We had some nifty Brown Thrashers along the Kingsland Overlook Trail yesterday morning.

Jill Homcy took these Monday evening. That’s a Scarlet Tanager above and one of the Glossy Ibises below. (Thanks, Jill!)

This Sunday is our fifth annual Mother’s Day Walk in Ridgefield — featuring a walk through the Rifgefield Nature Center, the nearby Community Gardens, a visit to see the local Monk Parakeets, and visit to the Skeetkill Creek Marsh.

Afterward, we’ll drive to Bell Drive and see what kind of avian activity is near the Bald Eagle nesting site.

Full details follow. Continue reading →

An NJMC staffer wore this shirt a while back, and we were wondering what kind of bird is depicted.

It is an especially attractive brown, no?  Not certain that it is a Meadowlands bird, though.

Saw two Glossy Ibises as we drove in to DeKorte this a.m. at 8:45., but did not see them last we checked, around 10 a.m.

They were in the Shorebird Pool near the MEC.

Chris Takacs shared this pic of the quintet seen here yesterday.

Pic below is for folks with laptops. Continue reading →

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: Korean War veteran Earl Jensen of Lyndhurst recalls growing up near Horseshoe Creek.

The area of the swamp where all my activities occurred was east of Lyndhurst and North Arlington.  In 1946 the western spur of the turnpike had not been laid down yet.

The Erie and the Lackawanna Railroads and the Jersey City water line were the only reminders of any modern-day progress passing through the swamp.

To me, the grand swamp was a picture of the past with all its natural wonderment.

Click “Continue reading …” for the rest of Earl’s account, as well as Earl’s old photos.

Continue reading →

Don Torino of Bergen Audubon Society reports:

We had two wonderful walks at Losen Slote Creek park in Little Ferry on Sunday morning,

Northern Water Thrush, Common Yellow-throat, Yellow Warblers, Black-throated Blue and Black-throated Green warblers among many others, plus, Solitary and Spotted Sandpipers.

We ended the trip with great looks at a Scarlet Tanager, but best of all we had a great group of folks along with us.

(Thanks, Don!)

  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. Continue reading →

There are at least five Glossy Ibis in the Shorebird Pool right now along the Shorewalk.

(Mickey Raine took the above shot this weekend at DeKorte. Thanks, Mickey!)

Should have more pix tomorrow.