Don Torino visited Mill Creek Marsh today and sent us some great photos of cedars, Green-winged Teals and a Great Blue Heron. Hope these photos provide a nice mid-afternoon pick me up!
Monthly Archives: January 2016
Don Torino’s Life in the Meadowlands: We Need a Field Guide to Birders!
As the cold weather finally took hold this weekend and birders began to bundle up into unrecognizable bales of hoods, masks, gloves and boots I thought it was time to revitalize an idea had a few years back: A Field Guide to Birders!
As I looked across the marsh at DeKorte Park and saw a group of birders scanning over the Meadows the same as me, I wondered if there was anyone I knew. Were they other Bergen Audubon folks or maybe some old friends I haven’t seen in a while? That is when it came to me , just like it must have come to Edison when he invented the light bulb or when Ron Popeil invented the Chop-O-Matic: what birders really need is not another field guide to the birds. What we really need is a field guide to birders!
Careful Now!
Winter has finally arrived in full force, to the point that Chris Takacs on Sunday caught a Ruddy Duck ambling along on a frozen impoundment in Dekorte Park. Chris also spotted the Orange-crowned Warbler below that has been seen around the Meadowlands District over the past few days.
The warbler in this photo was at the entrance gate to DeKorte Park; it has also been viewed from the park’s Kingsland Overlook and on the large pine tree on the road into the park, as well as at Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus.
New Year’s Warbler
Jim Wright got a pic of this Orange-crowned Warbler near the southeast corner of Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus on New Year’s Day. The Orange-crowned warbler is almost only seen in winter in these parts and is considered a rare sighting. You can read more on Jim’s Celery Farm and Beyond blog. Thanks Jim for sharing!
Sunday Nature Walk Report
Some 40 nature enthusiasts bundled up and kicked off the New Year by participating in a Bergen County Audubon Society Nature Walk at Mill Creek Point Park on Sunday, Jan. 3, in Secaucus. By all accounts it was a great morning for birding, with Buffleheads, Northern Pintails and Great Black-backed gulls among the sightings as photographed by Alice Leurck.
The next BCAS walk is at Laurel Hill Park in Secaucus on Tuesday, Jan. 19, from 10 am to noon. We’ll be keeping a sharp eye out for Ravens, raptors, waterfowl and other birds of interest on the Hackensack River. The walk meets in the parking lot by the ballfields at the park. Information: 201-230-4983 or greatauk4@gmail.com.