We just saw this Mourning Cloak fly into the Butterfly Bushes outside the Environment Center at DeKorte. This is the first one we've seen in the summer here. Had one in early April 2010, pretty beaten up.
Daily Archives: July 26, 2011
Birding Cruise: The Full List
With the help of Bergen Audubon's Denise Farrell, we have compiled a list seen by at least one boat of birders on our pontoon boat birding cruise last Tuesday.Hightlights included a Least Bittern and a Green Heron and the Ospreys.
Full list follows
Our Next Nature Walk (This Sunday) is a New Idea!
One of the goals of the partnership between the Meadowlands Commssion and Bergen County Audubon Society is to come up with programs that get families and children closer to nature.
To that end, this Sunday (July 31) we are holding our first annual Summer Bird Count for Families (and anyone who likes to look for birds).
We'll walk around the park and see how many species we can see — and how many of each species we can count. We'll try to have some "loaner" binoculars if you need to borrow a pair.
The low-keyed event is free. Full listing follows.
Sunday’s Peregrine — Did You Photograph It?
Several folks at Butterfly Day were lucky enough to get a few quick looks at a perched Peregrine Falcon.
We managed to take a few photos, including the one above. The bird is banded, and young.
While we go over our pix to see if we can read anything on the band, we wonder if anyone else was able to photograph the falcon.
Kathy Clark of New Jersey's Endangered and Threatened Species Program writes: "All the states are banding using the same protocol, and Eastern US states all use black/green bicolor band on the left leg.
"We would need a read of the alpha-numerics to ID this bird's origin. It could be from NYC …there are a lot of possibilities. I couldn't make out any characters, but if we can get even a partial read we may be able to narrow it down.
"Also, some states color the federal band: NJ's fed bands are black, VA's are green. Most states still have silver fed bands, but that sometimes helps narrow it."
Kathy says that because of the silver band on the right leg, "this time of year it's most likely to be a NY bird, but early fledglings are moving around already, so it could be a bird from PA or further north that has started south."
Tuesday Teaser 072611
What is this plant, found recently along the Transco Trail, and why is it being removed?