For the second day in a row, an adult Little Blue Heron has been seen at Harrier Meadow in North Arlington.
Also seen today: a Blue-winged Teal drake and a Green Heron.
Harrier Meadow is closed to the public and trespassing is prohibited.
If you are interested in looking for any of these birds, the NJMC's Jim Wright can take you there on his lunch hour. You must sign a standard release…
E-mail Jim here.
We had a hot but productive First Sunday of the Month walk at Laurel Hill County Park on Sunday, starring a family of Common Ravens high on the cliff.
Non-avian species included a FOY Green Darner Dragonfly and three butterfly species — Black Swallowtail, Cabbage White and Common Sootywing.
Full report follows.
If you know of any bat roosts in the Meadowlands, please read this post. Conservationists need your help.
MacKenzie Hall of the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of New Jersey writes:
Information from citizen scientists is just as important this year, whether the bats at your roost site have increased, decreased, or disappeared altogether.
More information follows.
If you look north from the southern edge of the Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area, you can still see the remains of an old White-Cedar forest, where — legend has it — pirates used to hide after raiding boats in New York Harbor.
The NJMC’s Angelo Urato took the above photo last week.
The forest was burned in the late 1700s-early 1800s (depending on which source you consult) in an effort to drive out the pirates.
Julie McCall writes:
Decided to have an abbreviated birding outing in between rain cycles [Monday]. Went out to DeKorte Park and Disposal Road for about two hours, noon till 2 p.m.). There was a lot of activity! Full list at the end.
I mostly focused on the Lyndhurst Nature Reserve and the Kingsland Overlook.
Highlights and full list follow. (Thanks, Julie!)
The bird-banding totals for April for the closed Erie Landfill in North Arlington are in:
Total Banded – 186
Number of Species – 24.
The lower-than-expected totals are the result of the inordinate number of windy and/or rainy days. (Above, a Northern Flicker being banded.)
NJMC naturalist Mike Newhouse and his volunteers band birds in the spring and autumn as part of a research project to see how birds use landfills during migration.
The Meadowlands Commission is especially interested in creating new habitat for endangered and threatened species.
Full list below.
We saw this tree — knocked down by a recent storm but in bloom — toward the very end of the Transco Trail in DeKorte Park. You can see it all over the Meadowlands these days. What is it?
Answer on the jump.
Ron Shields took this amazing Common Moorhen shot at the Kearny Marsh while kayaking yesterday. (Thanks, Ron!)
The N.J. Meadowlands Commission is pleased to announce that we will soon go to press with a new all-color pamphlet on the Butterflies of "DeKorte Park."
We hope to have them available by Memorial Day. The free pamphlet, aimed at beginning butterflies, features photos of 18 butterfly species and two moth species — all photographed at DeKorte and nearby environs.
The pamphlet honors Jill Ann Ziemkiewicz, the Rutherford resident for whom DeKorte's butterfly garden is named. The 23-year-old lost her life as a member of the crew of TWA Flight 800, which crashed into the Atlantic in July 1996.
