Due to the forecast for heavy rainfall and significant flooding, the Bergen County Audubon Society Eagle Watch scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 10, at Mill Creek Point Park in Secaucus, has been cancelled.

Photo Credit: Mike Turso

Fifty years ago, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was signed into law as a framework to prevent the loss and harm of endangered and threatened species. The law currently protects 1,662 U.S. species and 638 foreign species, including fish, plants, and other forms of wildlife. Since its signing on December 28th, 1973, the ESA has been credited with saving 99% of the species it protects and is largely considered one of the most effective wildlife conservation laws.

In honor of the ESA’s 50th anniversary, this week MRRI will be sharing some examples of threatened or endangered species that we have the opportunity to work alongside!

Our first species of the week is the Least Tern, a charismatic beach-nesting bird found throughout the East Coast of the United States. The “interior” Least Tern has been protected as endangered since 1985 when its population dropped below 2,000 birds. Their endangerment is primarily due to habitat loss as a result of changed river systems.

Thanks to conservation efforts, the species was removed from the Endangered Species List in 2021 after the population increased to about 18,000. In the Meadowlands, you can find these birds in the summer at DeKorte Park feeding their recently born young. One of MRRI’s conservation efforts in 2024 is to create sandy habitat for Least Terns to use for nesting.

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Even Pritchard, Founder-Director of the Center for Algonquin Culture, is the latest addition to the Meadowlands Eagle Festival this Sunday (Jan. 14), at DeKorte Park and the Meadowlands Environment Center in Lyndhurst. The Festival, co-presented by the NJSEA and Bergen County Audubon Society, runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Snow date is Sunday, Jan. 21.

Pritchard will be signing copies of his book, “Bird Medicine: The Sacred Power of Bird Shaminism.” Pritchard is a descendant of the Micmac people (part of the Algonquin nations). In addition to founding the Center for Algonquin Culture, he is a former Professor of Native American history at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York. To learn more about the Center for Algonquin Culture and Evan Pritchard, click here

There are a plethora of activities lined up for the entire family, including walks, talks, art exhibits and highly popular live raptor shows. Youngsters are invited to bring their own Eagle artwork.

Join us in learning all about Eagles, their remarkable comeback and how you can make a difference in helping them thrive.

For more information Contact Don Torino at greatauk4@gmail.com or 201-230-4983.

I stepped over a log and the water ran right over my boot. When I looked down, as if in slow motion, I watched the thin, broken ice and the water rushing up as my last view of my bootlace disappeared into time. I smiled to myself: I was a kid again!

This cold winter morning brought me back more than 50 years as I sloshed around my hometown’s wet, soggy woods looking for any wildlife that might need to be documented or just even enjoyed by this old Meadowlands guy.

The low winter sun’s rays blazed through the woods into my eyes, broken up only by the many leafless, twisted trees that grow curiously in lowland woods. The woods that I grew up in and the woods that became more important to me than any school or church. The woods of the Meadowlands, the place I always felt most at home.

Now, I more cautiously continued around the fallen trees as I scanned the treetops with my binoculars. I made my way across the homemade wooden bridges and plotted around the more flooded forest floor. I am a teenager again! The cold wind gladly froze my face and my cold fingertips had to be stuffed into my pockets as they have for 68 years and now, for at least one moment more.  

Now I could hear the voices and laughter of all my friends that are always by my side. My late brother Todd, my old pal Paul and of course Jimmy. We looked out for each other in a life that was formed and framed by the nature of these woods and all the Meadowlands. It was who we were and now who I am.

Now I am very quickly reminded as I make my way out of the woods as my legs can no longer easily step over the logs and my walking stick is very much needed on the slick trails. My ears don’t hear the Chickadees nearly as well and my eyes are long past the days when I could see the motionless owl in the broken, big oak.

But no matter, the magic is still there and always will be. Time can never take that away and all those memories will forever keep me the same kid that connected forever to the place in nature  that I loved and now choose to defend.

My friends and I were blessed, though of course we did not know it at the time. None of us had much of anything material growing up and looking back many times, I know that we did without. But the magic of our ability to connect with the natural world was above all else special and at times all we really had.

It gave us a gift and me especially, a kid who felt left out and could not fit in, the gift of a place that was real and as much, a home as any ever could be.  It provided me a place of confidence, a Safe Place to come to when the world around me was not so safe, and a place that allowed me to become an equal with the world around me. Something I that I will carry with me forever.

As modern conservationists, there are many issues that will make me lose sleep at night, from habitat destruction to climate change just to start. But the one that I worry about more than all the others is how too many of us are disconnecting from nature and some children now growing up without the love of the natural world in their lives.

We cannot and will not ever take environmental issues seriously until we learn to love nature as individuals. Of course, I know the days of growing up the way I did are long gone. But I believe everyone, young, old and everyone in-between, can find, appreciate and love the nature that is right outside our door in the same way that I did. 

So it is my New Year’s wish that all of us find our own way to help folks learn about nature. You don’t need to be a teacher, a park ranger, have a group of funny letters after your name or be President of the Audubon society.

Just be yourself and pass the love of the birds, butterflies, flowers and all of nature on to a neighbor, a child, a senior, the mailman, an elected official and anyone who might listen. Point out a bird, show them a bumblebee, find a Butterfly for them. You may change their lives forever and together change the world and save it for everyone forever.

Happy New Year and See You in the Meadowlands!

Don

With the Meadowlands Eagle Festival coming up on Sunday, January 14, we felt that it was a good time to repost Bergen County Audubon Society President Don Torino’s heartfelt and heartwarming column on Alice the Eagle. The column was originally posted on Aug. 3, 2021.

For more information on the Meadowlands Eagle Festival, click here

All Photos By Chris Takacs

Sometimes along life’s journey something very special happens to us, things that can’t always be explained and stay with us, become part of us and find a permanent place in our hearts forever. Things that we wish that someone might share the story in hopes it might be remembered.

These are the times that you go over in your mind while sitting alone in the backyard or just walking down the trail. The times that you think about when you want to know all is right in the world and hold dear forever to remind yourself that good things are worth standing up for and fighting for and, have a purpose. The special ones that in the end make life worth living. This is one of those times. Alice the Eagle is home again.

Many of you might remember the story of Alice the Eagle, who first nested with her mate Al on the Overpeck in Ridgefield Park back in 2011. What seemed like a miracle occurred on Overpeck Creek in Ridgefield Park. What was believed to be just about impossible and could have only happened in another time and place transpired right before our eyes: A pair of American Bald Eagles took up residence in one the most densely populated areas of the country.

These brave Bald Eagles would go on to defy the odds and thrive in an area that no one would have dared believe, or even thought conceivable, as a place that the species would make their homes. But just as these great symbols of our nation that came to be known as Alice and Al began their astounding comeback they immediately came under a serious threat.

Choosing to place their nest on private property that had been slated for a multi-million dollar development project led the powerful powers that be to begin seeking the proper permits to have the nest removed in the name of cleaning up a former dumping ground and in the never ending quest for so called progress. But as with all our Bald Eagles, Alice and Al returned from the brink of extinction and struggled and fought to survive. The people that grew to love them fought back with the very same energy and spirit as these great birds

School children wrote letters and folks organized. Good people of all ages of every political party held signs, made phone calls, signed petitions, and let it be known that these Eagles would stay and no big developer, government agency or anyone else was going to tell them otherwise.

Even after many people and groups said we were wasting our time and could never win we did succeed. And after a long hard struggle Alice and Al finally won. They were allowed to stay and over the years bring forth nine more Eagles into the world to the joy and amazement of all who came to love these two amazing raptors.

In what seemed like a never ending battle with many sleepless nights and long, stressful days people joined together to save something that they felt was bigger than themselves and had succeeded.

But as nature has always done and hopefully always will, the circle of life continued on even at this very special place. Life ends and is renewed and despite our best human wishes and desires one day Alice the Eagle did not return to her nest.

As everyone watched the skies in 2017 preparing for another nesting season and looked for the Eagle with the tracking device on her back and missing wing feather, sadly she did not return. Even as the vigil continued on and another Eagle took her place she would not be seen again gracing the skies of the Overpeck. Where had she gone? We in all likelihood thought we would never know.

Folks for years including myself still looked for Alice. We closely watched the skies hoping to get a glimpse of her so that we could report to everyone that there is no need to worry, that she is doing fine and still patrolling the skies over her ancestral home. There were reports of her. Well maybe, just rumors, never a real confirmation. I felt in my heart that no matter how much I wished I would never see Alice the Eagle again.

One of the last times I was blessed to see Alice the Eagle I was sitting at a picnic table near the Overpeck. I had just gotten off the phone with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. They gave me the news that Alice and Al’s nest would be protected. Later I thought she may have flown over just to say thank you before she left.

Then Came Feb. 8, 2021.  “Don, we think we saw an adult Eagle along Valley Brook Avenue outside DeKorte Park,” Chris Takacs told me. “A female adult Eagle seen flying from Berry’s Creek. Eagle had a backpack and antenna. She was spotted eating a duck in DeKorte Park sitting on ice!”

Could this be? My heart raced. No, it must be another Eagle with a transmitter. It could not be Alice after all these years. I immediately contacted Kathy Clark at NJDEP. “No Don, we don’t know of any other eagle with a transmitter except Alice,” she said.

Then two days later another message from Chris:  “Berry’s Creek, adult female eagle with backpack was seen flying! Wings outstretched, she has a feather missing from her left wing. It’s Alice from the Ridgefield Park nest!!! It’s her. She is home!”

Where had she been all this time? Where did she go? Was she trying to get home? Through February all eyes in the Meadowlands were on the skies looking for Alice. Then like a story out of children’s book there were two Eagles, both carrying sticks around DeKorte Park and Berry’s Creek. It looked like Alice had found a mate! And just like Alice who never did anything that the books or the experts said she would she decided to make her nest on an old osprey platform and just for good measure it would once again be on private property.

Then we began to scramble to alert everyone we could to be sure she was protected and safe:  the NJDEP, the NJSEA and the landowner. Yes, Alice the Eagle was finally home and once again we would be sure we gave her the best chance we could to stay.

As any volunteer with the NJ Bald Eagle project will tell you nesting time is when about three months of nail biting begin. Threats from everything from weather to predators to human interference can cause an eagle nest to fail, Alice was about 17 years old now, well up there for a Bald Eagle, and of course, we were given the job of protecting Alice and her nest. 

Yes, we were worried much like mother hens but like the great mom Alice had always been in March she had eggs and in April Alice and her mate brought two more Bald Eagles into the world.

Writing this story I still find it hard to believe; things like this are not supposed to happen. The fact that Alice survived this long is amazing in itself and then of all the places in the country she could have nested she came home. And not only did she come home but she made sure she brought two more Eagles into the world and to make it extra special she brought them to our  Meadowlands.

I am sure if I searched hard enough I could find all the scientific reasons I want for the reasons Alice came home. But what I do know is that when I needed her most, when I thought I would never see her again she came home. Through the horrors of Covid to the fears of political unrest she came home. When we thought that there was nothing else to look forward to, when believing in the future or wondering if there would even be a future Alice came home.

Maybe she wanted to remind us that we should never give up, that there are things bigger than ourselves that there are still things still worth standing up and fighting for. Thank you Alice, and welcome home from all of us!

Since Alice’s successful nest in 2021 she has moved on once again , it will always be my hope that she will return once again , but to me  she will always be out there somewhere , especially in my heart 

*Prizes available while supplies last

The Meadowlands Eagle Festival is less than two weeks away! Above please
find a complete schedule of the day’s activities.

The NJSEA and the Bergen County Audubon Society have a plethora of activities lined up for the entire
family in DeKorte Park and the Meadowlands Environment Center. The event takes
place on Sunday, Jan. 14, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Snow date is Sunday, Jan. 21.

We’ll be taking visitors on guided Eagle walks throughout the day. Fun, educational and engaging activities taking place in the Meadowlands Environment Center include a presentation by BCAS President Don Torino and the
ever-popular live raptor show that enthralls kids and adults alike. The raptor show is ongoing throughout the day.

Environmental groups will be on-hand with information tables featuring materials that impart valuable knowledge about the majestic species. There are also Eagle crafts and other activities for kids, art exhibits and more. Youngsters are invited to bring their own Eagle artwork to the event.

Join us in learning all about Eagles, and the importance of protecting them and their habitat. You can make a difference in helping to sustain and further their incredible comeback and to help them thrive