... and I finally put these stuffed fish to good use.

It wasn't easy, jack-hammering four 20-inch-deep holes into solid basalt, then assembling a very complicated kiosk with a half-baked set of instructions.

But a bunch of Nature Conservancy folks with a big assist from the New York New Jersey Trail Conference got the job done over two long hot days.

(A few shots of the project in progress are below, in no particular order.)

A huge thank you to Scott Sherwood, Damon Noe, Adrianna Zito-Livingston, Jennifer Wells and Ryan Smith of TNC and Chris Connolly and Alec Malyon of NYNJTC!

The Nature Conservancy provided the map and informational display for the kiosk, and it looks great. At the Red Trail Entrance by William Paterson University.

(Thanks to all!)

                      Among the heavy-lifters (l. to r.):  Scott Sherwood, Alec Malyon, Chris Connolly, Ryan Smith and Jennifer Wells.

The Record just created a slideshow of 10 of my favorite backyard birds.

All the photos were taken in my yard, next to the Celery Farm.

The link is here.

Perhaps because Ben Franklin wanted to make them the national bird instead of the Bald Eagle, Wild Turkeys often try to cross Franklin Turnpike.

This guy was on the sidewalk at rush hour yesterday, which prompted drivers to honk, if not slow down.

Seven of his buddies were in the Celery Farm, a few feet away.

Several years ago, when I first heard that the New Jersey chapter of The Nature Conservancy planned to remove a dam near the Delaware River, I thought, "Good luck with that."

No matter how sound the environmental reasons were for removing the aging and inefficient Columbia Dam, it's human nature for folks to get their backs up when there's change to the status quo.

But TNC worked with an array of terrific partners on all levels to make the project work for everyone and get all the approvals needed to take down the dam.

And as you can see from the videos above and below, the dam is disappearing.

More information about the dam removal and why it was needed is here.

Below is an aerial photo of the dam I took a few years ago with the help of LightHawk. The dam is in the lower right-hand corner (part of it looks like a large house extending into the water). You can see how close it is to the Delaware River.

And below is a shot I took of the dam itself. The dam prevented fish and eels from returning to their ancestral spawning grounds for more than a century.

(BTW, I'm on TNC's board in New Jersey -- that's how I got involved. And sorry about the old joke in the headline. Couldn't resist.)