Please note: The Meadowlands Environment Center in DeKorte Park now has limited access on weekends.
As always, the park itself will remain open from dawn to dusk, and a park attendant will be on site and available if you need assistance.
The Environment Center will continue to be open on weekends for regularly scheduled walks and programs, such as NJMC Naturalist Emeritus Don Smith’s talk about the marshes of the Meadowlands on Sunday.
Although photographers and birders love watching the raptor shows along Disposal Road and Valley Brook Avenue, you must stay away from any active construction activities, heavy machinery and access roads. Weekdays are especially a problem.
The Meadowlands Commission received the following email this morning from the contractor for the Disposal Road and Valley Brook Avenue landfill remediation work:
“Can you do anything about these bird-watchers and photographers? They have been out in droves, and I’m am getting tired of asking them to stay out of the roads and the construction activities. Last week I had a guy park right in front of an excavation and walk across it with his camera.”
NOTE: If photographers and birders do not use stay away from construction activities and access roads, those responsible for the site will be forced to take pictures of license plate numbers and call the police to issue trespassing warrants. This is a safety issue.
Be aware that Disposal Road is not a public thoroughfare, and the land along Disposal and Valley Brook are totally off-limits to the public. Remediation work takes precedence over bird-watching or nature photography.
Thank you. Please spread the word.
Don Smith, the NJMC’s naturalist emeritus, is speaking and giving a slide show about the mrashes of the Meadowlands this Sunday at 1 p.m. in DeKorte Park’s Meadowlands Environment Center.
The presentation will include some seldom-seen aerials of the region from 75 years ago — in addition to Don’s incredible knowledge of the region’s marshes (which he explored as a boy).
Did you know that at high tide, there is more open water in the Meadowlands now than in the 1930s? You’ll learn why on Sunday.
Information on Don’s talk follows. Continue reading
Don’t miss Monday’s American Woodcock Walk at 6:45 p.m. at Laurel Hill County Park in Secaucus.
Before we look for the woodcocks and their amazing peenting and courtship displays, we’ll check on the Common Ravens’ nest and see what we can see along the Hackensack River.
If you don’t know where Laurel Hill is, you can meet the NJMC’s Jim Wright in the DeKorte Park visitor’s parking lot before 6:15 p.m.
Full details follow. (Thanks to Chris Takacs for the photo!) Continue reading
Don Torino reports:
“This comes under ‘You can’t make this stuff up.’ I was waiting at the traffic light this morning by Teterboro Airport, waiting to make a left onto Route 46 when Snowy Owl flew right over my car — being chased by a gull! Incredible year for sure.”
Thanks, Don. No Snowy sightings at DeKorte yet today but will post if one arrives.
Thinking of visiting DeKorte Park or nearby Disposal Road this weekend?
To see what’s being reported at DeKorte on eBird Hotspot Explorer, click here.
To see what’s being reported along Disposal Road on eBird Hotspot Explorer, click here.
Note: As of Friday, part of Disposal Road near DeKorte Park had a very deep puddle covering the entire roadway. You may want to park in DeKorte and walk down the Transco Trail or take the Schuyler Road entrance to Disposal Road.
Trying to find something on the blog — an upcoming walk, a certain photographer’s photos, posts on Muskrats, sightings of a favorite butterfly? Don’t forget that you can search 4.5 years of blog posts by using the Google search engine in the upper-right part of the blog. Let the searches begin.
The NJMC’s Drew McQuade reports:
Another Snowy, out on the opposite bank of the Shorebird Pool again. Looks like it could be a different bird than the one that was here yesterday. He’s sitting next to the first Tree Swallow nestbox to the right of Marsh Discovery trail promenade — about 25 yards to the right of yesterday’s owl.
(Thanks, Drew!)
Best seen through a spotting scope, but DeKorte is very cold and windy today, so dress for the weather..
Jim Wright, who keeps this blog for the Meadowlands Commission, also writes a twice-monthly column for the South Bergenite. His most recent column is on Short-eared Owls:
This winter has been the season of the snowy owl, which has been visiting the Garden State from the Arctic in record numbers. But the Meadowlands have been blessed with frequent appearances by another invader from the north, the short-eared owl.
Most of these nocturnal raptors have apparently moved elsewhere but they put on a great show while they were here.
The best place to see the medium-sized owls was from Disposal Road (which runs from Schuyler Avenue in North Arlington to Valley Brook Avenue). All you had to do to find the owls was to look for the row of photographers with Hubble-telescope-size lenses aimed at the old Kingsland Landfill.
Because these owls like to hunt by flying low over the grasses, they are a great bird to watch and to photograph.
In fact, I would have written about them sooner, but the weeks of snowy weather have narrowed that stretch of Disposal and made for difficult driving and bird-watching conditions — especially with the avian paparazzi present.
Even so, the short-eared owl is one of NJMC Naturalist Mike Newhouse’s favorite birds.
They look so majestic when they fly,” he says. “It is really amazing to watch these owls hunt. I can watch them for hours, and I have.” Continue reading
Edna Duffy reports:
Yesterday and today [Michael and I] saw a Peregrine Falcon sitting in the tree below the ravens’ nest.
We saw one raven on the lawn on Monday, no ravens on Tuesday and today we saw both ravens on the hill away from the nest.
We watched the peregrine actually dive-bomb both ravens about 100 feet from the nest and then return to the tree below the nest. Recent post on the ravens’ nest is here.
Thanks, Edna — this has happened before….