We had a total of 45 species on our fifth annual Mother's Day Walk in Ridgefield last Sunday, at a variety of places — Ridgefield Nature Center, Ridgefield Community Garden, the Monk Parakeet Colony, Skeetkill Creek Marsh and the Bald Eagle nest observation site.
(Great time, great group, great birds.)
Highlights included great looks at plenty of warblers, including the Yellow Warbler pictured here. Full list follows…
Anything lurking? (Nope, no butterflies this week.)
Answer tomorrow.
Ray Duffy took a photo (above) and some videos of the Red Phalarope seen in the Meadowlands during the World Series of Birding.
Here are the video links:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rayduffy/8733472789/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rayduffy/8734593330/in/photostream/
It is listed as "rare" on the Birds of the Meadowlands checklist. Did not see it on a lunch-hour visit to Harrier Meadow today…
More on Red Phalaropes here.
Thanks, Ray!
NJMC Naturalists Gabrielle Bennett-Meany, Mike Newhouse and Brett Bragin install one of the new Canada Goose exclosures at Anderson Creek Marsh. It's part of a pilot program to see if the exclosures help keep marsh grasses away from hungry geese.
Our fifth annual Mother's Day walk in Ridgefield was a big hit — more than 40 bird species (including lots of warblers and an appearance by Alice the Bald Eagle — we could see her antenna in some of the photos).
A big thanks to Karen and Bruce Riede from the Ridgefield Environmental Commission for hosting the walk.
The walk was sponsored by the environmental commission, Bergen County Audubon Society and the Meadowlands Commission.
We'll post more pix and the full species list later this week.
For the second year in a row, the Meadowlands Marsh Hawks have won their division in The World Series of Birding.
The team racked up a record-setting 145 species — or 84 percent of the possible birds — in less than 24 hours.
The team's previous best was 139 species, set last year.
Congratulations to the Marsh Hawks — NJMC Naturalist Mike Newhouse and his teammates, Chris Takacs and Mike Wolfe — and congratulations to all the other teams that participated and raised money for worthy causes.
Full results of the 2013 WSB are here. We'll post the winning tally sheet later this week.
Saw the Marsh Hawks stepping up to the plate at the World Series of Birding this a.m. — just long enough to take this photo.
They could not spare another second in their quest to see/hear as many species as they could in Bergen County today.
Some good news: They already have seen a Black-capped Chickadee, their nemesis bird from 2012.
We will post their entire list, including the chickadee, next week.
Go, Marsh Hawks!
Because of Hurricane Sandy-related electrical repairs, DeKorte Park is closed until approximately 4 p.m. today — even to World Series of Birding participants. The park will reopen in time for the Saturday night concert at the Meadowlands Environment Center. If you need to contact Jim Wright, who maintains this blog, use his home account — wrightjamesb (at) gmail.com.
Valley Brook Ave. also will be closed near DeKorte Park until roughly 4 p.m. as part of the landfill-closure work. Thank you for your patience.
Today, the prize-winning Meadowlands Marsh Hawks defend their World Series of Birding title against some strong competition. Best of luck to our terrific team!
Everybody thinks that Tree Swallows are so sweet and nice and beautiful. Not necessarily so.
Consider the photo above, which didn’t quite make the final cut for “The Nature of the Meadowlands.”