The South Bergenite has a neat update on the Wild Turkeys that have been hanging out in Rutherford.
   Link is here.

  We are happy to report that Ray Duffy saw two young Ospreys in a nest on a radio tower across the Hackensack River from Mill Creek Point yesterday.
    This has the potential to be major news: We know of no successful Osprey nest in Bergen County in decades. These young Ospreys likely have a ways to go before they fledge, so keep your fingers crossed.
   For roughly a year, the Meadowlands Commission has been keeping an eye on this pair of  Ospreys. They had a nest on same radio tower in 2009, but we think it was a "starter nest" for this year.
   We took the photo on the left on Thursday but could see no young. The nest is at the bottom of the photo; a perched Osprey is in the upper middle of the shot.  Stay tuned.
   (Thanks, Ray!)

    For those keeping score at home, we saw this Banded Hairstreak on the Butterfly Weed at the Jill Ann Ziemkiewicz Butterfly Garden last Thursday.
    Naturally, we were carrying the wrong lens to photograph it properly. We'll try to get a better shot and (if space allows) add it to the next printing of our new DeKorte Butterfly Guide.
    More on this butterfly here.
    Also: We had our first DeKorte Monarch on Monday.

    We took this shot last Thursday at Harrier Meadow. We are thinking Spotted Sandpiper. Any dissenters?

   In the interests of citizen science, we are working up a digital tally sheet that you can copy-and-paste and use to submit butterfly sightings at DeKorte Park.
   We understand that butterfly sightings  in our part of the state are under-reported, and we wanted to at least see if we could get the ball rolling here.
   We just did a quick count, and our timing was great. We counted at least eight species, including two dozen skippers of various types, with Broad-winged Skippers like the one above predominating.

  You can download the sheet here:

Download DeKorte Butterfly Count Sheet

   Please e-mail Jim Wright here with your butterfly counts and — equally important — suggestions on improving this work in progress.

   Results of our recent count are below.  

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   From what we hear, water levels at DeKorte Park's Shorebird Pool will likely return to normal later this week, possibly as early as tomorrow (Tuesday).  We have an hour-long walk along the Marsh Discovery Trail Tuesdays and Thursdays at noon.

   Last Fourth of July weekend, the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society had their first-ever first-Sunday-of-the-Month walk, and saw some great birds, including the Black Skimmer above.
   We are beginning Year Two of our partnership with another DeKorte walk this Sunday at 10 a.m. Details follow.

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   NY1 did a nice short segment  on our Tuesday and Thursday noon walks on the otherwise-closed Marsh Discovery Trail.
   (Next walk is tomorrow; water levels are still way down.)
   Link to NY1 segment is here.