Don't forget. Butterfly Day is this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at DeKorte Park, and it's free and fun for the whole family!

Full details follow.

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We are happy to report that as of mid-afternoon yesterday, Dennis the Menace, the aggressive Red-winged Blackbird, was no longer defending his nesting area along the Marsh Discovery Trail.

(Thanks again to Dennis Cheeseman for the photo; no relation.)

Ron Shields reports:

"Attached please find a sampling of images taken from the growth surrounding the "puddles" along Disposal Road before the drought wiped them out.  If you look real close, you'll note that the female indigo bunting (left) is banded.  [See link from earlier this week; must have been a double ring ceremony.]

"In addition, raptor action continues to heat up with Peregrine Falcons perching on the towers and hunting over the landfills. As many as four kestrels have been spotted in the fields as well."

Two more pix follow.

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Susan Elbin of NYC Audubon passed along this shot of the tagged Great Egret seen in Morris County earlier this week, photographed by Jonathan Klizas. (Another tagged egret was seen in Lyndhurst this week, by Chris Takacs).

The Morris County bird hailed from Jamaica Bay. The Lyndhurst bird possibly hailed from Hoffman's Island near Staten Island.

Susan Elbin asks birders to be on the lookout for tagged egrets  — please report any sightings to selbin (at) nycaudubon.org.

Thanks, Jonathan and Susan!

Link to a blog post on the Morris County sighting is here.

Link to earlier post on Lyndhurst tagged egret is here.

Our latest "Focus on the Meadowlands" post for wildnewjersey.tv features two butterflies and an unusual diurnal moth.

The link is here.

On Tuesday morning, Chris Takacs saw a wing-tagged Great Egret at the Clay Avenue wetlands in Lyndhurst.

Susan Elbin of NYC Audubon, which runs the Harbor Herons wing-tagging program, writes …

"That's one of my babies (young of the year). It's either from Hoffman Island or from Jamaica Bay.

We need to know the numbers on the tag to be sure.

It would be FANTASTIC if birders in the Meadowlands would report any sightings to you (ideally with photos)!

Nellie Tsipoura of NJ Audubon and I are also trying to figure out where the egrets roost (at night)…especially as migration approaches.

Can birders in the Meadowlands help with that, too? If you know of any areas where Great Egrets congregate in large numbers during the evening….

Hoffman Island is a small artificial island off Staten Island, more than a dozen miles south of the Meadowlands. Photo of Hoffman is on right.

Contact Susan Elbin at selbin (at) nycaudubon.org if you see any wing-tagged or banded egrets — or know of roosting sites.

(Thanks, Chris and Susan!)

For a link to a post about banded egrets from Hoffman Island from two years ago, click here.

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 on 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.

Just in time for Butterfly Day at DeKorte Park on Sunday, we have seen nifty but tiny new-for-the-year butterflies here this week. Can you ID them?

We had two full pontoon boats yesterday morning for our birding by boat cruise — and lots of good looks at Yellow-crowned Night Herons,  Diamondback Terrapins, and Ospreys and Osprey nests.

The event was brought to you by the NJ Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society. Next "Birding by Boat" is Tuesday, Aug. 28!

Full list and more pix (including baby Osprey in nest) from Tuesday  follow.

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Ray Duffy writes: "I was looking at one of my pics of a male Indigo Bunting on Valley Brook and I noticed it was wearing a leg band.  I wonder if it's one of yours, Mike [Newhouse, who haeds the bird-banding project for the Meadowlands Commission]."

Replies Mike, "Most likely."

And there you have it…