On Monday, we photographed a young banded Peregrine Carlstadt, and set out to find more about it. Christopher A. Nadareski,  Section Chief, NYC Environmental Protection, writes:

The tag looks like a 68/AX when I enlarged the photo as the stem of the “X” appears to be angled to the left and not straight like a “Y” but not 100% certain.

If it is a 68/AX then it is the HY [hatch year] male from the Bayonne Bridge nest tower.   It was one of two young hatched around May 8, 2013, and I banded on May 29, 2013.

The HY male had a slight case of Frounce, which I treated orally at the nest site.  Would like to believe the male survived the Frounce.

Thanks, Chris (with an assist from Kathy Clark of the NJDEP)!

We photographed one of Chris’ banded Peregrines last summer — banded on the MetLife Building in Manhattan. Link is here.

Congrats to Greg Miller for identifying yesterday’s bug on the Tuesday Teaser.

It is a Transverse Flower Fly. (Who knew?)  (Thanks, Greg!)

Susan Elbin of NYS Audubon writes:

Birders are once again being asked to be on the lookout for wing-tagged
Great Egrets this summer-autumn. Great Egrets were tagged earlier this
month in Canada and in the New York Harbor.

In Canada, they were tagged at their nesting colony on Georgian Bay, Lake
Huron, near Collingwood, Ontario (100 km NW of Toronto). This year
flightless young birds were marked with light BLUE tags, one on each wing.
The tags are marked with two numbers and a letter, e.g. 28T.

In New York City, birds were tagged in Jamaica Bay with YELLOW tags with
either 2 numbers and a letter, or a letter and 2 numbers (black).
Continue reading →

Photographer Regina Geoghan, a frequent contributor to this blog, recently wrote a post for wildnewjersey.tv about photographing butterfluies at DeKorte Park.

Here’s a sample:

“Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, a bright spot of orange appears and my heart starts to beat a little faster.  YES – a butterfly!!!  A Monarch?  – No – a Viceroy.  It lights on the butterfly bush near me and I edge closer and begin my daily dance.  As it flits and flutters from one blossom and one plant to the next, I follow back and forth, until it stops long enough and poses for me to snap the shutter – again – and once more to get a photograph of the Viceroy set against the bright blue sky.

“It is, for me, a record of a magical moment of beauty in this day.  Soon after, those same bushes are alive with movement as dozens of Skipper butterflies of all sizes and several Clear-winged Moths jostle with each other for a prime flower.  Two Black Swallowtails fly in to join the club, and an hour later just as I must leave, an American Lady makes an appearance.”

The entire post is here.

When we were in Carlstadt yesterday checking on an Osprey nest, we also saw hundreds and hundreds of peeps.

We thought, “This would be quite a buffet for a Peregrine Falcon.”

Moments later, two Peregrines arrived, one after the other, and promptly divebombed the peeps (unsuccessfully).

We took several shots, including one that showed a leg band clearly — 68-AY. We are now trying to find out more about this bird. A third Peregrine arrived and flew around for a while as well.  Two of the Peregrines, including the banded one and the one pictured above, looked like young birds.

We will let you know what we learn.

Incidentally, we had a banded Peregrine less than a half-mile away in late July 2011. More on that Peregrine (with  similar numbers) here and here.

Gallery of Peregrine shots from yesterday, including banding shots, follows. As you’ll see, some were photographed fairly far away and cropped.

(This gallery thing is new — let us know what you think….) Continue reading →

What’s this?  Photo and teaser courtesy of Regina Geoghan.

John Pastore writes:

“I thought you might enjoy this.  It represents about 20 visits to the Meadowlands, between 2009 and this year, set to music.”

Thanks, John!

Sunday was an amazing Butterfly Day at DeKorte Park — more people and more butterflies than we could have hoped for, given the uncertain weather.  Reposting after trouble with blog software.

Full list follows. Continue reading →

DeKorte Park, bursting with blooms, is particularly beautiful this time of year.

Our next free walk is this Sunday at 10 a.m. in DeKorte Park.

The walk runs two hours (if a walk can run). We will be looking for shorebirds, butterflies, and whatever we come upon.  Sponsored by the Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society.

Full details follow. Continue reading →

Eleven days ago, we introduced you to Joey the Tobacco Hornworm (link is here). Soon after his arrival, Joey went underground to pupate (link is here).

We checked in Joey this morning — he’s living at DeKorte Park’s Center for Environmental and Scientific Studies (the building with the observatory) — and he is  tucked away in  his homemade sleeping bag (photo above).

We also have a new Tobacco Hornworm (above), just 4 centimeters long.  We have not named him. Someone suggested George Alexander Louis, but that’s probably a better  name for a Monarch caterpillar.

Any suggestions for a name? So far, we have “Chester.”   Leave a comment below.

More on hornworms here.