On this past Sunday morning nine Black-Crowned Night Herons stood like sentinels along the banks of a small marshy area constrained by the New Jersey Turnpike and surrounded by countless other stone and asphalt structures of our Garden State.
Like many of our Meadowlands birds and birders we all seemed oblivious to the roar of the cars, trucks and airliners overhead. These most regal and stately of birds seemed to ignore the gazing binoculars as one of our group members dropped her binoculars, looked up at me and said “The birding is wonderful, you are so lucky to live here in the Meadowlands!” The comment at first took me by surprise. It was music to my ears and such a wonderful thing to say, but I was taken back, not use to hearing those kind and flattering comments.
