For the 19th day in a row, the American White Pelican was seen this morning on the Saw Mill mudflats.  Spotting scope highly recommended.

Joe Koscielny took this shot last Sunday. (Thanks, Joe!)

Don Torino’s latest column for wildnewjersey.tv is about which field guide is the best.

We totally agree with his choice.

The link is here.

Does this mean it’s a Quotation Mark?

Either way, it’s punctual.

Just can’t beat some good old-fashioned butterfly humor.

In honor of Butterfly Day this Sunday.

Repairs are progressing well on the hurricane-damaged Marsh Discovery Trail. We thought we’d pass along some photos — no timetable yet, but we hope to reopen the trail by fall. Very exciting news.

NJMC Naturalist Mike Newhouse reports a Little Blue Heron (immature, white feathers) on the Saw Mill Creek mudflats, in fairly close. Am. White Pelican still present, but in the distance.

Tide is going out, so we are hoping it’s here for a while.

More on Little Blue Herons here. (Is that a Pipefish that it caught?)

(Thanks, Mike!)

Jim Wright, who keeps this blog for the Meadowlands Commission, also writes a twice-monthly nature column for the South Bergenite.

His latest is on this Sunday’s Butterfly Day at DeKorte Park:

How time flies. This Sunday is the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s Fifth Annual Butterfly Day in DeKorte Park. It seems like only yesterday we were leading our very first butterfly walk here (it was actually July 2009).

This year, we are aiming to make Butterfly Day the best yet, with all sorts of events and attractions for the whole family, from a nature walk and author talks to scavenger hunts and a butterfly costume contest.

The event runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., and everything is free. No wonder more than 600 people attended Butterfly Day last year.

The top attraction, of course, is the butterflies themselves. Although we can’t predict how many we might see that day — they are maddeningly unpredictable — we have already spotted a dozen species at DeKorte this summer, plus several mesmerizing clear-winged moths that resemble miniature hummingbirds.

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Had a delightful Birding by Boat Cruise on Tuesday, including lots of herons and egrets, a Boat-tailed Grackles, Peregrines and Ospreys and more.

Full list follows.

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On the Sawmill Creek mudflats. Spotting scope a good idea.

Nature photographer Regina Geoghan is donating her framed photo of a Common Buckeye from the NJMC’s coffee-table book “The Nature of the Meadowlands” as the grand raffle prize at Sunday’s fifth annual Butterday at DeKorte Park.

Just fill out a raffle ticket when you sign in at the MEC on Sunday. The winner will be announced at 1 p.m., but you don’t have to be here to win it.

Other prizes, announced every hour on the hour, will be NJMC pontoon-boat cruises for two.

You can see Regina’s photograph on display in the MEC’s Flyway Gallery through Sunday, as well as 59 other wonderful photographs, illustrations, and archival images from the book.

The Star Ledger’s review of the book is here.

Dennis Cheeseman took this shot at River Barge Park at 8 a.m. on Monday. We are guessing that it wasn’t far from high tide. (Thanks, Dennis!)