Marco Lips had an amazing weekend at DeKorte. He reports:

Saturday must have been my most productive an exciting birding day in my very short birding career…

Started at the Carillon Saturday morning at around ten, saw Northern Harriers, but also the Rough-legged, and Grey Ghost do a fly-by, and from here about a mile away on a mast a Peregrine all the way on top of the mast, through a scope from a friendly fellow Audubon birder Frank. It is always nice to meet nice people in the park with scopes. 🙂

Right above the fence of the retention pool a Brown Creeper put on a show.

 In the little patch of "dried pods" alongside the road there (in the turn) Song Sparrows, White-Throated Sparrows and a Tree Sparrow were shaking the pods successfully loosening seeds, such smart birds.

Midway Disposal Road we saw a Harrier scare a Pheasant (left) close to the top of the hill.

More text and pics follow. (Thanks, Marco!)

Continue reading →

Taken on the way home earlier this week.

The William D. McDowell Observatory in DeKorte Park begins a month of programming tonight with free public access at 7, 8 and 9 p.m. — weather permitting, of course.

Dress for the weather; with the dome open, you are basically outside.

Each evening at least two major objects in the night sky will be viewed, plus one or two other celestial objects or events depending on the observing conditions.

For more information about free public viewing nights, click here.

For a South Bergenite column by the NJMC's Jim Wright about the observatory, click here.

The answer to yesterday's teaser: Old Crow on ice. 

A Google search shows that we have been beaten to the punch(line). Link is here.

In honor of Groundhog’s Day today, here’s a video we more than two years, before the blog was really up and running.

The one-minute video features a woodchuck looking out of its den on a path in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst, when Junior butts in. (Best played with audio on.)

For more information on this abundant Meadowlands mammal, click here.

    Note: We realize that it is a bad idea to take hang out in front of birds’ nests or mammals’ dens in an effort to get a family portrait. The animals feel threatened and cannot escape.   For this video, we used a trick we learned minutes earlier from a professional cameraman: You put the video-cam on a tripod not too far from entrance, hit “record,” and walk away.    Later on, you come back, retrieve the camera  and see what you caught on video. :- )

To see what might be in store for this month,we thought we'd look back to last year. Here are some highlights from February 2010 (but don't be thinking too hard about a shrike returning):

Feb.5: White-crowned Sparrows: Easy To Find

Feb. 14: Great Backyard Bird Count Walk

Feb. 19: Audio recordings of Northern Shrike

Feb. 19: Mandarin Duck, Monk Parakeets, Gray Ghost

Feb. 25: Cross-country Skiing at DeKorte

Feb. 26: DeKorte after a Heavy Snow

Shot late last month at Mill Creek. 

Name the drink.