Eagle Fest takes place this Sunday from 10 a.m. to  p.m. at Historic New Bridge Landing in River Edge, and it's free.

There'll be bird walks, live music, guest speakers and food.

The photo above was taken by Joe Koscielny at last year's Eagle Fest. (Thanks, Joe.)

I wrote a column about this year's event -- you can read it here.

I'm one of the speakers, by the way, but that's no reason to stay away.

It is with great sadness that I report that Bergen County Audubon has won the coveted Crowphy, for most Christmas Bird Count species yet again.

Fyke had 80 species and a 13-species handicap this time around, and BCAS had 94 species, so Fyke lost by one.

Fyke president Mike Limatola even got decked out in a tux for the award ceremony!

We'll get those wascals next time!

I asked folks to vote for their favorite Bergen Bird (an individual bird, not a species) in order, and have received nearly 50 replies, plus write-ins.

Here are the nine, from last to first --including a tie :

9. Mandarin Patinkin (Edgewater and Central Park)

8. The Wild Turducken (Celery Farm)

7. Northern Wheatear (DeKorte Park)

6. Mike the Shrike (Disposal Road)

5. George Pelecanos (DeKorte Park

4. Icky the Heron (Celery Farm)

3. Ralph the Redhead (Celery Farm)

1a. Laura the Red-shoulder (Allendale & Ramsey)

1. Alice the Bald Eagle (photo above by Alice Leurck)

Write-ins included Pepto the Pink-footed Goose, the Great Black Hawk in Maine (it may have flown over Bergen), and the Gyrfalcon at State Line Lookout.

If you haven't taken the short and entertaining SurveyMonkey survey, click here to take it now.

E-mail me at [email protected] if you want to write in another candidate.

When I gave a talk at the Bergen County Audubon Society meeting last night, I promised I post a few pertinent websites.

The Duke Farms' Bald Eagle e-book (complete with the sound of pages turning and lots of great embedded links, is here.

The Bald Eagles of the Meadowlands & Beyond e-book -- a nifty collaborative effort --can be viewed or downloaded here: Download BaldEaglesintheMeadowlandsBeyondSoft.

The Meadowlands Nature Blog is here.

Swallows in a snowstorm. Photo © Keith Williams / Flickr through a Creative Commons license

The Nature Conservancy blog has a nifty article about how birds stay warm in winter, with lots of fascinating info about Carolina Wrens and their reliance on bird feeders in winter.

You can read it here.