We had an amazing turnout for our Sunday Harrier Meadow Walk — birds and people. The full list — plus a Sunday list for DeKorte — is below, courtesy of Julie McCall. (Thanks, Julie!)
For the Harrier Meadow List, we added a few from Tom Beattie's list, including the Solitary Sandpiper above. Tom also reported Swallowtail and Cabbage White butterflies. (Thanks, Tom!)
Full lists follow.
NJMC Naturalist Mike Newhouse is banding birds near Harrier Meadow again as part of a larger research project, and that means we'll some new bird close-ups to share. Who is this dude? A huge clue and answer follow.
Don Torino of Bergen County Audubon Society reports: "Some 75 people participated in our special Sunday Harrier Meadow Walk.
"We had a wonderful time. Our youngest participant was 6 years old and she loved it, especially the nesting Tree Swallows. Among the highlights were: 20+ Greater Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Palm Warbler, Red-Tailed Hawks, nesting Tree Swallows, Snowy Egret, Gadwall, No. Shovelers,Red-Winged Blackbirds.
We 'll post the full list this week. (Thanks, Don and BCAS for leading the walk. Thanks to Marco Lips for taking photos, including the one above, and thanks to all who spent part of their Sunday in the Meadowlands.)
The Cruzados saw this Wild Turkey near their Donaldson Avenue home in Rutherford Thursday morning and passed along this photo by Ray Cruzado. (Thanks!)
Last year, a pair of ospreys had a successful nest in Kearny for the first time in the post-DDT era, and began New Jersey's Osprey Nest #042-A-002 — 
one of roughly 430 in New Jersey.
Following up on a report from Ray Duffy, we checked out the nest from Laurel Hill County Park earlier this week and found both ospreys on the nest (above).
They eventually flew off together and circled each other. One then headed off to Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area to look for lunch.
Links to earlier Kearny Osprey posts are here and here.
Link to the New Jersey Osprey Project is here.
After we got word that Common Ravens had been seen on Disposal Road
Bottom line: All appears well. We saw one raven on the nest (above). We know, it's a little to hard to see a raven in the shade, but we try…
The other raven was perched in the tree below the nest. It was kind enough to fly past — probably on its way to Disposal Road.
To top things off, we had a Peregrine Falcon (above left) fly overhead.
Neat place, that Laurel Hill.
Tomorrow: Kearny Osprey Update.
The bridge over the train tracks by Railroad Avenue (where else?) is undergoing repairs, and workers had to remove the (eggless) nests.
Thanks to Karen, the workers did put up two nesting platforms for the parakeets but they were not yet interested in moving in.
In fact the roughly two dozen parakeets were just hanging around the vicinity, apparently waiting for (and hoping for) the workers to finish. When that will be is unclear. (Stay tuned!)
Tomorrow: Laurel Hill Raven Update
This great little marsh in Ridgefield appears to have survived last month's tough weather and looks ready to explode with wildlife.We saw few birds, but that is rapidly changing.
Wednesday: Monk Parakeet Update
Want to see the legendary Harrier Meadow but haven't been able to attend one of the Bergen Audubon/Meadowlands Commission Tuesday morning walks?
Do we have a walk for you! By popular demand, we are having a Sunday Harrier Meadow walk this weekend.
The aerial view of Harrier Meadow above (shouldn't all aerial views be above?) was taken late last summer by the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute.
A blog post on that photography is here. More on MERI is here.
Details on the Sunday Harrier Meadow walk — and another Harrier Meadow walk on Tuesday, April 22 — are below.
Continue reading
We have been seeing these guys all over of late — from DeKorte Park to Schmidt’s Woods in Secaucus to Losen Slote Park in Little Ferry.
What are they?