The Meadowlands Commission's next free nature walk with Bergen County Audubon is Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 10 a.m. at DeKorte Park. We'll look for newly arrived White-crowned Sparrows and new waterfowl (like these two Pintails above, photographed on Oct. 21, 2008, at DeKorte), plus any lingering shorebirds and a raptor or two.

We also have a free bonus walk on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 10 a.m. at Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus. The marsh is especially beautiful this time of year.

Details on both walks follow.

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A Clay-colored Sparrow was reported at DeKorte behind the McDowell Observatory on eBird yesterday, and two were banded yesterday at the nearby Harrier Meadow/Erie landfill banding station.

A photo of one of the banded CC Sparrow is above.

More on the bird here.

Ron Shields took this shot of a small raptor at Kearny Marsh on Sunday morning.

Although an initial ID leaned toward Cooper's or Sharpie, we are thinking it's a Merlin. (We are also well aware that IDs of perched raptors can be challenging.)

Anyone else? (Thanks, Ron!)

Ron also took the photo of a Rusty Blackbird (below) at the same location on Sunday morning.

More on Merlins here.

More on Rusty Blackbirds here.

Robert Gill got this shot of a Redtail on the north side of Disposal Road last Friday evening. (Thanks, Robert!)

   This is the view of DeKorte park from the former Erie Landfill. Disposal Road and the AMVETS Carillon are on left. DeKorte todal impoundments, including Teal Pool are in middle of photo. Photo was taken last week.

Saw this guy at the Kearny Marsh at the beginning of this month. Who is it?

Click here for answer and more info.

When a Grasshopper lands on your windshield, you pull over and stop your vehicle, and then reach for your camera.

We spent our lunch hour on the side of a closed North Arlington landfill on Thursday, and so did this American Kestrel.

Our lunch was forgettable, but the kestrel's …  the falcon dined on a delicacy, in flight.

As the bird first came into view, we could see that it had something in its talons. We were so busy trying to photograph the bird that we did not make out what it was carrying.

It was only we downloaded the photos that we saw the meal  — a Praying Mantis.

Like humans, kestrels sometimes need to eat lunch on the fly. 

We saw this Wilson's Snipe earlier this week in North Arlington. We detected a little motion and discovered this fellow.

We have been trying to photograph one for the blog for more than a year. Sometimes you just get lucky.

More on Wilson's Snipes — and why they are no longer called Common Snipes — here.

John Soltes of The Leader did a bang-up job on an article about the growing problem of people releasing/abandoning pets in the Meadowlands. Story is in the latest edition. Link is here.