The NJMC's Jim Wright, who keeps this blog, is giving a free talk and slide show on a brief history of birds in the Meadowlands on Tuesday, July 31, at 2 p.m.

The event will be held in the Meadowlands Environment Center auditorium in DeKorte Park.

Topics will include Meadowlands birds that have made remarkable comebacks, gone extinct or rebounded in a most unexpected way.

The slide show will include a mix of archival images and recent Meadowlands nature photography.

Wright is the author of the upcoming coffee-table book, "The Nature of the Meadowlands," to be published by Schiffer Books this fall.

The talk, part of the MEC's summer senior programming, is open to all.

For more information or to rsvp, call (201) 777-2431 or (201) 460-8300.

Just in time for Butterfly Day at DeKorte Park on Sunday, we have seen nifty but tiny new-for-the-year butterflies here this week. Can you ID them?

We had two full pontoon boats yesterday morning for our birding by boat cruise — and lots of good looks at Yellow-crowned Night Herons,  Diamondback Terrapins, and Ospreys and Osprey nests.

The event was brought to you by the NJ Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society. Next "Birding by Boat" is Tuesday, Aug. 28!

Full list and more pix (including baby Osprey in nest) from Tuesday  follow.

Continue reading →

Ray Duffy writes: "I was looking at one of my pics of a male Indigo Bunting on Valley Brook and I noticed it was wearing a leg band.  I wonder if it's one of yours, Mike [Newhouse, who haeds the bird-banding project for the Meadowlands Commission]."

Replies Mike, "Most likely."

And there you have it…

Regina Geoghan reports: "Yay - finally saw an American Lady at the butterfly garden Monday.  Thought it was Painted Lady until I downloaded photo and checked my book." (Thanks, Regina!)

Today is the 16th anniversary of the last flight of TWA Flight 800, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on July 17, 1996.

One of the crew members on that flight was a young Rutherford resident named Jill Ann Ziemkiewicz, for whom DeKorte Park’s beautiful butterfly garden is named.

The South Bergenite ran a column about the butterfly garden two years. The link is here.

Since then, the butterfly garden has been redone, and we’d like to think it is more beautiful than ever.

In honor of Butterfly Day this Sunday, we thought we'd offer this beauty, taken late last week at Jill's Garden at DeKorte. What is it?

We did a quick walk on the Marsh Discovery Trail n this a.m. to see if Dennis the Menace, the aggressive Red-winged Blackbird, was still defending his nesting area.

He is.  If you hear a male Red-winge Blackbird calling at you — typically a single note, repeated — don't dawdle. He is only doing his job.

(He is less aggressive if more than one person is there.)

(Thanks to Dennis Cheeseman for the photo; no relation.)

Ron Shields writes:

Now you see him (the fly on the branch).

Now you don't!  A young spotted sandpiper learns how to hunt for supper.

Don Torino's latest column for wildnewjersey.tv is on Butterfly Day — this Sunday, July 22, at DeKorte Park.

Writes Don:

The link is here.