The Record's website has a neat story about a recently posted YouTube video that champions growth for Bergen County ("County on the Move").

It shows, among other things,  how celery fields have given way to the Garden State Parkway, and how hundreds of acres of "wasteland" (marsh) is being used as a landfill in Overpeck Meadows.

The video is a bit long (15-minute) but a nice window into the mind-set of the so-called good old days.

The link to The Record's article is here.

Mrs. Metz's second grade class in Dumont writes:

Last week we saw a very unusual bird on our school grounds and need your help to identify it. We have attached a picture for you.

The bird was about the size of a sparrow and eating dandelion seeds in the grass. He (or she) was not at all frightened by us. All 17 of us students were 3-4 feet away from him and he was calm. Please notice the tag on him. 

John Rosenstein took this photo from the Warden's Watch on Tuesday morning. (Thanks, John!)

My latest column for The Record and Herald-News is all about how this
was the best-birding spring in decades in North Jersey.

The link is here.

Don Torino's latest column for wildnewjersey.tv is on Fair Lawn's Common Ravens.

Here's a sample:

The Raven is one of the most powerful figures in Native American mythology.

It is said they altered the world by creating land, released people onto it and gave them the light of the universe.

But the Raven was also sometimes viewed as the mischievous clever trickster, and that might just be how some folks of the local government in the town of Fair Lawn, New Jersey might feel about the Raven today.

and...

Sometimes it is not all about money or budgets or politics. Sometimes it is about the respect for life and all the magic, pleasures and even inconveniences that goes along with it.

We share our communities, neighborhoods and even the world with many creatures, giving them the time and space to continue their struggle for survival is the least we can do. In the end, they may be what life is really all about.

Link is here.