Highlights of Tuesday’s Laurel Hill walk with Bergen County Audubon included five Bald Eagles — count ’em, five — two adults and three immatures. That just might be a record for one of our walks.

The adults put on a great show, almost overhead at some points. The immatures stayed over the Saw Mill Creek Wildlife Management Area, occasionally locking talons and generally horsing around.

Judging from a lack of a transmitter and no missing flight feathers, we believe that the two adults were not Alice and Al, the resident Bald Eagles of Ridgefield Park.

Will post the full list later this week.

Mickey and Elaine Raine write:

On Monday, we decided to visit Mill Creek Marsh, and  we were rewarded with some great sights of the Great Blue Heron.  There were several of them out, and at every bend, we would see one.  I do not believe that all of the shots presented here are of the same one–most likely between two of them.  We know for certain that four different ones were around the marsh in various locales.

Their colors of full adulthood at the high stage were prominently displayed, so in spite of the limited sun–off and on–the nice features were captured successfully.

(Thanks, Elaine and Mickey!)

Our next free walk with Bergen County Audubon Society is our Sixth Annual Super Bird Sunday Walk in DeKorte Park on Feb. 1 — the same Sunday as the Super Bowl, just with lots of fresh air and no crass commercial craziness.

We’ll not only look for Bald Eagles and winter raptors, but we’ll be awarding prizes to the first person to see a bird species that was named for an NFL team.

(We may have gotten that last part backwards, but the stuff about the prizes is true.)

Details follow.

Continue reading →

Last Tuesday, we asked readers how old the Bald Eagle (above) is in this recent photo by Louis Balboa.

Patrick Carney wrote that he thinks this is a second-year bird. We concur. (Thanks, Patrick!)

A helpful link is here.

Wendy Rozek passed along these photos from an NJMC guided pontoon-boat cruise last summer.

The 2015 season will be here before you know it. (Thanks, Wendy!)

Our Third Tuesday of the Month Walk for January is the amazing Laurel Hill County Park in Secaucus, which abounds in both natural history and local history. Never know what you’ll see at Laurel Hill — Common Ravens, Redtails, Peregrines and more. The walk begins at 10 a.m.

Full information follows.

Continue reading →

DeKorte Park is open on Monday, Jan. 19, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a state holiday, but the Environment Center (and its restrooms) will be closed.

River Barge Park is open but the restrooms are closed for construction.

Dennis Cheeseman photographed back-lit guy in the Shorebird Pool at lunch yesterday.

(Thanks, Dennis!)

Dennis Cheeseman is doing a Losen Slote Big Year, and has been nice enough to pass along some of his finds. Yesterday he had a Bald Eagle and Carolina Wren. (Thanks, Dennis!)

Talked with The Raptor Trust this morning.  They report that the raptor has a ruptured crop. Arrived in really bad shape – it was good that the Meadowlands Commission got it there sooner rather than later.

The Raptor Trust treated the wound and stabilized the bird, and hopes to get a vet in today to suture the crop…

Thank you, Raptor Trust!

Their website is here.