The Meadowlands Commission and Bergen County Audubon Society would like to thank all the folks who turned out last night for our first annual
Moth Night. We stopped counting around 100 or so.

Equally important we would like to thank Dave Moskowitz and the team from National Moth Week for providing the lights and expertise and putting on such an amazing program.

We will be posting more photos as time allows — including a bunch of moths that we probably could use some help identifying.

Ar one point, Dave estimated that we had 100 species of moths either at the light set-ups (we had three of them) or the trees with a special moth-magnet brew on them.

A couple of moth pix follow, just to wet your whistle.

Continue reading →

The NJMC's Jim Wright, who keeps this blog, is giving a free talk and slide show on a brief history of birds in the Meadowlands next Tuesday, July 31, at 2 p.m.

The event will be held in the Meadowlands Environment Center auditorium in DeKorte Park.

Topics will include Meadowlands birds that have made remarkable comebacks, gone extinct or rebounded in a most unexpected way.

The slide show will include a mix of archival images and recent Meadowlands nature photography.

Wright is the author of the upcoming coffee-table book, "The Nature of the Meadowlands," to be published by Schiffer Books this fall.

The talk, part of the MEC's summer senior programming, is open to all.

For more information or to rsvp, call (201) 777-2431 or (201) 460-8300.

First came the alpha-male Red-winged Blackbird. Now, says Roy Woodford, "The one surprise [Monday] was some rather aggressive Forster's Terns (above).  I counted six of them along the Marsh Discovery Trail … They weren't very happy with my presence (and I wasn't all that close).  I took a few shots and quickly left …"

Roy adds: "It's pretty slow this time of year … but if you look hard enough, there are a few things around.  There was an Eastern Wood-Pewee along Disposal Road … and a few Black-crowned Night Herons (below) along the Transco Trail."

David Moskowitz, who will speak and lead the Moth Night program at DeKorte Park, is a co-founder of National Moth Week.

He has posted lots of helpful background information about this amazing global event — and a link to Moth Night sites across New Jersey — on the wildnewjersey.tv blog. Link is here.

We had two new butterflies for DeKorte Park at Butterfly Day — the Meadow Fritillary and Horace's Duskywing (above). 

(Thanks to Julie McCall for the photo, and a thank you to Fred Weber, Wendy Rufo and Deedee Burnside for offering Horace's Duskywing photos as well.)

Still trying to get a Meadow Fritillary photo….

In addition to the fritillary, a Eastern Tailed-Blue (below) was caught by a camera only — thanks to Geri Kratina.

It was terrifice to see so many folks with cameras on Sunday. We believe that digital cameras have been key in increasing the popularity of butterfly-watching. You can capture their beauty and enjoy trying to identify them.

The official North American Butterfly Association list for DeKorte Park is here.

Regina Geoghan writes: "Don't know what he is but could be an interesting teaser question." 

What do you think?

Butterfly Day at DeKorte Park is receiving some great media coverage!

Michael Copley of The Record wrote in part:

While families and others were able to take in the winged-wonders under a blue sky, butterfly day also was a showcase of the environmental restoration that’s transformed the Meadowlands from a dump into a sanctuary.

“The day is about celebrating the environment here,” said Don Torino of the Bergen County Audubon Society. “The butterfly is like the canary in the coal mine – it’s a good way of demonstrating what the area has become.”     The link Michael Copley's article in The Record's is here.

Miles Ma of The Star-Ledger and NJ.com wrote:

"Fostering that kinship between families and nature is one of the goals of Butterfly Day in DeKorte Park, held on a sunny Sunday by the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission. The Smilon family was among more than 400 visitors expected at the park. [Note: The event ultimately drew more than 650 people.]

The link to Miles Ma's story on NJ.com, and lots of photos, is here.

Finally, there's a terrific video by Colleen Hagerty on NY1 — the link is here.

We had an amazing 21 species of butterflies yesterday at Butterfly Day.

We are posting the full list here, and will post photos from the day all this week — so please feel free to share yours.

Note: If you got a photo of the rare Meadow Fritillary or Horace's Duskywing seen briefly yesterday, please share!

Full list follows.

Continue reading →

A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our third annual Butterfly Day. We had 21 species of butterflies, and hundrds upon hundreds of terrific people. We will post a full list of butterflies this week.

As part of National Moth Week, we are having our first-ever Moth Night at DeKorte Park on Wednesday, beginning at 8:30 p.m.

We'll have a short talk by David Moskowitz, a co-founder of National Moth Week, who is bringing two awesome light set-ups to attract moths from all around.

Says Dave: "We will set up lights and a free-standing sheet near the butterfly garden and a second one down the parking lot a bit and run it off my generator. One  of the light setups is an amazing one that Todd Dreyer — one of the NMW team — built. It has a 400 watt mercury vapor light. It should be great!"

Full info follows.

Continue reading →