Thinking of visiting DeKorte Park or nearby Disposal Road this weekend?

To see what’s being reported at DeKorte on eBird Hotspot Explorer, click here.

To see what’s being reported along Disposal Road on eBird Hotspot Explorer, click here.

Note: As of Friday, part of Disposal Road near DeKorte Park had a very deep puddle covering the entire roadway. You may want to park in DeKorte and walk down the Transco Trail or take the Schuyler Road entrance to Disposal Road.

Trying to find something on the blog — an upcoming walk, a certain photographer’s photos, posts on Muskrats, sightings of a favorite butterfly? Don’t forget that you can search 4.5 years of blog posts by using the Google search engine in the upper-right part of the blog. Let the searches begin.

The NJMC’s Drew McQuade reports:

Another Snowy, out on the opposite bank of the Shorebird Pool again.  Looks like it could be a different bird than the one that was here yesterday.  He’s sitting next to the first Tree Swallow nestbox to the right of Marsh Discovery trail promenade  — about 25 yards to the right of yesterday’s owl.

(Thanks, Drew!) 

Best seen through a spotting scope, but DeKorte is very cold and windy today, so dress for the weather.. 

Jim Wright, who keeps this blog for the Meadowlands Commission, also writes a twice-monthly column for the South Bergenite. His most recent column is on Short-eared Owls:

This winter has been the season of the snowy owl, which has been visiting the Garden State from the Arctic in record numbers.   But the Meadowlands have been blessed with frequent appearances by another invader from the north, the short-eared owl.

Most of these nocturnal raptors have apparently moved elsewhere but they put on a great show while they were here.

The best place to see the medium-sized owls was from Disposal Road (which runs from Schuyler Avenue in North Arlington to Valley Brook Avenue). All you had to do to find the owls was to look for the row of photographers with Hubble-telescope-size lenses aimed at the old Kingsland Landfill.

Because these owls like to hunt by flying low over the grasses, they are a great bird to watch and to photograph.

In fact, I would have written about them sooner, but the weeks of snowy weather have narrowed that stretch of Disposal and made for difficult driving and bird-watching conditions — especially with the avian paparazzi present.

Even so, the short-eared owl is one of NJMC Naturalist Mike Newhouse’s favorite birds.

They look so majestic when they fly,” he says. “It is really amazing to watch these owls hunt. I can watch them for hours, and I have.” Continue reading →

Edna Duffy reports:

Yesterday and today [Michael and I] saw a Peregrine Falcon sitting in the tree below the ravens’ nest.

We saw one raven on the lawn on Monday, no ravens on Tuesday and today we saw both ravens on the hill away from the nest.

We watched the peregrine actually dive-bomb both ravens about 100 feet from the nest and then return to the tree below the nest.  Recent post on the ravens’ nest is here.

Thanks, Edna — this has happened before….

A post is here.  And here.

The Snowy is perched on a railing on the Marsh Discovery Trail, visible from the Transco Trail.

Can probably be seen from the western spur of the Turnpike if you are a passenger… Photo above taken from Transco Trail with a 400mm lens, highly cropped.

(Thanks to the NJMC’s Drew McQuade for pointing out the bird.)

Allan Sanford reports:

“The Killdeer are stacking up on Disposal Road already. Started seeing them a few days ago.”

(Thanks, Al!)  (A sure sign of spring!)

Don’t birding class visited DeKorte Park last week; highlights included a Bald Eagle.

Don Torino, who will be leading two Birding for Beginners Classes for Bergen County Audubon at DeKorte Park next month, addresses the age-old question “What Exactly Is Birding?” in the his latest column for the South Bergenite.

Here’s a sample:

Maybe when it comes right down to it there is no way to put birding into just a few sentences.

Maybe the singing of a Wood Thrush or the call of a Killdeer invalidates human language when it comes down to explaining the joy of watching birds in the wild. Perhaps when a new birder witnesses the beauty of a Red-winged Blackbird and the brilliance of a Scarlet Tanager words will not be necessary to explain why we love what we do.

The link is here.

Ray Duffy reports that yesterday:

I had an Eastern Phoebe at Schmidt’s Woods [in Secaucus].  Fox Sparrows and juncos are singing.

I had 1 American Woodcock calling last night at 8:30 at Laurel Hill [in Secaucus] in the woods behind the bathrooms.

(Thanks, Ray!  The Meadowlands Commission and Bergen County Audubon Society are holding a Woodcock Walk next Monday at 6:45 p.m. in Laurel Hill, so it’s great to hear that the woodcocks are returning .)

Directions to Schmidt’s Woods and Laurel Hill are in the right-hand column of this blog.

The Meadowlands Commission is pleased to announce that Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus  is open to the public again. It had been closed because of all the heavy snows this winter had made footing difficult.  (Spring can’t come soon enough.)