Roy Woodford reports:
"Finally found the first year mail Orchard Oriole (I think) that everybody has been yammering about. He was singing up a storm on the Kingsland Overlook Trail … took 45 minutes to track him down and get a few shots."
(Thanks, Roy!) And yes, "Oh Oh" is short for Orchard Oriole.
Our latest "Focus on the Meadowlands" photos for wildnewjersey.tv feature this pair of Black Skimmers (now seen regularly toward dusk in DeKorte's Shorebird Pool), DeKorte's Daylilies, and the new One World Trade Center skyscraper as seen from the Meadowlands.
Botanist Edith Wallace used a hand lens, or loupe, to see plants up-close on our guided plant walk this past Sunday.
Congrats to Matt and Mimi for IDing the tool correctly.
Don Torino, who leads so many of the guided walks that the Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society offer each walk, has a new column on Pipevine Swallowtails on wildnewjersey.tv.
Don writes:
Long ago, this most elegant of butterflies was a much more common sight than it is today. This is because their host plant – the the Pipevine (Aristolochia) – is the only plant that the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly caterpillar will use!
About a hundred years ago, the Pipevine graced the porches and trellises of many homes, but as it fell in of favor the Pipevine Swallowtail, it fell in numbers. This butterfly has become hard to find and concentrated in small locations, including the Greenbrook Sanctuary in Bergen County.
We also had a Pipevine Swallawtail at DeKorte last summer, in mid-July.
The link to Don's column is here.
The link to our blog post on the Pipevine Swallowtail is here.
Steve Buckingham reports:
I thought you might like to know that the fountain in the center of the butterfly garden was quite the place to be for a few minutes late Saturday afternoon. First a lone Gray Catbird thought he would clean himself up:
Then two Cedar Waxwings crashed the party… Thanks, Steve!)
Our next free guided walk is next Tuesday at 10 
a.m. at DeKorte Park.
We'll cover the recently reopened loop along the Marsh Discovery Trail and Transco Trail, and look for butterflies and buds as well as birds.
Should be fun. We hope you can make it!
Details follow.
Believe it or not, there's an adult bald eagle perched on the tallest tree on the landfill just to the left of the setting sun above [photographed on Saturday].
The eagle briefly hunted the impoundments and then flew to this lofty perch and was still there as night fell.
In addition, the last two days yielded up to ten Black Skimmers mostly found gathered on the mudflats to the east of the Saw
Mill Creek Trail near the turnpike.
The Peregrine Falcon continues to make its nightly appearance in the first set of towers. (Thanks, Ron!)
What is the name of the monocle-like device that ace botanist Edith Wallace used on her guided plant walk this past Sunday at DeKorte Park?
What is it used for?
(We like to think of it as a really, really small spotting scope.)
The Meadowlands Commission is pleased to announce that the Transco Trail is now open again for its entire length, from the AMVETS Carillon on Disposal Road all the way to the western spur of the New Jersey Turnpike — nearly a mile long.
You can now take the Marsh Discovery Trail and Transco Trail and do a loop back to the parking lot again. The trail had been scheduled to be closed through June 30, so this is especially good news.
Thank you for your patience. Williams (Transco Pipeline) was conducting a pressure test of the natural-gas pipeline, and the testing is now done.
Ron Shields reports:
With an incoming tide, the Saw Mill Creek Trail was extremely active one night last week just before dusk.
Highlights included at least ten Black-crowned Night Herons huddled on the mudflats at the beginning of the trail, a flyover Osprey with the catch of the day, a Gray Ghost retreating to Harrier Meadow, three Black Skimmers (7:45PM) that made several passes throughout the impoundments, and a Peregrine Falcon that made a few unsuccessful attempts at supper before catching and devouring a shorebird.
With all that, it was the low pressure clouds and the light they reflected that really stole the show for me.