Lots of great birds on Tuesday's combined guided walk at Harrier Meadow and DeKorte Park's Marsh Discovery Trail.
We saw the Tricolored Heron (yawn) and several Least Bitterns (ho hum) as well as the Little Blue (left) and a Pied-billed Grebe (seen by some at harrier on Tuesday but photographed today).
Full lists follow.
Thanks to the dozens of genial folks who joined us!
Hope Abrams noticed that the Sand Wasps on DeKorte Park's Teal Pool beach were bringing prey into their nesting holes — snacks for their larvae.
Hope thinks the prey in these photos may be some sort of shield bug. Any thoughts?
(Thanks, Hope!)
We just got our advance copy of "The Nature of the Meadowlands," and we have to say that it looks pretty cool.
With a foreword by N.J. Governor Thomas H. Kean, the lavishly illustrated, 128-page coffee-table book illuminates the region's natural and unnatural history — from its darkest days of a half-century ago to its environmental revival.
It also celebrates the amazing landscapes and parks to be found here, including DeKorte Park, the Kearny Marsh and Secaucus’s Laurel Hill.
And it features some striking images, frompresent-day nature and landscape photography to pictures of an old Secaucus pig farm, a "Sopranos" landmark, a Harp Seal in Carlstadt, an Eastern Coyote on a Meadowlands landfill, and rare Laurel Hill minerals. In short, expect the unexpected.
To reserve your signed copy (copies) now and get a 20 percent discount good through October 1, 2012, e-mail Jim at jim.wright (at) njmeadowlands.gov. He will be happy to notify you by e-mail when the book arrives.
More information follows.
Our latest "Focus on the Meadowlands" post for wildnewjersey.tv features the first Osprey fledged in Secaucus (above) in decades, plus a Least Bittern and a new shot of the Tricolored Heron (What else?)
The link is here.
Brandon Caswell writes:
I have been down to DeKorte quite a bit lately and I am getting some good advice and pointers from a bunch of the regular bird photographers in the area.
Ron Shields h gave me the idea of this picture as his lens was too big for it. I got lucky and at one point there were two juvenile Forster's Terns, the Tricolored and what appears to be a juvenile Herring Gull. Using a higher aperture I was somehow able to get them all in focus.
I just think it is funny because all the birds are juveniles and they are all successively alternating their points of view (viewer's right, left, right, left starting with the front tern). There is never a dull moment at DeKorte.
Brandon calls the photo "Juvenile Row." Thanks, Brandon!
Note to birders and photographers: The water levels for Shorebird Pool are lowered again, and there is mud along the shorelines again.
As of 4 p.m. Wednesday, one Least Bittern was seen just as you enter the Marsh Discovery Trail, toward the back of that first outcropping on the left, by some dead Phrag stalks (see photo above).
They may be starting to disperse, as one was seen this morning on the other end of the Marsh Discovery Trail. There have also been plenty of American Kestrels and Peregrines on Disposal Road — and Common Ravens in that vicinity as well.
Will be posting more photos and sightings as time allows.
Do you remember when a fire burned a huge stand of Phragmites in Carlstadt, next to the western spur of the Turnpike and Paterson Plank Road. There was nothing left but scorched earth. Not quite.
A photo of the same patch of land, taken last week, follows.
Start the fall birding season with a free, NFL-themed “Back to Football” Nature Walk at DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst on Sunday, Sept. 2, at 10 a.m.
The guided, 90-minute walk, sponsored by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission (NJMC) and the Bergen County Audubon Society, has a special National Football League theme – and nifty prizes.
To celebrate the opening game of the 2012 season between the Dallas Cowboys and Super Bowl Champion Giants at nearby MetLife Stadium on Wednesday, Sept. 5, the NFL is offering a prize to the first person on the walk to see any bird species with the same name as a pro-football team: Cardinal, Raven, Falcon, Eagle, Seahawk (osprey), Giant (great) egret (above) and Giant (great) blue heron.
All seven team bird species can be seen in DeKorte Park, the home of the NJMC.
The walk meets inside the one-square mile park’s Meadowlands Environment Center. Super Bowl XLVIII will be played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford in February 2014.
You will have to sign a standard liability release that is good for NJMC/BCAS events throughout the year. To rsvp, contact Don Torino of the BCAS at greatauk4@aol.com or 201-230-4983. The Meadowlands Environment Center’s phone number is 201-777-2431.
Sometimes photos are just for information… Took these distant shots near the Bloomberg Radio transmission towers in Carlstadt last Thursday.
An Osprey that recently nested on the towers left with a fish as we pulled into the parking lot there.
Soon after, as it headed toward the Rochard P. Kane Natural Area, it was chased by a falcon — Peregrine or Merlin? — until it left the area.
The following day, American Kestrels were chasing Peregrines by Disposal Road in Lyndhurst. It's an aerial jungle out there.
Our Third Tuesday of the Month Walk at Harrier Meadow and DeKorte Park drew more than 60 birders and some great looks at some great birds.
Highlights included the Tricolored Heron, a Little Blue Heron and 3 — count 'em, 3 — Least Bitterns. Plus a bazillion Painted Ladies.
Later in the week, we will post a full list of species seen.