The Bergen County Audubon Society marked National Save the Eagles Day on Sunday by focusing their binoculars on Al and Alice, the regions’ most popular Bald Eagle couple. The majestic pair have nested in a cottonwood tree in Ridgefield Park since at least 2011, producing nine eaglets. The eagles are located in a precarious perch, next to a planned nearby development. The developers have redesigned their plans to create a buffer zone between construction and the eagle’s nest, though BCAS members fear the nearby work may cause Al and Alice to flee. The Record ran a story on  the issue on Saturday – check it out here. The paper today published a report on yesterday’s Al and Alice Rally.

There’s a short piece in today’s NY Times on the European Starling, which is mentioned in Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part I.”  Check it out here.

Chris Takacs captured a great photo of a Hermit Thrush yesterday at Losen Slote Creek Park in Little Ferry. Like some other species, the Hermit Thrush is sticking around a little longer than usual before beginning its southern migration due to the warm December weather.

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!

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!

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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.

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!

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.

Having failed miserably in my past efforts at New Year’s Resolutions such as attempting to keep my car cleaner and get my birding books more organized, I hesitate to try to come up with any other attempts to change any of my old habits or ideas in 2016.

After all when you reach my age you are pretty much set in your ways. My car, which is really my BCAS mobile office, just seems to get more cluttered with binoculars, field guides, old coffee cups, garden tools and unidentified food wrappers of various kinds. My trunk is so deep in strange artifacts that only Indiana Jones would be brave enough to venture too far into it at this point.

Even an attempt in years past by a well-meaning and brave volunteer group of friends at organizing the disaster area in my trunk was doomed to failure. Never the less this is the time of year that society has decided for one reason or another that all of us force ourselves to commit to some kind of self-improvement agreement. So far be it from me to stray from tradition but this time I thought I would ask some friends for their Birding resolutions for the New Year and see if they will be more successful than me.

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Due to inclement weather, tonight’s (Dec. 30) open public viewing at the William D. McDowell Observatory in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst has been cancelled. The next open public viewing night is Wednesday, Jan. 6, from 7 to 10 pm.