We have had at least two Rough-legged Hawks in the district in the past week or so — typically at a long distance. Herewith, some pix of this rare hawk, both light-morph and dark morph.
Above, the light-morph, photographed by Patrick Carney on Dec. 31 on Disposal Road.
Below, a dark-morph photographed earlier that day by Ron Shields on — you guessed it — Disposal Road. 
Congratulations to everyone who competed in our first-ever Meadowlands Big Year competition. We saw an amazing number of great birds — 2013 will be hard-pressed to equal 2012.
The grand prize winner, Chris Takacs of Lyndhurst (above), saw an astounding 211 species – five more than NJMC staffer Mike Newhouse, who set the bar for the other entrants.
In the “out of district” category, we had a two-way tie. Doug Morel of Mahwah and Ramon Gomez of West New York each saw 171 species. We will post their photos as soon as we can get them.
For their Herculean efforts, all three birders receive an autographed copy of the new book “The Nature of the Meadowlands,” an NJMC pontoon boat ride for two and a one-year membership in the Meadowlands Environment Center public programming.
Because Chris had the highest tally, the Bergen County Audubon Society is donating $211 — one for each species — in Chris’ name to buy native plants for a Meadowlands park or natural area. (Thanks, BCAS!)
The awards will be presented at the next BCAS meeting, at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, at the Teaneck Creek Conservancy, 20 Puffin Way
Teaneck, NJ.
We will try to post the lists from all three birders when we can.
Full results follow.
There's nice article in the South Bergenite today about our volunteer cleanups.
Here's the beginning:
Volunteer cleanup crews working with the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) and the the Bergen County Audubon Society (BCAS) in the Meadowlands for the past few weeks have been clearing away the litter and debris brought by the intense winds and devastating flooding of Hurricane Sandy.
"The Commission was able to bring Mill Creek Marsh, Harrier Meadow and part of DeKorte Park back online so quickly thanks to a tremendous effort by the NJMC landscape crew and the nearly 150 people who gave 269 hours of their time participating in five volunteer cleanups at these parks," said Marcia Karrow, Executive Director of the NJMC.
Because of the NJMC power outage, we are having some trouble accessing photos, emails, etc., but we are hoping to post the 2012 Meadowlands Big Year results today at 3 p.m.
DeKorte Park, including the Meadowlands Environment Center, is open again on Friday after being closed because of a power failure.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
To figure out what we might see in January 2013, we though it might be worth a look to see what we saw in January 2012 — including this Bald eagle shot posted a year ago today.
Here are some highlights (click on the text to link to the post):
Jan. 2: DeKorte Bald Eagle (photo by Ron Shields)
Jan. 6: Falconer's Redtail with Jesses
Jan. 6: Another Day, Another Awesome Sunset
Jan. 18: Disposal Road Raptor Action
Jan. 23: Common Goldeneye @ DeKorte
Jan. 26: Interview with "Meadowlands" author/illustrator Tom Yezerski.
Jan. 28: American Bittern @ DeKorte
We are happy to kick off 2013 with a three-pronged guided walk:
* We'll meet in the visitor's lot at DeKorte Park by 10 a.m. and check out the Shorebird Pool for duckage.
* We'll drive to Disposal Road and check out the bird action, which has been heating up as temperatures have cooled down — Am. Pipits, Horned Larks, Am. Kestrels, Northern Harriers, Red-tails and a Rough-legged Hawk have been seen in recent days.
* We'll check out Harrier Meadow (above), where Com. Redpolls and an Orange-crowned Warbler have been recently seen. The wrack and flotsam has been pretty much removed, and the birds have remained.
Dress warmly (if the weather is cold), beginning with comfy waterproof boots and warm gloves.
Details follow.
Wow! What a year, and what an exciting event.
This greeting is courtesy of Mike Girone …
Mike reports: "Toyed around with a pic of the Jersey City male Peregrine for the holiday… He was banded in 2003 at Riverside Church in Manhattan, and has been at the Jersey City nest since 2006." (Thanks, Mike!)
Full photo of falcon with bands follows….
Anybody see anything unusual in this photo?
Happy New Year!