Our next free guided walk is tomorrow (Tuesday, April 15) at 10 a.m. at Harrier Meadow in North Arlington. The 70-acre natural area is normally closed to the public, so there’s usually a lot of birds hanging around.
We’ll walk along a wide flat path and look for ospreys, early warblers and shorebirds and a snipe or two.
We had 53 speces on alst year’s walk, including an American Golden Plover. Full list from last year is here.
Info on tomorrow’s walk follows.
A follower of this blog reports seeing a Yellow-headed Blackbird in his backyard peach tree (above) in Secaucus yesterday, so keep an eye out.
The last report we had of it was roughly 10 days ago, also in Secaucus, from Mickey Raine, who wrote:
“We briefly managed to see the YHBB at our favorite marsh (Mill Creek Marsh). Although at some distance from us, we were able to get some shots that show the brilliant yellow of its head and upper breast. Closer would have been nice, of course, but to see this rare one for our area was definitely a treat.
“Unlike the one (maybe eve the same bird) at DeKorte Park that was amongst the many Brown-headed Cowbirds, following their every movement, this one was doing a solo act–no company.
“It was only around for a short while before disappearing, seemingly heading northbound.”
Mickey says he then saw it again at MCM the following day. (Thanks, Mickey!)
Don Torino, who leads many of our nature walks, also writes a weekly column for wildnewjersey.tv.
His latest is on the current housing crisis in New Jersey. Here’s a sample:
New couples are finding it very hard to find suitable housing in the garden state this year. Commercialization and urban sprawl are making life tough for these families to locate places where they can settle down and raise their young.
There is stiff competition for housing that already exists, and unless they can find help these families may have to seriously think twice about raising a family bringing forth their next generation here in New Jersey.
The housing shortage I speak of exists in all our own towns and cities, backyards and parks, and it is our birds that are in serious need of some housing.
The link is here.