Start your Easter Sunday with a Bergen County Audubon Society nature walk at Harrier Meadow, a beautiful, 70-acre natural area usually closed to the public. The walk is from 10 am to noon and Harrier Meadow is located in North Arlington off Disposal Road. We’ll be looking for the spring migrants that are returning to the area as well as raptors.
For more information contact Don Torino at greatauk4@gamil.com or 201-230-4983
For all of us that have grown up or lived around the Meadowlands or anywhere in New Jersey for any length of time, we all know far too well how much natural surroundings we have lost over the years. Today our preserved natural areas have become a quilt work of fragmented fields and forests that have become surrounded by suburban overdevelopment and landscaped with foreign plant species.
This has stressed our birds, butterflies and pollinator population to their limits with little left for their battle for survival. And to make matters worse New Jersey may be the first state to reach “buildout,” which simply means that one day that all land in the Garden State will be either built on or preserved, and that will be it. In the end that will leave us with vast areas of wasteland when it comes to wildlife unless we save the landscape in which we live.
In a concerted effort to connect and expand our forests, nature centers and preserves with a series of steppingstones that benefit migratory birds, butterflies and other wildlife, Bergen County Audubon has a Free program that the entire community, no matter where you live, can take part in to help reverse the tide of habitat loss.
Our Certified Wildlife Garden program allows homeowners, communities, schools, businesses, places of worship, nature centers and others anywhere in New Jersey and for that matter any state at all ( we now also have NY and PA) to have their gardens that benefit wildlife certified by Bergen County Audubon Society.
Based on the overcast conditions, the William D. McDowell Observatory public viewing session tonight (Wednesday, March 28) has been cancelled. The next public viewing night is Wednesday, April 4, from 7:30 to 10 p.m.
Thanks to Mickey Raine for these wonderful shots of a Great Egret in all its taken yesterday at DeKorte! Mickey reports: The blush of green by the eyes, the extensive plumage display with the fanciful feathers, and the much richer eye color all are signs of the mating season and the efforts to attract mates. I was very pleased to have spotted this creature in high color, for it also becomes a nice learning display.
Canvasback Ducks
As promised, here’s more from Mickey Raine’s outing to DeKorte yesterday. Some wonderful waterfowl!
Northern Shoveler
Mickey Raine sent these awesome DeKorte shots he took yesterday. We’ll start with these and post a second batch later this afternoon. Thanks Mickey!
American Robin
Red-winged Blackbird
Pied-billed Grebe
Many thanks to Jill Weiss for these great photos of several species who seem to be enjoying themselves at DeKorte over the past week!
Pied-billed Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
Great Egret
Red-winged Blackbird
Mute Swan
Start your Easter Sunday with a Bergen County Audubon Society nature walk at Harrier Meadow, a beautiful, 70-acre natural area usually closed to the public. The walk is from 10 am to noon and Harrier Meadow is located in North Arlington off Disposal Road. We’ll be looking for the spring migrants that are returning to the area as well as raptors.
For more information contact Don Torino at greatauk4@gamil.com or 201-230-4983
Great Egret
Thanks to Jill Weiss for these great photos she took at DeKorte last week, including a returning Great Egret! Thanks again Jill!
Northern Shovelers
Northern Shoveler
Another sign that the snowpocalypse is ending and spring is around the corner: Osprey sightings today! Chris Takacs reports that he saw one hunting in DeKorte mid-afternoon, while the NJSEA’s Angelo Urato took these photos of an Osprey on the nesting platform near River Barge Park. Happy birding this weekend!
