Photo by Dennis Cheeseman

Dennis Cheeseman photographed this Rough-legged Hawk on Disposal Road yesterday at noon.

Stay tuned for another Short-eared Owl post shortly.  (Thanks, Dennis!)

On Friday at 2 p.m. on this blog, the N.J. Meadowlands Commission will post the final results of the 2013 Meadowlands Big Year Competition.

Thirteen birders competed in a contest that was close all year long — congratulations to all!

We guarantee there’ll be a surprise or two, so  stay tuned.

Our next free walk is Tuesday, Jan. 21, at 10 a.m. at Laurel Hill County Park in Secaucus.  Last year’s January Laurel Hill walk produced Horned Larks, roughly 30 roosting Black-crowned Night Herons and a dogfight between a Peregrine and a Red-tail.

Here’s a link to the full list.

Details follow. Continue reading →

Yesterday’s Teaser was — you likely guessed it — Pintail Duck.

Ron Shields writes:

“Here’s an image of one of at least three short-eared owls seen along Disposal Road, late afternoon, on New Year’s Day.

“The owls were brought to my attention by a group of birders that included Chris Takacs and Ray Gilbert.
A very entertaining duel between one of the owls and a crow ensued albeit too far over the landfill for decent photos.

“The images I got were from the bus parking lot as two additional owls put on quite a display.  All birders and photographers were extremely courteous and nobody attempted to trespass onto the landfill.”

(Thanks, Ron, Chris and Ray!)

Jill Homcy visited the Bald Eagle nest in Ridgefield Park after our New Year’s Day walk last week (viewing it from Ridgefield) and counted 12 eagles total. Yikes! Jill writes:

“As I approached the area I could see what I thought was 3 eagles soaring above and I hoped they would still be there by the time I arrived at Bell Drive.

“To my shock when I arrived there were several eagles flying around along with quite a few gulls and a flock of Common Mergansers in the water below. Final count by the time I left was 12 eagles, (2 adults, the rest varying age juvies.)

“Most were perched to the right of the nest, but one or two were also perched off to the left a hundred yards or so away.

“I did hear trills several times but at no time did I hear serious alerts or see Al or Alice (the nesting adult eagles) objecting to any of these youngsters.”

Jill also took some videos, embedded above and below. (Thanks, Jill!)

Taking a short break from the Losen Slote Teasers to ask if anyone can ID this bird with only this view.

Answer tomorrow.

Can you ID this duck?

We had a challenging First-Sunday-of-the-Month Walk at DeKorte Park. Freezing rain and icy conditions made birding difficult, but 15 of us still had 27 species in an hour or so…  Not exactly chopped liver.   Stopped the walk early because of slippery walking conditions.

Continue reading →

Ray Duffy writes:

“I got the continuing Orange-crowned Warbler (I saw one in two different locations, it’s possible there maybe more than one).

“I also had a drake Eurasian subspecies Green-winged Teal at the water-treatment-plant loop.  On Saturday, that was one of the few parts of open water.”  (Thanks, Ray!)

Due to icy conditions, DeKorte Park is closed for the rest of the day today.