The Bergen County Audubon Society and the Meadowlands Commission gave out their Meadowlands Big Year awards last night.

The big winners were Chris Takacs of Lyndhurst  (who saw the most species of birds overall — 211) and  the Meadowlands Commission's park lands, which received a wonderful donation of $211 ($1 for each species) from BCAS in Chris' name.

In the photo above, BCAS president Don Torino (left) has presented Chris (center) with his first-place plaque and a check for $211 to Chris and the NJMC (represented by Jim Wright (right).

Congrats, Chris, and thanks again to the BCAS!

But wait! There's more.

Three other award winners also present were Doug Morel, who tied with Ramon Gomez for first place in the out-of-district residents category, Ray Duffy, who placed second in the in-district category, and Julie McCall, who placed third in the in-district category.

Not able to attend: Ramon Gomez (tied for first place, out-of-district) and Mike Wolfe, third place out of district.

We will post the winning totals by out-of-district residents Ramon Gomez and Doug Morel tomorrow  — 171 species each.

A photo of the four winners from last night follows.

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Dennis Cheeseman reports that the Horned larks are still in the field between Xchange Place and the Hackensack River by Laurel Hill.

He had a little better luck/patience/skill today than the photographer on the guided walk did on Tuesday!

Fortunately, Tuesday's photog is not a sensitive chap.

(Thanks, Dennis!)

We saw pretty cool birds on Tuesday’s free guided nature walk at Laurel Hill — topped off with a look at approx. 30 Black-crowned Night Herons at a roost nearby (a big thank you to NJMC Naturalist Emeritus Don Smith for telling about it).

Speaking of the night herons, be sure to look for next Tuesday’s Teaser!

Other highlights included those Horned Larks, a Peregrine divebombing the Horned Larks and strafing a Red-tail, Great Cormorants (left) and a small forest’s worth of Tree Sparrows.

Full list follows. (Thanks to everyone who participated!)

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The adult Bald Eagle that Mary Kostus saw earlier is still on Disposal Road, perched in a tree. This is about as close as we've ever gotten to one. (Stayed in the car to photograph it and did not flush it.)

Mary Kostus reports seeing a Bald Eagle sitting on a pole on Disposal Road this morning — was still there when she left a half-hour or so ago. (Thanks, Mary!)

Photo above is of an immature Bald Eagle perched on a utility tower just outside DeKorte Park last week. Never had a chance to post, so figured this would be as good a time as any.

Want to get outside and get some exercise before the big game? Don't miss the fourth-annual SuperBird Sunday guided walk, a free event that starts outside DeKorte Park at 10 a.m. on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, at 10 a.m.

The two-hour walk, sponsored by the N.J. Meadowlands Commission and Bergen County Audubon Society, includes valuable prizes for the first person to see a bird that an NFL team is named for — Raven, Cardinal, Eagle, Falcon or Seahawk. (Not to worry: legendary birder Bob O'Link, pictured above, will not be on this walk.)

Full details on the event follow.

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We were lucky enough to get this shot of the Horned Larks on the Laurel Hill County Park guided walk this morning with the Bergen County Audubon Society. (Thanks to Jackie DeMarco and Mary Kostus for finding the birds!)

For some reason, some folks could not see them without a spotting scope. That's where the digital camera came in handy!

More on Horned Larks here.

A labeled photo follows, plus an enlargement of part of the image.

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A very successful Laurel Hill walk this morning, with highlights that included umpteen Horned Larks on the field by XChange Place and roughly 30 roosting Black-crowned Night Herons. Plus a dogfight between a Peregrine and a Red-tail.

We'll post the full list and more pix later this week.  We'll post a Horned Lark shot later today, so stay glued to your browser…

If you were on the walk and would like to be cc'd on the eBird list for the walk, e-mail Jim Wright at jim.wright @ njmeadowlands.gov

We are always happy to see when one of our Meadowlands photographers gets kudos for his or her work.

Greg Gard, a regular contributor to this blog, provided this week's "Photo of the Week" on the wildnewjersey.tv blog  — a photo of that dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk seen on Disposal Road on Dec. 31. Link is here. (Congrats, Greg!)

Patrick Carney offers this teaser — can you ID this moth, his first of 2013?

(Thanks, Patrick!)