Because we had to reschedule our “Birding By Boat” with the Bergen County Audubon Society, we now have a lot more room for folks who want to to participate. It is open to all, and a lot of fun.

The boat ride along the Hackensack River and its marshes is two hours long and costs just a $15 donation. The shorebird migration is on, and we should see lost of nifty birds.

Posts from previous years on this annual event — including lists of birds seen are here  (August 2012), here (July 2012) and here.

Full information on “Birding By Boat” and how to register follow. Continue reading →

This guy — photographed recently by Regina Geoghan in Jill’s Garden– is one of our favorites. And he’s a tricky one, in honor of our upcoming Moth Night on Monday, July 22, and Butterfly Day on Sunday, July 28.   Who is he? Why, he is an eight-spotted Forester Moth.

More on 8-Spotted Forester Moths here.

The Star-Ledger has a nifty article (with video) about National Moth Week in Tuesday’s editions.  (Just note that they have the wrong date for Moth Night at DeKorte Park. The correct date is next Monday, July 22.)

The link is here.

Jill Ann Ziemkiewicz, for whom DeKorte Park’s beautiful butterfly garden is named,  died 17 years ago today.

She was part of the crew of TWA Flight 800, which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on July 17, 1996.

The Meadowlands Commission decided to hold Butterfly Day in late July in part to honor her memory.

Jill’s Garden, with its wonderful array of blooming flowers and butterfly bushes, is an amazing yet tranquil place.

You can read more about the flight and the crew here and here.

These guys are so prevalent at DeKorte Park these days you can take lots of pix and play with camera settings.  This guy was photographed at a 1/2,500th of a second to keep those amazing wings from blurring.

Ron Shields writes: “Attached find an image of yesterday evening’s sunset from DeKorte Park!” (Thanks, Ron!)

This guy — photographed recently by Regina Geoghan in Jill’s Garden– is one of our favorites. And he’s a tricky one, in honor of our upcoming Moth Night on Monday, July 22, and Butterfly Day on Sunday, July 28.   Who is he?

With the folks from National Moth Week visiting DeKorte next Monday for our 2nd annual Moth Night, thought we’d pass along this story about the New Jersey-based group.

Here’s a sample, from mycentraljersey.com:

Move over cicadas, moths are taking over for a week.

Much of the insect attention this summer has focused on the noisy cicada’s that have infiltrated parts of New Jersey after being dormant for 17 years. But from July 20 to 28, a much quieter, and arguably more attractive, species will be on display.

Citizen scientists around the world will be setting up white sheets and lights in backyards, woods and fields hoping to spot one or more of the roughly 5,000 species of moths as part of the second annual National Moth Week.

This global science project started last year to encourage the public to observe and document one of nature’s most diverse — and misunderstood — creatures.

Link is here.

The kickoff events for National Moth Week are this Saturday in East Brunswick. You can download the flier for these free events is here:

KICKOFF EVENTS FLIER.

Tuesday’s birding-by-pontoon-boat trip has been moved to Thursday, July 25, at 10 a.m., with added seating now available.

Details follow!
Continue reading →

Tuesday morning’s pontoon-boat event with BCAS has been postponed because of the current high temperatures, which would make the cruise less than delightful.

We are rescheduling, and hope to expand the number of boats available.

Stay tuned!

And stay cool.