Ray Duffy reports:

At 4 p.m.[Sunday] I headed to Mill Creek Point. I was able to track down a Saltmarsh Sparrow that had been reported by the Meadowlands Commission last week when they were searching for the Seaside Sparrow.

I also had a female bobolink in the marsh as well. Both birds were found from the Mill Creek Point side of the boardwalk before the first channel feeding the marsh.

It was high tide and I had quite a few peeps resting in the high marsh areas but didn't have my scope. A number of semipalmated plovers flew overhead as well.

Thanks, Ray!

Late last month, we photographed a young Peregrine Falcon in Carlstadt — and noticed a distinct band on its left leg.

Because it is a first-year bird, banding information was difficult but not impossible.

We contacted Barbara Loucks of the N.Y. State DEC, who responded: "This was one of three young from a nest site at the northern tip of Manhattan… [In early June] it went to a rehabber, where it was treated for frounce, and then released near its nest site on 6/10/11. Glad to hear it is doing well."

The distance between the nest and the spot where we saw it is roughly 9.5 miles. Frounce, by the way, is an infection of the digestive tract.

For more on Frounce, click here and then do a search for "Frounce."

Our third annual Kevin Karlson Shorebird Day is Saturday, Aug. 20, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Kevin is one of the nation's top nature photographers and author/co-author of several books, including "The Shorebird Guide" and "The Birds of Cape May."

All the programs are free, and include two guided walks, a birding ID seminar and a photography workshop with Kevin and Lloyd Spitalnik.

The day is sponsored by the N.J. Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society.

Details follow.

Continue reading →

During the month of August, the Meadowlands Commission is lowering the water levels in the Shorebird Pool at DeKorte whenever possible in order to provide daylong mudflats for migrating shorebirds.

The levels were recently lowered, and so far we have been getting plenty of peeps, Yellowlegs and Dowitchers.

If/When water levels are increased, it is because of concerns over dissolved oxygen levels.

We visited all three Osprey nests in the Meadowlands District earlier this week, and counted a total of 12 Ospreys.

 Four Ospreys were near the Kearny nest opposite Laurel Hill Park.

Two more were perched just to the south, on a power line just south of the Eastern Spur of the Turnpike on the west side of the Hackensack River.

They appeared to be working on a relatively new nest atop a nearby utility pole. (Left.)

A little work had been done at that site in the past year but nothing had become of it.

Two more were at their nest in Jersey City near the PSE&G Generating Plant. (Right.) 

The final four were near the nest Bloomberg Radio Station Towers in Carlstadt, and once again incredibly territorial — perhaps because we were on foot instead of a pontoon boat.

We kept our distance, but they still flew over us and shouted at us. (Above.)

As of 8 a.m. Sunday, we hope to have our 10 a.m. shorebird walk, even if we get some light rain.

Note: Lightning/thunder cancels. Here's the full info:

Sunday, August 7, 10 a.m.
First-Sunday-of-the-Month Nature Walk with the NJMC and BCAS
This free two-hour guided nature walk starts outside the Meadowlands Environment Center in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst. We’ll walk around the square-mile park, looking for migrating shorebirds, butterflies and various egrets and herons. The walk is run by the N.J. Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society. Check meadowblog.net for last-minute updates and weather advisories. 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 201-230-4983.

Directions to DeKorte are on the left-hand side of this blog.

The long-awaited repairs to DeKorte Park's Marsh Discovery Trail are in the works and should be here by year's end.

(The commission thanks everyone for their patience. No one is more eager than us for the trail to be open for its entire length again!)

Read The South Bergenite story on the repairs here.

Since this is the time of year when the peeps are arriving in great numbers,
we thought we would repost a couple of photos from last year about this  time, taken on the Marsh Discovery Trail.

The photo above is of a Semipalmated Sandpiper (left) and a Least Sandpiper (right).

The Semipalm gets its name for its partially webbed (semipalmated) toes.

See photo at left.

These were taken Aug. 5, 2010.

NJMC staffer Jim Wright, who keeps this blog, also writes a column every other Thursday for The South Bergenite. His latest, about a most unusual sign at DeKorte, is below:

   It might just be one of the strangest road signs in America. It’s located at DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst, and it only goes up once or twice a summer.

  The sign simply says, “Swallow Alert — Proceed with Caution.”

  That’s the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s way of warning drivers that the swallows are flying low in search of insects, and people should reduce their speed. We also post the sign on the Meadowlands Nature Blog, meadowblog.net, to let readers know in advance of coming to DeKorte.

  If you are a really savvy naturalist, you know the sign also means you should get out your raingear — but more on that later.

Rest of the column follows.

Continue reading →

We saw this Laughing Gull on the dock at the Red Roof Inn in Secaucus yesterday afternoon. Also had one at Harrier Meadow in North Arlington yesterday at lunch.

Ubiquitous in South Jersey, these gulls are seen far less frequently up here.