The Monarch migration continues. We caught this newly minted Monarch on Goldenrod at Harrier Meadow on Wednesday morning.

More on the 2010 fall Monarch migration here.

As of late Thursday, the tide gates for the Shorebird Pool (aka the Kingsland Impoundment, the first body of water on your left as you enter DeKorte) are open, exposing this tidal impoundment to the ebb and flow the tides. At low tide, this means mud flats. We have had yellowlegs here this week.

As a rule of thumb, tides are roughly 1-2 hours later than the tides at the Amtrak RR Bridge on the Hackensack River. You can click here to get those tides. For example, low tide on Saturday in the Shorebird Pool should be a bit after noon.

Note, tides are affected by all sorts of factors, including rain, wind and Moon. In other words, water depth at low tide can vary drastically.

A lengthy but riveting explanation of how to predict tide follows.

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The Meadowlands Commission's next free nature walk with Bergen County Audubon is Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 10 a.m. at DeKorte Park. We'll look for newly arrived White-crowned Sparrows and new waterfowl (like these two Pintails above, photographed on Oct. 21, 2008, at DeKorte), plus any lingering shorebirds and a raptor or two.

We also have a free bonus walk on Sunday, Oct. 24, at 10 a.m. at Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus. The marsh is especially beautiful this time of year.

Details on both walks follow.

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A Clay-colored Sparrow was reported at DeKorte behind the McDowell Observatory on eBird yesterday, and two were banded yesterday at the nearby Harrier Meadow/Erie landfill banding station.

A photo of one of the banded CC Sparrow is above.

More on the bird here.

Ron Shields took this shot of a small raptor at Kearny Marsh on Sunday morning.

Although an initial ID leaned toward Cooper's or Sharpie, we are thinking it's a Merlin. (We are also well aware that IDs of perched raptors can be challenging.)

Anyone else? (Thanks, Ron!)

Ron also took the photo of a Rusty Blackbird (below) at the same location on Sunday morning.

More on Merlins here.

More on Rusty Blackbirds here.

Robert Gill got this shot of a Redtail on the north side of Disposal Road last Friday evening. (Thanks, Robert!)

   This is the view of DeKorte park from the former Erie Landfill. Disposal Road and the AMVETS Carillon are on left. DeKorte todal impoundments, including Teal Pool are in middle of photo. Photo was taken last week.

Saw this guy at the Kearny Marsh at the beginning of this month. Who is it?

Click here for answer and more info.

When a Grasshopper lands on your windshield, you pull over and stop your vehicle, and then reach for your camera.

We spent our lunch hour on the side of a closed North Arlington landfill on Thursday, and so did this American Kestrel.

Our lunch was forgettable, but the kestrel's …  the falcon dined on a delicacy, in flight.

As the bird first came into view, we could see that it had something in its talons. We were so busy trying to photograph the bird that we did not make out what it was carrying.

It was only we downloaded the photos that we saw the meal  — a Praying Mantis.

Like humans, kestrels sometimes need to eat lunch on the fly.