John V. Soltes, editor-in-chief of The Leader, did an offbeat front-page story this week on "lucky" birding finds in the Meadowlands. The story quotes the NJMC's Jim Wright, who keeps this blog, and NJMC naturalist Gabrielle Bennett-Meany.
Some nice pix from the blog (including the one above of a young Peregrine) provided the visuals. Link is here.
The Meadowlands is a prime destination for foraging egrets that have colonized South Brother Isand in the East River. That fact was underscored late last month when Lorraine Novinski was taking one of her regular bird counts for the Harbor Herons survey.
Lorraine noted a Snowy Egret that had been banded on South Brother. When NYC Audubon heard of the sighting, it sent reseracher Liz Craig (above) to the site to see if she could find the banded Snowy as well.
She did not see the Snowy, but she held up a large antenna and picked up the signal from a Great Egret that had been equipped with miniature radio transmitter at South Brother Island in June.
These are the main types of sandpipers we are getting at DeKorte these days. These were photographed on a free guided Marsh Discovery Trail walk last week.
Can you identify them?
Answer follows.
Lots of great butterflies around these days, including this Monarch photographed recently by R.T. Geoghan. (Thanks, R.T.!)
After the noon Marsh Discovery walk today, we checked the Jill Ann Ziemkiewicz Butterfly Garden and nearby Butterfly Bushes and saw at least 10 species in less than 10 minutes: Monarch, Viceroy, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Red Admiral, Pearl Crescent, Common Buckeye, Silver-spotted Skipper, Broad-winged Skipper, Cabbage White, Wild Indigo Duskywing.
Don Torino reports:
Can you guess what this is? Clue: It was photographed near the beginning of the Marsh Discovery Trail on a recent guided walk.
In mid-July at the Clay Avenue wetlands in Lyndhurst, birder Chris Takacs saw a distant Semipalmated Sandpiper with a brightly colored tag on its wing.
Chris trained his spotting scope on the bird and jotted down the number. When he got home, he reported his sighting to http://www.bandedbirds.org/
Later in the month, he got word that the bird was tagged 18 months earlier in French Guiana, South America.
As it turns out, that bird had been tagged down there by a fellow New Jerseyan, David Mizrahi,vice president of research and monitoring for the New Jersey Audubon Society. Small world — especially if you are a migrating shorebird. Or not. French Guiana is 2800 miles away.
We had been hoping to see one of these little B-52 Bombers at DeKorte, and finally saw one on Thursday. It was buzzing around the side of the Environment Center by the drinking fountain, then flying into a gap in the wall.
The Cicada Killer Wasps are aptly named — not only do they kill Cicadas, but a female will lay an egg on a paralyzed Cicada. When the egg hatches, the grub lives off the dead Cicada. Yum.
More on Cicada Killers here.
Sorry for not getting a better photo above (it doesn't give you any idea of how big this thing is), but this Cicada Killer must have just had a Starbucks coffee — it simply would not sit still. We have looked for it since then, with no luck, but we will keep our eyes out.
We realize that a lot of people with grassy lawns are not big fans of these insects, but they are amazing bugs.
If you just have to see a Least Bittern, 
one has been seen from the boardwalk cupola by the Environment Center in DeKorte Park the past couple of days.
We're not saying it's easy to see (look at the image above), but one has been making appearances on the phrag island beyong the cupola. A spotting scope is a huge help.
At right is a very enlarged image taken with a 400mm lens.
Ray Duffy reports: "I was birding around DeKorte around 11:30 a.m. A Least Bittern was hanging out on the edge of one of the phragmite islands viewable from the boardwalk around the Visitor's Center.
"I also noticed my first Laughing Gulls in Bergen Co of the year with about a dozen or so adult plummage birds hanging out on the mudflats of the Saw Mill Creek WMA impoundment.
"After leaving the park, I stopped at the Clay Avenue Marsh in Lyndhurst and found a Pectoral Sandpiper mixed in with some Semipalmated Sandpipers and Killdeer."
Link to one of Ray's Least Bittern pics from today is here. (Thanks, Ray!)