My latest column for The Record and Herald News is about the fall hawk migration and the best local places to watch it. Featured this year is the Stateline Lookout in Alpine.
The link is here.
Took a two-hour NJSEA pontoon boat trip with The Nature Conservancy earlier this week -- a prefect night for a ride on the river.
Here are a few pix -- Osprey doing some housekeeping at its nest on the Lift Bridge, a young Yellow-crowned Night Heron, and a Great Blue Heron who perched nearby and did not care in the least that we went cruising past.
More info on NJSEA (Meadowlands Commission) pontoon cruises here. Best entertainment bargain by far.
Sally Teschon writes:
Is it usual that Woodpeckers are drinking from hummingbird feeders? (See photo above.)
It was news to me, but apparently not uncommon. Link is here.
Thanks, Sally!
Photographed this morning in High Mountain Park Preserve.
Thank you.
Elena Tartaglia (right) and two of her students from Bergen Community College -- Vincent Chisvette and Isaac Alejo --did some stream sampling at the Celery Farm last week for a class.
They were looking for invertebrates, and found Dragonfly larva (below, in ice cube tray, so never drink Elena's iced tea), some snails, amphipods (little crustaceans), tiny flatworms, and a few fish leeches (the other little guy below). Very cool.
The Allendale Brook was the last of 12 area streams they tested. They'll be able to determine to some extent how clean the water in the brook is by the invertebrates that live there.
They really liked the shallow dam by the Brotherton bridge -- the ripples boot the oxygen levels, which helps with stream diversity.
Will let you know if I hear more.