A Meadowlands photo by Patrick Carney, a contributor to this blog, is one of 100 selected by Audubon Magazine as one of the best of 2012.
The winning photo, above, is of a Black-and-white Warbler in DeKorte Park.
Patrick is in some great company. A link to all the photos is here.
Just saw a distant dark-morph 
Rough-legged Hawk (photo at right is for ID purposes; Ron Shields or Frank Costeira may have better shots to post later — it was pretty far up and away) above Disposal Road in the area of the Amvets Carillon.
Also: More than 100 Am. Pipits, a Gray Ghost (below), other No. Harriers, Am. Kestrels, Red-tail, and many Am. Tree Sparrows.
Will Test just sent us a few (light-morph) Rough-legged Hawk pix from yesterday — taken at 8 a.m. on Disposal Road. (Thanks, Will!)
Two shots of the hawk perched follow.
The William D. McDowell Observatory 
in DeKorte Park begins a new month of programming Wednesday night (Jan. 3). The observatory is closed tonight, New Year's Eve.
Free public access is from 7 to 10 on Monday and Wednesday nights this month — weather permitting, of course.
Dress for the weather; with the dome open, you are basically outside.
Each evening at least two major objects in the night sky will be viewed, plus one or two other celestial objects or events depending on the observing conditions.
For more information about free public viewing nights and to check out the observatory's website, click here.
For a South Bergenite column by the NJMC's Jim Wright about the observatory, click here.
Greg Grad writes:
"Sunday, was one of those days that required a lot of time and patience to find birds on Disposal Rod. Despite the cold and windy weather time spent at the park was definitely worth the effort.
"Highlights for me were large numbers of American Pipits and Horned Larks. I saw also a flock of Snow Buntings, a Snow Goose flying over the Kingsland Landfill with a flock of Canada Geese, Gray Ghost, and two successful attacks on A. Pipits by American Kestrel.
"Day ended with a report of the Rough-legged Hawk, seen by Ray, Chris and Ron."
(Thanks, Greg!)
The year 2012 in the Meadowlands marked the opening of River Barge Park in Carlstadt, Butterfly Day and Moth Night, lots of great nature sightings, our continued partnership with Bergen County Audubon Society, and (alas) Hurricane Sandy.
We thought we'd remember 2012 by looking back, month by month.
Here are some highlights from this month (click on the text to link to the post):
Dec. 3: Redpolls at Losen Slote (Photos by Brandon Caswell)
Dec. 7: Column — Our Salute to Volunteers
Dec. 14: More Eerie Meadowlands Finds (right)
Dec. 14: Disposal Road Great Horned Owl (photo by Ron Shields)
Dec. 16: Some Nifty Losen Slote Bird Pix (by Roy Woodford, above)