A hearty thank you to the Bergen County Audubon Society from the NJSEA for the beautiful, interpretive butterfly species sign presented to the Authority yesterday (pictured are BCAS President Don Torino and NJSEA Parks Coordinator Gaby Bennett-Meany) to place in DeKorte Park.
The sign is the result of much hard work on the part of BCAS. Says Torino: The sign was designed by BCAS volunteer Flo Rutherford. It took a few months to decide what butterflies to put on the sign and how best to display them to make it easy to ID. Then of course we had our sign maker be sure it all fit and looked right before it was made so it took a lot of doing with alot of our volunteers working on it.
Our lives are all about stories, the stories we recollect from the days when we could run full out day and night without rest to the years when things slowed down and our lives sagas became more about old friends and family. These are the very same tales we love to recall when we have big audiences and the stories we love to remember when we are sitting on the front porch alone.
They are the stories we love to pass on to our children and our grandchildren and the stories we use to remind all our old buddies about where we have been and what we have done. They are our stories, the ones we hold deep in our hearts and save in that very special place to bring out when we need a smile or to renew our spirit. And so it goes the same for our birding stories.
Just as in life, birding is all about the stories too. Our stories are about the time when we saw our first Hummingbird buzz by your nose and felt the breeze from its wing on your cheek. They are stories that tell how you thought your heart was going to jump out of your chest when you watched your first Eagle soar silently overhead.
They are the unforgettable tales about when a Barred Owl stared down at you from an old Pin Oak or when a kettle of Broad-winged hawks seemed to come out of nowhere just for you and like the very special Cardinal that visits your feeder everyday just to say good morning. They are the stories that never leave you, the tales that become part of you and make you who you are and remind you why you love the birds.
Our birding stories are not only about birds but they are also about the people that taught us how to love and appreciate our avian creatures of the skies. Our stories are about the how our fathers helped build our first birdhouses and our best birding buddy that has passed on and left us. The stories are about the first warm spring day when we brought our son or daughter on their first bird walk and the friend that showed us how to identify our first Savannah Sparrow.
Memorable birding stories are not only about successes but also about our wonderful disappointments, We love to brag about how by some boundless miracle or our great attained birding skills we saw that rare life bird that we added to our list. But we also love to tell the tale about the time we traveled far from home only to miss that life bird by just a a few hours. They all play a part of the stories we love to remember .
Much like Native American cultures that carry on their heritage by storytelling birders too pass on their love of birding by a storytelling tradition. The Raptors, Warblers and Sparrows would not mean nearly as much unless we got to tell their story to our children, friends and everyone who cares (and even sometimes to those e that don’t) to listen to our folktales about the birds.
The wonderful thing about birding is that there are many more stories to pass on, and have no doubt through this awful time of fear and loss we will have our stories to tell, memories to be made and tales to pass on.
As long as we can get outside, walk a trail, sit on a bench or look out a window our stories will always be there for us waiting to be experienced, acknowledged and finally told. So get outside and experience the wonders of our natural world. There is much we need to pass on and many, many more stories to tell.
Many thanks to Christine Fitzpatrick for this series of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet taken this past weekend along the Hackensack River in Kearny. Cute as can be!
Here are some great shots of a Yellow-rumped Warbler just hanging out and playing it cool and a Common Grackle chirping away at DeKorte courtesy Mickey Raine. Thanks Mickey!
Beginning on Saturday, May 2, parts of DeKorte Park will reopen to the public. River Barge Park and the Mill Creek Marsh Trail will also reopen. Please click here for more information
It’s tough out there for birders right now. Spring is a special time of year. We wait impatiently for the first migrants of spring like our warblers to hit our area. Then we are out at dawn from April to June absorbing the wonderful sights of the Pines, Palms, Prairies and Parulas.
Having led field trips at least twice a week for more than 10 years I was personally feeling a loss being denied the privilege of wandering the many places I have since childhood. My solace as far as the birds are concerned is that although I miss seeing them I know that they and the natural world are doing well, in some cases even better without the constant interference of humanity.
But there is however an empty place in my heart right now for all the birders I miss so much and fret about with every day that goes by. Of course there are many I am able to keep in touch with and so happy they keep in touch with me. Yet there are so many folks I have walked the Meadowlands trails with over the years that I am always thinking about. After all birding is not only about the birds it is also about our journey and the people that join us along the way.
Just as we learn to find a special place in our hearts for the birds we love we should never forget to appreciate and cherish the people that we go birding with. We may not know much about them, what they do for a living or even where they come from, but we do know how much we enjoy the passion of birding along with them and how they along with the birds enrich our lives and make our trips afield memorable and irreplaceable.
Through all the rainy days, summer heat and winter cold we get the privilege of experiencing what we love most together bonded by that special bird when no words are possible or ever really needed.
I hope for the day when we all can enjoy the sounds of the Red-winged Blackbirds and the flight of the Tree Swallows together, when the breezes of the Meadowlands combine with our quiet chatter of how have you been? and did you see that bird?
Our life’s journey is an integral part of the birds and places we have come to love but perhaps even more it is about each other and how nature connects and in the end how much we need each other.
