Mike Maddaloni, who specializes in Meadowlands sunset photos, writes:
I don't know if you caught the sky last night, but it was SPECTACULAR. I was running from lot to lot trying to get the best vantage point of it.
The sky was a deep red with a velvet effect, haven't seen it like this for years.
Usually I don't like to get the power lines in the shot but the sky changed in mere seconds by the time I got further out.
Thanks, Mike! We will post more of his scintillating sunset shots next week.
Mike Girone writes:
Ron Shields and I were out and about in the Meadowlands Friday afternoon & early evening. Kearny & Mill Creek Marshes were both quiet.
Disposal Road saved the day, delivering some awesome late-day action (in addition to the possible immature Little Blue Heron in the retention pond earlier in the afternoon).
More info and pix follow. (We’ll post another Peregrine/Kestrel encounter tomorrow.)
Ron Shields took these amazing shots of a Least Bittern feeding one of its young in the Shorebird Pool at DeKorte Park last week. (Thanks, Ron!)
Our next walk is tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10 a.m. in the legendary Harrier Meadow in North Arlington.
The 70-acre site — usually off limits to the public — features ponds and tidal impoundments and shorebirds aplenty. Lots of butterflies and dragonflies, too. A young Little Blue Heron and a Pied-billed Grebe were seen there last week, but if things are slow we may head over to DeKorte Park and check the Marsh Discovery Trail for neat stuff.
Full listing follows.
John Beetham reported on JerseyBirds that yesterday morning he "saw two of the immature Least Bitterns in their usual spot at the start of the Marsh Discovery Trail. Neither of them was very easy to see.
"The Tricolored Heron was also present, working a shallow area at the far end of the East Shorebird Pool.
"The water levels are high, but there are still about 500 Semipalmated Sandpipers and a good number of yellowlegs in the shorebird pools."
(Thanks, John!)
Batstock is almost here again! 
Beginning Friday, Aug. 24, the three-day event will feature live music, bat movie viewings, artesian bat works, live-bat presentations, and a night bat-walk hosted by Joe D’Angeli.
The first event is next Friday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Meadowlands Environment Center in DeKorte Park, Lyndhurst: The Meet–A—Bat & Bat Movie night Fund-raiser.
Enjoy beverages, snacks, and the company of these friendly, incredibly important night-flying mammals. A $5 donation is requested. For more information on this event and other Batstock events, visit njbatman.com.
In Secaucus, Ray Duffy reports: At Schmidt's Woods this morning, I had a male Blue-winged Warbler, female/immature Chestnut-sided Warbler and a yellow American Redstart in the woods. (Thanks, Ray!)
In DeKorte's Shorebird Pool this morning, Least Bitterns were seen early. No word of the Tricolored Heron. Plenty of Forster's Terns, Great and snowy Egrets and Semiplamated Sandpipers.
We finally have tallies through July for the folks involved in the Meadowlands Big Year competition. Sorry for the delay.Congrats to all for competing. We hope you are having fun close to home, and we hope you are seeing new species again now that the fall migration is in full swing.
If you're name's not on the list, please e-mail Jim Wright at jim.wright (at) njmeadowlands.gov. It's not too late to participate!
The leader board as of July 31 follows below (just to heighten the suspense). Also posting the standings as of June 30 below…
Greg Gard captured this video of a Least Bittern in the Shorebird Pool.
(Thanks, Greg!)
The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission to pleased to announce the upcoming publication of "The Nature of the Meadowlands," an amazing coffee-table book that celebrates the environmental comeback of this amazing place.
With a foreword by N.J. Governor Thomas H. Kean, the lavishly illustrated, 128-page book illuminates the region's natural and unnatural history — from its darkest days of a half-century ago to its environmental revival.
It also celebrates the amazing landscapes and parks to be found here, including DeKorte Park, Kearny Marsh and Secaucus’s Laurel Hill.
And it features some pretty cool images, from including present-day nature and landscape photography to pictures of an old Secaucus pig farm, a "Sopranos" landmark, a Harp Seal in Carlstadt, an Eastern Coyote on a Meadowlands landfill, and rare Laurel Hill minerals.
More information follows.