Tom Mitchell has been revamping the Fyke Nature Association website and unearthed an article  about Stiles Thomas and the formative impact he had on Northeast hawk watches -- especially Mount Peter, Hook Mountain and State Line.

(Above is a pic of Stiles at Pennsylvania's legendary Hawk Mountain from many years ago.)

The 2014 article by Paul Roberts also provides a lot of fascinating history about our area hawk watches along the way.  Until Tom brought it to my attention, I had forgotten about it.

As State Line Hawk Watch celebrates its 25th year in 2022, the article is especially of interest.  You can find it on this Fyke webpage. Just click on the last link to download it:

https://www.fykenature.org/cfcitsci.php#mphw

Another Fyke webpage has lots of other Stiles stuff:

https://www.fykenature.org/memorabilia.php

(Thanks, Tom!)

My latest "Bird Watcher"  column for The Record  is all about Project FeederWatch. With a photo by Barbara Dilger. (Thanks, Barbara!)

You can read it here:

I have appreciated Gilbert Gaul's paintings ever since seeing one of his works in a museum in Augusta, Ga.

He lived in Ridgefield, N.J., for the last nine years of his life (1910-1919), and painted during some of that time.

I wonder if the painting above was done in our region. (It is currently up for auction. and needs a cleaning, I think.)

More here: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/gaul_gilbert.html

I also found this painting that Gaul did of Hackensack, also for sale.

Now that my talk on the Red-shouldered Hawks of Allendale for Lee Memorial Library and the Fyke Nature Association is over, look who stopped by our backyard to pose for a photo.

On a recent visit to the always-worth-the-drive NJ Botanical Gardens in Ringwood, came across a sort-of-unusual tree.

Can you I.D. it?

(Hint: It is not of a cherry tomato tree.)