My column for The Record and other USA Today newspapers in NJ today explains five ways to make your yard bird-friendlier in 2022 -- with a photo by Barbara Dilger (above). Thanks, Barbara!

Here it is:

Sorry to say that Allendale resident Kevin Henry found a dead accipiter by the Acme Shopping Center at the corner of DeMercurio Drive and Orchard Street yesterday.

I will spare you the photos.

There was no visible sign of trauma, so Deputy Marsh Warden Gaby Schmitt is taking it to The Raptor Trust in Millington, where it will be sent for a necropsy to determine the cause of death.

A big thank you to Kevin for telling me, and another thank you to Gaby and The Raptor Trust.

Please: If you find an injured or dead raptor or raven, please let me know and I will try to help.

Thank you.

A big thank you to Borough Administrator Ron Kistner and the Allendale DPW for removing those five large recycling bins of rock salt that had been inadvertently dumped in the Celery Farm parking lot on the afternoon before Christmas -- likely by a county salt-spreading truck.

Ace birder Julie McCall and I shoveled the salt into the bins before it got washed into the Allendale Brook.

An article in The Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this month explains why salt is so bad for local waterways and Lake Appert.

You can read it here:

https://www.inquirer.com/search/?query=road%20salt

Thanks, DPW!

I must be living under a rock, but I never heard of a Code 5 Rare Bird Alert.

Do you know what it is? What about a Code 6?

("Rare Bird Alert" is also a great song by Steve Martin.)

Last week, Gaby Schmitt, Kevin Watson and I used cordless hedge trimmers to cut the Phragmites  in front of the Pirie-Mayhood Tower at the Celery Far,

The invasive reeds had grown so tall that they impeded the view of much of Lake Appert. (Before and after shots above.)

It's a never-ending war against invasives, with many battles on other fronts awaiting.