Tag Archives: Meadowlands Commission

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 020409: Local Tuskegee Airman

     The Meadowlands Commission is honoring Black History Month with a weekly post on this blog. Today the focus is a Tuskegee Airman from Rutherford.

    In future weeks we'll  look at the Underground Railroad in Jersey City, a slave cemetery in Little Ferry, and a famous black actress and civil rights activist who worked in Kearny.

   Calvin J. Spann, who grew up in Rutherford,  served with the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. Spann
    From 1943 to 1946, 1st Lt. Spann served in the US Army Air Force, 332nd Fighter Group, 100th Squadron, as part of the famed Tuskegee Airmen — the first-ever group of black Army pilots. 
    Spann was among an elite group of Tuskegee Airmen who escorted B-17 bombers and reconnaissance  planes over Nazi Germany during World War. Spann flew 26 combat missions.

   In a phone interview yesterday from his home in Texas, Spann said: "My growing up in Rutherford inspired me to be a Tuskegee Airman. Planes from Teterboro Airport took off right over my house.

   "I was able to do everything any young man in high school did, and when I got into the Air Corps and they said they didn't think I could learn to fly, I thought that was preposterous. I'd been doing everything everyone else was doing all my life, and it really stuck with me. That was my experience growing up in Rutherford."

    Click here for more with Tuskegee Airman Calvin Spann.

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GROUNDHOG DAY VIDEO


In honor of Groundhog's Day, here's a video we did last June, before the blog was really up and running. We will check on Lyndhurst Lindy and report any activity.

The one-minute video features a woodchuck looking out of its den on a path in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst, when Junior butts in. (Best played with audio on.)

For more information on this abundant Meadowlands mammal, click here.

Note: We realize that it is a bad idea to take hang out in front of birds' nests or mammals' dens in an effort to get a family portrait. The animals feel threatened and cannot escape.

  For this video, we used a trick we learned minutes earlier from a professional cameraman: You put the video-cam on a tripod not too far from entrance, hit "record," and walk away. 

  Later on, you come back, retrieve the camera  and see what you caught on video. 🙂

MONK PARAKEET UPDATE

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   The wild Monk Parakeets of Ridgefield look to be doing well.
   We stopped by to check in on them last week and found more than two dozen IMG_7145 sunning themselves in nearby trees. It seemed a bit odd to see a parakeet on a tree with dead leaves, but that is the way it is in this region.
    Karen Riede of the town's Environmental Committee says the Monk Parakeet population is around 30– as it was last year about this time — and that the birds are perfectly acclimated.
   "They all grew up right here, and this is the only home or environment they know," she says.
    The birds have been in Ridgefield, Edgewater, Fort Lee and other spots for so long that there is a strong likelihood that  this beautiful, colorful (if a tad loud) bird will be to the state list.

   A prevous post on the parakeets is here.

HARRIER MEADOW WALK: 111908

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    The second Harrier Meadow walk for November was cold and a bit windy but sunny. Five hearty Harrier fans fought the chill for two hours to see more than 30 species.
    According to NJMC Naturalist Michael Newhouse, "We had an excellent view of an Orange-crowned Warbler. We also had 8 species of waterfowl, several Northern Harriers, a Bald Eagle, and Fox and Savannah Sparrows."

  Click here for other Harrier Meadow postings.

  Click "Continue reading…" below  for the full list.

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AQUATIC CRITTERS

  Seventh- and eighth-graders from the Belleville Middle School's Science Club took aquatic samples at the tidal impoundmenIMG_0035t at DeKorte Park last week, and came up with a pipefish, grass shrimp, and killifish.
  We photographed the critters in the NJMC Center for Environmental and Scientific Education, where MEC educator Joe Sarnoski talked about the critters and the center's resident diamondback terrapins, including the 25-year-old Stinky.

  Click "Continue reading…" for more photos and info on what the students  netted.

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TEACHING CONSERVATION

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  Through its educational arm, the Meadowlands Environment Center, the NJMC has an extensive outreach program that connects area students with the natural world.
   Last week, for example, seventh- and eighth-graders from the Belleville Middle School's Science Club learned how — and why — Meadowlands Commission naturalists are banding birds in North Arlington.

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BANDING REPORT: 102008-102408

   This week Meadowlands Commission naturaliImg_7726_3sts banded 295 birds in North Arlington, including 27 Ruby-crowned Kinglets and 107 Savannah Sparrows — a threatened species in New Jersey and a bird we at the Meadowlands Commission are especially interested in.

   Click here for all bird banding reports. 

      Click "Continue reading…" immediately below for this week's tally.

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NORTH ARLINGTON: The AMVETS Carillon

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If you've ever walked to the beginning of the Saw Mill Creek Trail in North Arlington or gone birding along Disposal Road, you're probably familiar with the AMVETS Memorial Carillon. 

Friday, Oct. 17, is the carillon's first anniversary, and the local AMVETS group is having a commemoration at the site at 11 a.m., followed by coffee at the Meadowlands Environment Center just down the road in Lyndhurst. The public is invited.

The carillon chimes on the quarter hour, with a lengthier anthem on the hour. Then first time you walk by when it chimes, it catches you by surprise but the pealing appealing once you get accustomed to it.

There are several AMVETS carillons nationwide, including one at Arlington Cemetery in Arlington, Va. For more information on the AMVETS Carillon program, click here.

RIDGEFIELD: Natural attractions

IMG_9891   Ridgefield, in the northern part of the Meadowlands District, has several nifty attractions, from the restored wetlands of the Skeetkill Creek Marsh to the Monk Parakeets that nest under the highway bridge over the train tracks on Railroad Avenue.
  But there's also the Ridgefield Nature Center, a beautiful wooded natural area comprising 5.4 acres off Shaler Boulevard by Ray Avenue.

   The property was the source of the spring for the Great Bear Spring Water Co. from 1920 to 1975, at which point the land was sold to the Borough of Ridgefield.

   Since then, the borough has been restoring the site, planting well-labeled native trees and plants and curtailing the invasive species. Those are labeled, too — so you'll know what to look out for in your own backyard and elsewhere.

    Click "Continue reading…" immediately below for more information on the Ridgefield Nature Center.

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REPTILES: Northern brown snake

   We know that some people get freaked out by snakes, or even photos of snakes, so we are posting some nifty close-ups of this snake — a northern brown snake, aka a Dekay's snake, thanks to Ray Duffy's ID) on the "jump" of this post.  

    If you do look on the jump, be ready for a surprise ending.

   Click "Continue reading…" immediately below to see the snake shots.

   E-mail Jim Wright if you prefer that snake shots not appear on "the front page" of the blog.

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