Don Torino of the Bergen County Audubon Society writes an awesome column for the Wild New Jersey website.

His latest column is perfect for the holidays.

Link is here.

I think that my latest "Bird Watcher" column in The Record may be my best -- because readers wrote about their most memorable birding moments and I sort of stayed on the sidelines.

My biggest regret -- Diane Brown wrote a great essay on the subject, but it was just too long to include. I was unable to fit a few other nice recollections as well. My apologies to all.

As it is, I really condensed many of the submissions in an effort to get as many of them into print as possible. The photo above is of a Mandarin Duck in North Bergen, photographed by Icram Khalil.

The link is here.

Happy holidays!

How's this for a tough accipiter ID photo  -- a hawk going into a dive? We have a vote for Coop, and a Sharpie. I am leaning toward Sharpie. How about you? And why?

Will post the "answer" on Wednesday.

A big thanks top Jerry Barrack for taking this amazing photo.

Northern Highlands' Broadcast News Class recently did a segment on "Ghosts of Allendale," featuring an interview with me and some soundbites from illustrators. It's pretty neat.

View it here.

I joined Lorraine Novinski, Rochana Muenthongchin, Janet Terchek and Bill Drummond for the first three hours of the Ramsey CBC this morning.

We hit the Ramsey Country Club lake early, plus a lot of suburban streets.

Lots of Red-bellieds and Blue Jays, a nice perched Turkey Vulture and (thanks to Lorraine's spotting scope) seven distant Eastern Bluebirds.

Bad news: A lack of open water kept duck counts down.

(Thanks to all for letting me tag along.)