Yesterday's Teaser was a mystery raptor — revealed here as a Cooper's Hawk.

We had not seen this guy in a while, until last month, when he started birding the Kingsland Overlook in search of early migrants.

Cooper's Hawks like that area for hunting.

On Monday, we caught a glimpse of an Osprey hovering over the Shorebird Pool at DeKorte Park, and when we saw it was about to go into a dive to catch a fish, we ran to the water's edge and took photos of the bird leaving the water with a fish in one of its talons.

When we got back to the office, we learned that Dennis Cheeseman had also seen the osprey and  photographed it from afar as it went into its dive and hit the water.

A few hours later, Paula Dias e-mailed us to say that she had photographed an Osprey at DeKorte flying off with its lunch.

We decided to put a slide show together with the three photographers' photos in sequence, and then post it to YouTube. You can see the result above. (Click the lower right-hand corner for a full-screen view.) Music is by Kevin MacLeod. Thanks to all!

Addendum: We are told the former fish is probably a White Perch.

The third installment of Bergen Country Audubon Society's Birding for Beginners classes is this Sunday at DeKorte Park at 1 p.m.

Last Sunday we had 50 people at the Visitor Center inside the Environment Center to learn all about binoculars for bird-watching, followed by 90 minutes of watching Ospreys, Redtails and other birds.  (See the photo by Myke Mazone above. Thanks, Myke!)

Details on this Sunday's class and walk follow.

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Who is this raptor, seen outside the Meadowlands Environment Center last month?

Answer tomorrow.

The Meadowlands Commission has announced a revised schedule for its 2011 pontoon boat tours of the Hackensack River and adjacent marshes. Several dates have been amended.

Download the information/registration form with schedule here:

Download Pontoon RegistrationLR

Don Torino, who leads so many of the walks that the Meadowlands Commission does with Bergen County Audubon Society, has a new column on wildnewjersey.tv about putting up tree swallow boxes at Skeetkill Creek Marsh in Ridgefield last month.

Writes Don: "In a matter of a few hours, 34 brand new nest boxes were put up for the returning Tree Swallows. Like some kind eco-friendly bird condominium project, they stood in the marsh waiting and ready.

"Life will be renewed this spring. The bayberry will turn green, the Red-Winged Blackbirds and Killdeer sounds will fill the marsh, and the Tree Swallows will come back and have a place to raise their young.

"Being out in the marsh on that beautiful day helped us renew our lives a bit. That’s what nature does."

The link is here.

More on Skeetkill Creek Marsh here.

We pass along the following from the state DEP's Endangered and Non-game Species Program:

The American Kestrel, a once-common inhabitant of fallow fields and pastures has declined in recent years, and the reasons are largely unknown.

The Endangered and Nongame Species Program embarked on a survey campaign in 2004, and the findings were alarming.

Please report your sightings of this bird, especially in the breeding season (April – July) using the Sighting Report Form, here.

The second part of our three-part "Birding for Beginners" is this Sunday at 1 p.m. at DeKorte. Here's the poop:

Sunday, April 10, 1 p.m.
Birding for Beginners
This free two-hour Birding for Beginners class starts with a short session on birding basics at the Meadowlands Environment Center in Lyndhurst at 1 p.m., followed by a 90-minute walk in surrounding DeKorte Park. We’ll look for swallows, killdeer, waterfowl and other birds. The event is run the Bergen County Audubon Society and hosted by the N.J. Meadowlands Commission. Check meadowblog.net for last-minute weather updates. You will have to sign a standard liability release for this event. To rsvp, contact Don Torino of the BCAS at greatauk4@aol.com or 201-636-4022.

To see what might be in store in the Meadowlands this month, we thought we'd look back at highlights from last April:

April 9: Kearny's Osprey Nest Back in Business

April 14: About Those Midges

April 20: Bald Eagle W/Transmitter

April 22: Good News on Earth Day

April 27: Best Tuesday Teaser Ever

April 29: Forster's Fest (above)

The answer to Tuesday's teaser is a Sunspotter, a gizmo that enables you to look at the sun without going blind.

This from the NASA website:

Care must be taken with telescopes and binoculars that students do not look directly at the Sun.

Even though students are directed to project the image on paper and trace the image, some students do not follow directions or get curious.

The "Sunspotter" by Learning Technologies and the "Solarscope" by Solarscope provide easy and very safe sunspot viewing. The designs prevent students from looking directly at the Sun and make tracing the projected image fairly easy.

Some instruments have special filters that allow for direct viewing. There are a number of good "white light" solar filters on the market that will allow you to safely look directly through a telescope at the Sun.

These filters can be found advertised in Sky and Telescope or Astronomy magazines. Coronadofilter carries telescopes and an inexpensive binocular with a solar filter (the BINOMITE).