Mickey Raine writes:

Saturday was quite an experience for us at Richard DeKorte Park. in hopes of seeing the GLOSSY IBIS once more.

The GLOSSY IBIS is quite uncommon for the Meadowlands, as per the brochure and what old timers have told us, and yesterday, within a short time, again toward the latter part of the afternoon, we were fortunate in that both the WHITE CROWNED SPARROW and the SCARLET TANAGER were seen, and captured on record.

The WCS was at a pretty good distance from us, so the photos are not nearly as nice as we would have liked, but there is not doubt about its ID. Now, as for the Scarlet Tanager (above) . . . What an amazingly beautiful, rich tone of red.

More description and a rainbow photo follow.

The Yellow Warblers were present, too, and we were rewarded with a stunning Black Crowned Night Heron, also.

A younger Double Crested Cormorant seemed at a loss in the pool of water after its mom took flight.We were hoping that it, too, would take off, but it kept going in small circles, with what seemed to be a couple of futile attempts to take off–wings would flutter, but not lift.

While observing the Cormorant, down the Transco Trail a bit, was a Red Fox coming toward us, oblivious to our presence at first. I knew that as it neared, it would notice humans, and would disappear. So, quickly shot were taken just to share with you and others . . .

Locked in its jaw was a fairly decent size limp muskrat, the evening meal for the fox and its kits, perhaps. Sure enough, at about 50 yards away, it darted into the reeds.

The Forster’s Terns were gathered together for a respite from playing in the wind current above, and a short while later, repeated the games. They made no attempt to nose dive into the water to retrieve a fish for dining, as they would typically do.

At the end of the session there, we saw a double rainbow (above).

Thanks, Mickey!