Bird migration is here, and the World Series of Birding is just around the corner. We are pleased to announce that the Meadowlands Marsh Hawks will defend our title for the second year in a row.

We couldn’t have won last year without your support.  This season, our team is asking for your help again as the title defense is going to be a real challenge.

Every time a team wins the Limited Geographic category, its par total goes up by five — which means the par for Bergen County has now increased by 10 species in the past two years.

The overwhelming support from all of you last year helped us raise enough money to do an overhaul of the Kingsland Overlook Trail. We are in the designing phase right now, and we’ll be planting native plants this spring. Please come out in May to see the trail’s new look.

This year, we have several exciting projects you can contribute to:

* Add another Purple Martin Colony at DeKorte.

* Add more native plants to Harrier Meadow.

* Plant a new native-grass habitat on a nearby closed landfill.

You can getthe details and download the pledge form here:

Pledge sheet 2014

Five years ago, as part of the N.J. Meadowlands Commission’s Oral History Project, we interviewed lots of folks about the region in the old days. We are reprinting the best of them here, every Tuesday, for 11 weeks. This week: Mae DeVoe, one of the first Meadowlands residents to participate in this blog’s Oral History project. She passed away in 2012.

Raised in North Arlington in the 1920s and 1930s, Mae DeVoe loved growing up in the Meadowlands.

In this audio interview, Mae shares several colorful recollections from a childhood spent exploring copper mines, skating on the old Jersey City Waterworks reservoir and attending high school dances.

Mae also talks about life in North Arlington during the Depression and World War II.

In the following audio clips, Mae recalls exploring the old copper mines off Schuyler Avenue and the Belleville Turnpike.

Mae’s recorded reminiscences follow. Continue reading →

NJMC Naturalist Emeritus Don Smith and his wife, Joan Hansen, were checking some marshes near the Hackensack River yesterday when they came upon a roadside owl — a Snowy Owl, to be exact.

Both took some pix. A favorite: Don’s photo of the Snowy with the Empire State Building in the background (belwo).

Now, if someone had a spotting scope on the Empire State Building’s Observation Deck….

(Thanks, Don and Joan!)

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Bird migration is here, and the World Series of Birding is just around the corner. We are pleased to announce that the Meadowlands Marsh Hawks will defend our title for the second year in a row.

We couldn’t have won last year without your support.  This season, our team is asking for your help again as the title defense is going to be a real challenge.

Every time a team wins the Limited Geographic category, its par total goes up by five — which means the par for Bergen County has now increased by 10 species in the past two years.

The overwhelming support from all of you last year helped us raise enough money to do an overhaul of the Kingsland Overlook Trail. We are in the designing phase right now, and we’ll be planting native plants this spring. Please come out in May to see the trail’s new look.

This year, we have several exciting projects you can contribute to:

* Add another Purple Martin Colony at DeKorte.

* Add more native plants to Harrier Meadow.

* Plant a new native-grass habitat on a nearby closed landfill.

You can get the details and download the pledge form here:

Pledge sheet 2014

Ray Gilbert writes:

I got this from the bus lot [on Disposal Road yesterday]  around six pm.

Thanks, Ray.

Saw two Ospreys this morning on the nest across from the Swing Bridge at Laurel Hill.

This was the nest destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. Looks like they are rebuilding.

A banded Peregrine Falcon was sitting in the Osprey nest on the Swing Bridge but was too far away to read the bands.  A second Peregrine was dining on a small bird on the bridge as well.

The Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society have four exciting events in the next two weeks, so get out your calendars and save the dates.

* Part II of Birding for Beginners is Sunday at 1 p.m. at DeKorte Park. (free event)

* The free Third Tuesday of the Month Walk is next Tuesday (April 15) at 10 a.m. at Harrier Meadow.

*A free Earth Day nature walk is Tuesday, April 22, at 5 p.m. at DeKorte Park.

*A free Earth Day Concert with Spook Handy is in DeKorte Park begins at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 22. Continue reading →