DeKorte Park, 1 p.m., Thursday.
     Last year, by our unscientific count, the first one bloomed on June 15. Link is here.

 
    Dennis Cheeseman got this shot of a Cedar Waxwing earlier this week where the Transco Trail meets the Lyndhurst Nature Reserve in DeKorte Park. (Thanks, Dennis!)

   Lyndhurst and North Arlington are getting an influx of nifty bugs called Black Saddlebags Dragonflies (cool name!).
   The shot above was taken at Harrier Meadow yesterday afternoon, but the dragonflies have been seen in numbers at DeKorte Park as well this week.
   In fact, we hope to see a few on the midday guided walk on the marsh Discovery Trail today.   
   The real trick is to get them to sit still long enough for a photo.

   More on Black Saddlebags Dragonflies here.

Ron Shields took a bunch of great shots over the weekend at the Kearny Marsh, including the bittern at left and  the Common Moorhens above.

Shots of a Green Heron and a dragonfly follow. (Thanks, Ron!)

Continue reading →

  John Soltes, editor-in-chief of The Leader, wrote a great story on the bird-banding efforts of the Meadowlands Commission.
   Here's the opening:

   #2610-14799.
   This traill’s flycatcher of undetermined gender weighs 16 grams, is 71 mm in length and was most likely hatched a couple of years ago. The fair colors of its plumage belie an avian normalcy — to the untrained eye, it looks like just another bird in the sky.
   But this winged creature, which calls the Meadowlands home for at least part of the year, is different. On the right leg of this flycatcher, who is smaller than the palm of one’s hand, is a little silver-colored metal band displaying its new name: 2610-14799.
   Looking like a person on probation sporting an ankle bracelet, this bird is part of a larger community of 8,000 friends who have been banded by the field specialists at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission, the state agency that has zoning rights over the wetlands in the area.

  Read the full story here.
  Soltes also wrote a great story earlier this year about Harrier Meadow. Link is here.