The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission’s Flyway Gallery will host an exhibit featuring watercolors of herons, eagles, foxes and other wildlife during May.
The show, “The Wildlife Art of James Fiorentino,” is on display from Sunday (May 2) through Friday, June 4.
Fiorentino’s wildlife paintings, which include portraits of Black Bears, Mountain Lions and Peregrine Falcons, are known for their exquisite detail and realism.
A reception for the artist is scheduled for Sunday, May 16, from noon to 3 p.m. More information and a painting of Bald Eagles follows.
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The elevated boardwalk next to Meadowlands Environment Center at DeKorte Park has become a huge hangout for Forster's Terns.
At least two dozen were hanging out there this morning.
They are also zipping around the Shorebird Pool and splashing into the water to catch fish — quite successfully, as you can see below.
Just saw our first of the year Mourning Cloak in the DeKorte's Lyndhurst Nature Reserve. This cloak looks like something out of the Salvation Army store, but still nice to see.
By the way, according to the North American Butterfly Association Checklist for DeKorte, this butterfly is due to appear around… mid-April.
Checklist is here.
More on Mourning Cloaks here.
By the way, have you heard that a new free Butterflies of DeKorte Park pamphlet is in the works? We hope to have it ready later this spring.
A brief walk after lunch yielded no Bald Eagles, but we did 
get a Boat-tailed Grackle by the Administration Building, and an American Kestrel on the DeKorte Park Osprey Platform.
The Grackle was making an incredible racket — heard it from 50 yards away.
A full complement of ducks is still hanging out in the impoundments.
Tree Swallows are invading the Meadowlands these days and snapping up all the available housing. NJMC naturalists are erecting more nesting boxes the marshes, starting this week.
We took a late lunch today, and so did these two adult Bald Eagles. They opted for fish, and chose to dine in the Saw Mill Creek Tidal Impoundment, along the Transco Trail not far from the (currently closed) entrance to the Marsh Discovery Trail.
The eagles were seen around 1 p.m., and again at 1:15 in the same area. The gulls on the left were not happy and harassed one of the eagles, below.
We'll try to post another pic of two later.
We were fortunate last Thursday to see a Ring-necked Pheasant take wing from a landfill near DeKorte Park.
Yes, we know that what we call a pheasant is what the local Coyote calls dinner, but we are delighted that we still have pheasants in the Meadowlands. There simply aren't many places in this region where they still exist in the wild.
We saw one a couple of times last month in Harrier Meadow, and they have been seen on the former 1-E Landfill in North Arlington, but as habitat has vanished, so have they.
Yes, we know — they aren't non-native species, etc., blah-blah-blah, but they are still a spectacular bird. We'd love to see them every day.
More pix follow.
Another season of the Meadowlands Commission's popular eco-cruises and guided canoe trips begins in May, but you can start reserving a spot now.
Today we are posting information on the pontoon-boat eco-cruises. We'll post the canoe info on Wednesday.
The cruises leave from the River Barge Park in Carlstadt. The weekday and weeknight cruises last two hours, and are for people ages 10 and up. Suggested minimum donation per person is $15. Pre-registration is required.
The link to pontoon-boat schedule and registration form is here.
Getting to many of the New Jersey Meadowlands locations can be tough — but we are trying to simplify the task.
At the upper left-hand corner of this blog, we are posting links via Google Maps that enable you to type in your address and get directions to DeKorte Park in Secaucus and elsewhere.
Note: With most of these Internet mapping sites, Google maps may not list the best option as the first option. Try alternate suggestions, and look at the map to get a better sense of where you need to go.
