The Meadowlands Blog

Three Active Osprey Nests!

On Friday and Monday, we surveyed the three known Osprey nests in the Meadowlands.

All three, we are happy to report, are active.

At the nest in Carlstadt, we saw the female on the nest and the male nearby.

 At the nest in Kearny, opposite laurel Hill, we saw two adults on the nest (above).

At the Jersey City nest, by the PSE&G generating plant, we saw one adult on the nest with two babies.

The Jersey City nest, the oldest of the three, played a key role in Tom Yezerski's new children's book, "Meadowlands."

Carlstadt Harbor Herons

The Meadowlands is a prime destination for foraging egrets that have colonized South Brother Isand in the East River. That fact was underscored late last month when Lorraine Novinski was taking one of her regular bird counts for the Harbor Herons survey.

Lorraine noted a Snowy Egret that had been banded on South Brother. When NYC Audubon heard of the sighting, it sent reseracher Liz Craig (above) to the site to see if she could find the banded Snowy as well.

She did not see the Snowy, but she held up a large antenna and picked up the signal from a Great Egret that had been equipped with miniature radio transmitter at South Brother Island in June.

Fighting Phragmites

 

  A huge expanse of wetlands along the western spur of the NJ Turnpike was once slated for development for a mega-mall, the Meadowlands Mills project.   
    Instead, it was preserved as open space -- the Richard P. Kane Natural Area. Now, the square mile of marsh -- covered mostly by  the invasive reed Phragmites -- is slated for an extreme makeover.

   To read the front-page story in The Record today by Staff Writer Jim O'Neill, click here.

   To see The Record video by Staff Videographer Tom Franklin on the wetlands project, click here.

    To hear an interview with Richard P. Kane, check out the Meadowlands Oral History Project blog. The link is here.

Turtles are waking up!

   We saw this chap catching some rays in the MRI wetlands in Carlstadt while we were putting up Tree Swallow boxes earlier this week.
    Its shell was still dirty from a winter's nap in the mud.
   It was a little more sluggish than usual, so we were able to get a photo or two.
   The turtle was not easy to ID, covered with mud, but we've narrowed it to Diamondback Terrapin or Snapping Turtle.  Any thoughts?
   More on Diamondback Terrapins here.
     Other posts on Meadowlands reptiles and amphibians here.

CARLSTADT: Bird of the day

    

Naturalist Don Smith spotted this Egyptian goose hanging out with some of its Canada brethren by Doctor's Creek this morning.

   No one else on the boat believed Smith because they were in Denial.

   (Sorry about that.)