Due to the continuing icy conditions at Mill Creek Marsh, this weekend’s First-Sunday-of the-Month walk will be at DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst. The walk runs from at 10 a.m. to noon. The MEC restrooms will be open for 15 minutes before and after the walk.
Target birds: Snowy Owls, miscellaneous ducks and raptors.
Full listing follows.
Continue reading
On a visit to a Carlstadt marsh last week, we encountered two Common Ravens.
One was eating something on the snow, and the other was perched in a tree. The one perched in the tree appeared to break off a small branch and fly toward the Hackensack River. The other followed shortly thereafter.
If you see any raven nest-building going on at Laurel Hill or elsewhere in the Meadowlands, please contact this blog.
To see what might be seen March in the Meadowlands, we thought we’d run some highlights from March 2102 and showcase some of the great photography that folks have contributed.
(Thanks to all!)
Just click on the text to link to the post.
March 1: Unusual Archival Newspaper Clipping
March 7: Monk Parakeets Doing Well
March 8: ‘N.J. Big Year’ Visit to the Meadowlands!
March 12: Ron Shields’ Latest: RB Merganser
March 19: Harbor Seal Pix & Interview w/ Expert!
March 20: Bird Sightings: O’Sprey!
March 22: Kearny Marsh, Before and After Sandy
March 26: Roy Woodford’s Grebe w/Fish Photo Sequence
March 29: Pheasant on da Grass
We are saddened to report that Mark Becker, a longtime conservationist who worked tirelessly to protect open space in the Hackensack River watershed, died yesterday in a multi-vehicle crash on the New York Thruway.
Mark was brilliant, selfless and dedicated to making our region a better place.
Mark was appointed to the Meadowlands Conservation Trust (MCT) Board of Trustees as a founding member in 2000 and was the vice chairman of that board at the time of his tragic death.
The MCT biography of Mark is here.
The Record story about his death is here.
Somehow, we overlooked this e-mail until yesterday afternoon — just two years and three months late. Steve Buckingham writes:
I saw something a little out of the ordinary at Mill Creek Marsh this morning and thought I’d share it with you. Feel free to post to the Meadowlands blog if you think it is noteworthy.
No doubt it must be an escaped pet, but the bird guides indicate there are established wild colonies in the LA and Phoenix areas, kind of like the West Coast version of the Monk Parakeets.
Now we know what a red-winged blackbird/Baltimore oriole hybrid would look like.
(Thanks, Steve! Did anybody else ever see this bird?)
Muhammad Faizan reports that at DeKorte Park last Sunday …
Snowy Owl invasion continues. She decided that it’s time to fly again. Light was a little better this time and she followed most of the known patterns (if you know what I mean) except for sitting on a tree this time. Chased two ducks in flight …
(Thanks, Faizan!) We will look for Snowies on the free guided walk this Sunday at DeKorte Park.
Ray Gilbert passed along these photos he took yesterday afternoon of a banded juvenile Marsh Hawk along Disposal Road. If you have any info that might be helpful in finding out more about the bird based on band color, etc., let us know. (Thanks, Ray!)
With weather conditions so snowy and nasty for humans this winter, a lot of folks have been wondering how difficult the past few months have been for our avian neighbors — and which spring arrivals to look forward to in the coming weeks.
For the answers, I thought I’d turn to my go-to guy for all things avian, New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) naturalist Mike Newhouse.
According to Mike, we shouldn’t worry too much about our feathered friends during snowy winters.
“Birds tend to know what to do with conditions like this,” says Mike. “If they need to move south to find food they will. Some of the local populations might struggle a little, but they usually find a way through these tough times – thanks in part to people with filled birdfeeders.”
If you haven’t seen as many birds in their normal locations this winter, he says, it’s because they tend to move around a lot in search of food and cover.
The bad weather has had its silver lining. It has brought some nifty visitors from the north as well. Continue reading
University students’ visions of the conceptual transformation of a former trash transfer facility into an aviation museum are the subject of a new exhibit at the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s (NJMC) Flyway Gallery.
The show, “NJIT Design Studio,” will be on display from Thursday, March 6, through Friday, April 25. An opening reception is scheduled for Friday, March 7, from 2 to 4 p.m.
At the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, students in Professor Ira Smith’s Architecture Studio course were tasked with outlining a theoretical new use for the former Bergen County Utilities Authority Transfer Station and its surrounding grounds in North Arlington.
The academic exercise focused on repurposing the site into the New Jersey Air and Space Center, an expansion of the New Jersey Aviation Hall of Fame and Museum, which is currently located in Teterboro. Continue reading
Snowy Owls are still being seen in DeKorte Park and along nearby Disposal Road, including one this morning.
Owls in the park are sometimes seen along the Marsh Discovery Trail near the Transco Trail, and occasionally on top of the transmission towers where the Saw Mill Creek Trail meets the Lyndhurst nature Reserve Trail. Morning and late afternoon are preferrable. (Sorry about the potholes; rough winter.)
Snowy Owls can also be seen from Disposal Road, on the Kingsland Landfill, occasionally perched on a pipe, like the distant one pictured above did last week.
Good luck!
(Please do not trespass on the landfill, and please do not disturb any owls.)