Great day, great folks, great birds — can’t think of a better way to start a new month than with a Bergen County Audubon Society/Meadowlands Commission walk.

A big thanks to the Black Skimmers for showing up and showing off.

And thanks to all who attended the reception for our “Nature of the Meadowlands” show in the Flyway Gallery after the walk.

Full bird list tomorrow.

The William D. McDowell Observatory in DeKorte Park has an exciting month of programming in June — beginning Monday night.

Free public access is from 9 to 10:30 on Monday and Wednesday nights this month — weather permitting, of course.

Dress for the weather; with the dome open, you are basically outside.

Each evening at least two major objects in the night sky will be viewed, plus one or two other celestial objects or events depending on the observing conditions.

For a South Bergenite column by the NJMC’s Jim Wright about the observatory, click here.

For more information about Observatory programming, click here.

Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Our next free guided walk will be Sunday, June 1, at 10 a.m., at DeKorte Park, followed by a free reception for the Flyway Gallery show featuring images from “The Nature of the Meadowlands.”  (Magnolia Warbler, above, was seen again this week.)

More on the gallery show here.

Full listing follows. Continue reading →

Muhammad Faizan was nice enough to share these Ruddy Turnstone “identification shots”  from this morning — taken from across Teal Pool.

Rob Fanning reports this appears to the first reported eBird sighting of a Ruddy Turnstone in Bergen County. Bird was found by Chris Takacs.

(Thanks, Faizan and Rob!)

Chris Takacs found a Ruddy Turnstone this morning at DeKorte. It is being seen now in  Teal Pool, same area where the Cinnamon Teal was.  Whimbrel also seen at DeKorte yesterday, as well as various out-of-season ducks.

“Grab shot” is above. Muhammad Faizan is taking photos, and i hope to post his later, so stay tuned.

The NJMC’s Drew McQuade reports:

Just passing along a few pics from the river Wednesday.

Above is The first is a male mummichog in its spawning colors.  The second and third show the sexual dimorphism between female and male striped killifish. Birds aren’t the only animals that vary between the seasons and the sexes.

Also included is a shot of Black Skimmers at River Barge Park, taken through my binoculars with an iPhone.   I counted 12 and later 14.  (Thanks, Drew!)

Ron Shields writes:

Here are some images of a very cooperative long-tailed duck found at the Kearny Marsh on Thursday.

It was a solitary bird found in the open water area of the marsh.  A very curious customer, it allowed an extremely close approach before it flew off toward the turnpike into the wind.

At times, it actually swam toward me.  I would think that it was just passing through the area.

According to Bill Boyle’s excellent “The Birds of New Jersey,” the Long-tail is a “common wintering duck along the outer coast” and “a few linger into May, and a summering bird is found on rare occasion.”

Doug Morel saw one at DeKorte in March this year. Link is here.  Jill Homcy and others saw one at Laurel Hill in January. Link is here.  Other sightings include at DeKorte and Laurel Hill in 2011.

More on Long-tailed Ducks here.  Please e-mail us if you see this guy!

(Thanks, Ron!)

Ray Gilbert got this recent shot of an adult banded Peregrine Falcon in the Meadowlands.

Thanks to the band, Ray was able to determine it was the same Peregrine that Mike Girone photographed last year.

Link to that post is here. (Thanks, Ray and Mike!)

Ron Shields writes:

The needle in a haystack. Flushed around 4:45PM at the Kearny Marsh, the teal flew toward the NJ Turnpike and Laurel Hill.

Photo above for documentary purposes.

(Thanks, Ron!)