Yesterday, we asked readers to tell us what these odds ducks were.
We think the duck above is a Mallard/Black Duck hybird. And the ducks below are just plain Mallards. (thanks to those who responded correctly, and thanks to Stephen Buckingham for sending in the pix!)
Don Torino, who leads many of the Meadowlands Commission’s walks with the Bergen County Audubon Society, has a new post on wildnewjersey.tv, about the imminent arrival of warblers. (That’s a Palm warbler above; not the twitching tail.)
Don writes: “I pulled up to my local gas station the other day with the call of the Black-and-white Warbler playing on my car CD player. The attendant looked around and asked me if I wanted him to check my fan belt. ‘No thanks, just a squeaky warbler, I said. ‘It’s under warranty.’ Good thing I didn’t have the American Bittern playing or he would have called a tow truck.
“By the time the leaves are on the trees most warbler watching becomes warbler listening. The tiny little marvels can be far up in the canopy or tucked into heavy cover.
“The only way to identify them is by learning their calls. And just so you don’t feel overwhelmed, try to learn just a few calls at a time. If you try to remember all of them, you won’t recall any when you get out into the field. You still have time to begin your warbler call schooling so put those Bruce Springsteen CDs away for a while and get your warbler songs playing.”
The link is here.
Somehow, this Eastern Phoebe eluded us on our walk yesterday, but it could not elude the lightning lens of Dennis Cheeseman.
(Thanks, Dennis!)
The fog lifted just in time for our Third-Tuesday of the month walk with Bergen County Audubon, and the 30 participants
were treated to several great birds, including Red-breasted Mergansers (in the scope), an Orange-crowned Warbler in the Lyndhurst Nature Reserve, and a trio of Belted Kingfishers hot-rodding around the Shorebird Pool.
In all, we had 38 species, not exactly chopped liver.
Thank you to all who attended. It was a terrific morning!
Full list and a couple more pix follow.
The painting by Adriaen Coorte above, according to an advertisement on the back page of the Business section of The New York Times today (Tuesday), sold at auction for more than $3 million, and features a butterfy ID'd as a Red Admiral.
We get a lot of Red Admirals in the Meadowlands, and this isn't one of them. But we also get this butterfly. What is it?
(The website for the auctioneer, Bonhams, IDs the butterfly correctly.)
Answer tomorrow.
Stephen Buckingham sent in a pair of pix of odd ducks at DeKorte.
What do you think they are? (Thanks, Stephen!)
Another view of the above duck in flight, by Patrick Carney, appears on the jump. (Thanks, Patrick!)
Wanted to give you a heads-up that if you have e-mailed this blog in the past few days, you message did not arrive yet. The problem is still being resolved. We will try to reply when we are back up and running. Thank you for your patience.
Did a quick loop along the Marsh Discovery Trail at lunch. Lots of Spring arrivals, most notably Tree Swallows everywhere. Also heard Greater Yellowlegs and Killdeer, and saw a Great Egret.
Many varieties of ducks still here, though did not see the Canvasbacks (low tide).
Hope you can make the walk at 10 a.m. Tuesday at DeKorte.
Full list follows.
Did we mention that DeKorte is beautiful this time of year?
Full listing follows.
A big thanks to all those who participated in Thursday night's Woodcock Walk at Laurel Hill County Park — sorry the weather turned so cool!
The good news is that we saw/heard our target birds. We saw the Common Ravens fly to their nest, and we heard multiple American Woodcocks peenting (and doing their courtship flights) — and we saw 15+ Black Crowned Night Herons leaving their roost at dusk, as well as several late-flying Great Egrets.
In all, we counted 31 species. Full list follows.