When I walk to the Clove in the High Mountain Park Preserve, I enter from the end of Scioto Drive or the little circle on Indian Trail Drive -- both in Franklin Lakes.

I've always suspected that the roads once extended into what is now the High Mountain Park Preserve.

This old Hagstrom (early 1960s) shows that two roads from Franklin Lakes did lead into what is now the preserve.

Interstate 287 was proposed at that point. The dotted line across the bottom denotes the Bergen-Passaic border.

That thin black line denotes a stream that flows over Buttermilk Falls, located in Passaic County but outside the preserve.

The clove would be at the bottom of the map, slightly left of center.

The gray-phase screech owl is one of the many nocturnal raptors featured in Jonathan Evan Maslow's "The Owl Papers." Photo credit: Jerry Barrack

My new column for The Record and other USA Today newspapers in New Jersey asks readers what their favorite birding books are... 

As examples, I gave two of my favorites.

My wife Patty took this photo of a tree trunk in the Clove at High Mountain.

Assuming the tree isn't simply haunted, what would cause the trunk to look like that?

And what kind of tree is it? Educated guesses or funny answers accepted.

My e-mail inbox has been flooded once again with queries from readers wanting to know what will become of this year's Crowphy competition, after last year's virus-related hiatus.

As you know, the Crowphy is awarded annually to the local circle that sees that the most species during the Christmas Bird Count -- The Ramsey Circle (the good guys, run by the Fyke Nature Association) or the prestigious Hackensack Ridgewood Circle, which only does their counts at country clubs and brokerage firms.

Founding Father John Fell's property once include the wetlands now known as the Celery Farm.

The historic Fell House was looking might spiffy with holiday decorations and a spectacular sunset to boot. (Click to enlarge.)