In mid-July at the Clay Avenue wetlands in Lyndhurst, birder Chris Takacs saw a distant Semipalmated Sandpiper with a brightly colored tag on its wing.

Chris trained his spotting scope on the bird and jotted down the number. When he got home, he reported his sighting to http://www.bandedbirds.org/

Later in the month, he got word that the bird was tagged 18 months earlier in French Guiana, South America.

As it turns out, that bird had been tagged down there by a fellow New Jerseyan, David Mizrahi,vice president of research and monitoring for the New Jersey Audubon Society. Small world — especially if you are a migrating shorebird. Or not. French Guiana is 2800 miles away.

We had been hoping to see one of these little B-52 Bombers at DeKorte, and finally saw one on Thursday. It was buzzing around the side of the Environment Center by the drinking fountain, then flying into a gap in the wall.

The Cicada Killer Wasps are aptly named — not only do they kill Cicadas, but a female will lay an egg on a paralyzed Cicada. When the egg hatches, the grub lives off the dead Cicada. Yum.

More on Cicada Killers here.

Sorry for not getting a better photo above (it doesn't give you any idea of how big this thing is), but this Cicada Killer must have just had a Starbucks coffee — it simply would not sit still.  We have looked for it since then, with no luck, but we will keep our eyes out.

We realize that a lot of people with grassy lawns are not big fans of these insects, but they are amazing bugs.