The Meadowlands Blog

DeKorte Tidal Impoundments Open Again

   After a long freeze, the tidal impoundments at DeKorte Park are thawing, and the waterfowl are returning to the impoundment by the Environment Center (above). It was still ice as recently as Wednesday.

BULLETIN: Lyndhurst Ballfield Entrance closed

  Owners of the land that includes cul de sac off Valley Brook Avenue in Lyndhurst -- where birders like to hang out in hopes of seeing raptors of all sorts -- have locked the gates, at least for the time being.
   The owners want to cut down on the illegal dumping occurring back there, and who can blame them.  The site will in all likelihood be locked at night.
  If the gate is open during the day, you should be able to drive into the cul de sac and do some bird-watching -- so long as you stay near the road and do not trespass.
   If the gate is locked, you may drive over to DeKorte Park and park there, then walk (careful of traffic) over to the cul de sac.
   NOTE: It is illegal -- and often dangerous -- to park on Valley Brook, and you may be ticketed by Lyndhurst police.
  We expect to have a key to the gate so we can look for raptors on the Bird Walk on Friday.
   Questions? E-mail us.

The calm before Tuesday's bad weather

   We took this shot at DeKorte this afternoon from the Lyndhurst Nature Preserve, with the recently thawed tidal impoundment as smooth as glass.

TWILIGHT ZONE: Lyndhurst, early December

RAPTOR MORNING

   From Disposal Road in North Arlington around 9 this morning, we saw three harriers working the Erie Landfill.
   When we looked over the photographs we took (from quite a distance), we noticed a falcon perched on a rock on top of the landfill.
     Not long after, NJMC naturalist Michael Newhouse saw seven distant accipiters gaining altitude to the south of Harrier Meadow.
    With winds out of the northwest this morning, today should be a solid migration day.
    Footnote: Just before lunch, we saw two ospreys hunting the tidal impoundment by NJMC Headqurters in DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst.
    A great raptor morning.

OBSERVATORY OPENING ON MONDAY

   Starting next Monday (Sept.8), the William D. McDowell Observatory in DeKorte Park, Lyndhurst, is opening it state-of-the art telescope to the public every Monday and Wednesday evening, weather permitting.
   The viewings are free.
   The observatory will be open for two hours each night, with 8 and 9 p.m. viewing sessions.

  The observatory houses a research-grade, optical telescope with a 20-inch mirror within a six-meter retractable dome.

   Click “Continue reading…” below for more info.                               

 

 

BIRDS, plus

     More Tuesday Sightings from DeKorte Park in Lyndhurst and the AMVETS Carillon area along Disposal Road in North Arlington:
   Don Torino had a "real nice Peregrine Falcon on the power line tower across from the veterans memorial [in North Arlington]. It kept circling and calling, pretty cool."
   Ray Duffy reports: 
    "I got the 3 Marbled Godwits around 2:45pm Tuesday at DeKorte.
    "A White-rumped Sandpiper (speckled along the flanks, longer wings) along the Marsh Discovery Trail.
    "Three Western Sandpipers mixed in with the Semipalmated sandpipers around the Marsh Discovery Trail.
    "A magnolia warbler and an american redstart along the Lyndhurst Nature Reserve trail.
    "One short-billed dowitcher hanging out with a group of yellowlegs in the phragmites cluster by the nature center.
    For non-birds, I got a hummingbird moth and a likely hairstreak butterfly (<link to Ray's photo here) at the Butterfly Garden.

   

BIRD ALERT: Marbled godwits and the white ibis

    

   Birder Mike Britt, a friend of this blog,  today reported the immature white ibis, three marbled godwits, two Caspian terns and 10 kestrels in the DeKorte Park area of Lyndhurst.

Click "Continue reading ... " for his report to Jersey Birds e-mail list.

BIRDING: The Meadowlands' mud flats

   New Jersey Audubon's Pete Bacinski and Scott Barnes had a nice column in the Star-Ledger on Saturday that highlighted birding along the Meadowlands' mud flats. Read it here.

UPDATE: Egret perches

   In mid-July, we reported that Meadowlands Commission naturalists had installed perches in the tidal impoundment by the Marsh Discovery Trail in Lyndhurst, in hopes that egrets would perch there when the water levels were high.

   Although the egrets were a little slower on the uptake than we had hoped, we are now happy to report: Bingo.

HUMMINGBIRD MOTH

    We saw this hummingbird moth outside the Meadowlands Environment Center in DeKorte Park this afternoon around 1:30 p.m.

   By the time we got our video camera, it was gone. For now.

   Click "Continue reading for a few more photos.

BUTTERFLIES: Part 4

   Amazing butterfly display on the side of the Kingsland Landfill last week -- never knew that butterflies liked sunflowers almost as much as they like thistle.

  Click "Continue reading" for more butterfly pics. Click the category "Butterflies on left-hand column for all butterfly posts.