The Meadowlands Blog

First Daylily of the Summer

 
     DeKorte Park, 1 p.m., Thursday.
     Last year, by our unscientific count, the first one bloomed on June 15. Link is here.

THE BIG CHILL

  

   The tidal impoundments at DeKorte Park are frozen today, as are the tidal pools at Harrier Meadow -- though a Belted Kingfisher and two Mute Swans persisted.

   Birder Michael Britt reports: "Lots of ice, 71 American Coot and a Pied-billed Grebe at Kearny Marsh (Gunnel Oval)."

BIRD FEST: Around the corner

    The big banner went up in DeKorte Park's Butterfly Garden last week -- letting everyone know that the big Meadowlands Festival of Birding is less than two weeks away now.
   For more information about this event, sponsored and hosted by the Meadowlands Commission, click here.

   Coming soon, a video of Harrier Meadow, one of the many attractions of the fest.

SLIDE SHOW: Summer in the Meadowlands

   The South Bergenite has posted a neat slide show of images, including a black skimmer at DeKorte Park, taken this summer by an NJMC staffer.
  Here's the link.

SALTMARSH BULRUSH

     The Meadowlands Commission is adding another weapon in its battle to increase biodiversity in the 30.4-square-mile district.
     This week, Commission naturalists  reintroduced saltmarsh bulrush, a valuable wetlands plant, at several sites in the Meadowlands.
    The sites included the the Mill Creek Marsh in Secaucus and Harrier Meadow in North Arlington, with more sites planned down the road.

   Click "Continue reading ..."  for more  information and photos.

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.

SALTMARSH FLEABANE

   We've noticed this plant starting to bloom in a few places in the Meadowlands -- such as Secaucus High School Marsh and the Marsh Discovery Trail in Lyndhurst.

   We asked one of our experts at the Meadowlands Commission, Dr. Ross Feltes, and he identified it as saltmarsh fleabane -- a.k.a. sweetscent or Pluchea odorata.

  Feltes, a naturalist, reports that "it commonly colonizes disturbed brackish wetlands."

   He adds: "In past years it has grown on top of the cedar stumps in the impoundments at Mill Creek Marsh, making for an unusual, but pretty, feature."

   We saw it there this week (below).

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.

SEA-LEVEL CHANGE: In the news

 

Environmental reporter Scott Fallon of The Record had an excellent story in The Record today about the Meadowlands Commission's efforts to measure changes in sea levels.
   Read it here.
   Previous post on monitoring sea levels is here.

Measuring sea-level rise

   

    The New Jersey Meadowlands Commission is participating in a federal program to measure sea levels  as part of the commission's efforts to assess the vitality of its marshes and to prepare for flooding that could result from global warming.
    Measurements using a nifty gizmo called a sediment elevation table (pictured to right) are being taken by  NJMC's scientific arm, the Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute (MERI). 
     The Meadowlands Commission's sea-level monitoring is one of the first of its kind in New Jersey.

   Click "Continue reading" to learn more about sea-level rise and why it is significant to the region's marshes. 
   

Blog in the News

 

   We'd like to thank The Star-Ledger on-line (NJ.com) for making the Meadowlands Blog its blog of the day on Friday.
    Read what The Star-Ledger's Kelly Heyboer had to say here.

STORM FRONT

   This storm front raced across the Meadowlands Monday morning -- bringing lightning, thunder and downpours. 
  Even the mallards ducked.

   (Photo below by NJMC Staffer Marc Schrieks.)