The Meadowlands Commission and Bergen County Audubon Society are conducting two more Harrier Meadow cleanups this month — this Saturday, Dec. 8 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and Sunday, Dec. 30, from 10 a.m. to noon.

In the four cleanups thus far, we have had a combined total of 127 volunteers contributing 254 hours. Your efforts have helped to reopen Mill Creek Marsh’s trail system and parts of DeKorte Park.  Thank you!

More information on Harrier Meadow is here.

Info on this Saturday's cleanup follows.

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Considering the poor visibility, we had some amazing bird totals during our abbreviated Disposal Road walk and DeKorte park cleanup last Sunday.

We had a combined total of 39 species at the two locations, and we can only guess that we would have eclipsed the century mark if visibility had been better.

The Red-tail at left won the pole position in Sunday's most-conspicuous raptor contest.

Full list follows. (Thanks to Julie McCall and Denise Farrell!)

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For some reason, people really enjoy finding weird stuff on our cleanups — kind of remind some of us of the old days of the Meadowlands. Yes, we washed our hands thoroughly after photographing them.

Here's the link to an earlier batch. (Speaking of which, we tried to read the message in the bottle. It was some preprinted notice about NJ Transit service — not anything to do with, say, a deserted island.)

Two more pix follow.

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Brandon Caswell writes:

"I saw this sparrow with a bunch of Tree and Savannah Sparrows late last month by those old ball fields about a quarter mile before you get to the train tracks/main entrance to DeKorte.

"The way it was hanging on the grass stem really stood out to me.  The call was unfamiliar to me.  I thought it was a marsh wren at first."

We have a couple of theories on ID. What do you think? (Thanks, Brandon!)

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Brandon Caswell reported Common Redpolls at Losen Slote late last week — "Just past that super mess of fallen trees, further back, the birch trees start, flying between stands of birch with Am. Goldfinches feeding." 

(Thanks, Brandon — sorry for the tardy post, things have been a bit hectic!)

We had an amazingly good turnout for our Disposal Road walk on Sunday — especially since visibility was somewhere between consomme and pea soup.

We'll try to post a list later in the week — including birds we saw on Sunday's cleanup in DeKorte Park as well.

Bird pictured at left, from Sunday's Mr. Magoo Disposal Road walk, is thought to be an American Kestrel.

A big thank you to all who participated in either or both of Sunday's events sponsored by the Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society.

Photo of Shoveler from the cleanup follows.

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Another big thank you to the folks who helped out at Sunday's cleanup. We had 30 people sprucing up the park and getting it ready for a limited reopening of some sections.

Regina Geoghan took some great shots of the folks at the cleanup.

The link to her photos (just click "slideshow on right) is here.

Later in the week we will post some pix of some of the weird things found during the cleanup.

We will also post two more cleanups for this month once the times are confirmed.

We thought we might be able to look ahead to December 2012 by looking back at last December. Here are some highlights from a year ago:

Dec. 7: Don Torino on Losen Slote Creek Park

Dec. 13: Canvasbacks are Back at DeKorte

Dec. 13: Sunset Park

Dec. 19:  Christmas Bird Count Highlights

Dec. 22: Ice Crystals Up-Close

Dec. 29: Glaucous Gull at DeKorte

Our Third-Tuesday-of-the-Month Walk will be at the recently reopened Mill Creek Marsh on Dec. 18 at 10 a.m. It will be great to birding the site instead of cleaning up storm damage and debris there. We should see plenty of Green-winged Teal, Northern Shovelers and other ducks — plus a raptor or two. 

Mill Creek is a beautiful place any time of year, a wonder marsh with the Manhattan skyline in the distance.

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The William D. McDowell Observatory in DeKorte Park begins a new month of programming tonight (Monday, Dec. 3).

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.