike shots from this morning, including a "locating the bird" shot and a neat tailfeathers shot.

   Scroll down the blog for earlier Shrike posts.

Continue reading

2009, A Look Back: March

IMG_2398-1      The year 2009 marked the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission's 40th anniversary and a major expansion of our nature programs. We thought we'd celebrate by looking back at 2009, month by month.

   Here are some highlights from March 2009:

   March 2: Monk Parakeet Video

   March 6: Of Redtails and Redwings

   March 12: The Killdeer Are Back

   March 13: First Great Egret of the Year

   March 23: K Rations