On Monday I wrote:

  Juan Melli took this photo last year.

   What is it, and where did he take the photo?

   The answers: As many of you posited, it is a Spotted Lanternfly. It was photographed at one of its favorite haunts (alas), the State Line Lookout in Alpine, NJ. Congrats to Ali Fragale, who said it was a SLF , either on the Palisades or Hoboken. Congrats, Ali!

More on spotted anternflies here:

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant-pests-diseases/slf

More than 5,000 snow geese died recently from avian flu in eastern Pennsylvania.
Photo credit: Chris Neff, New Jersey Audubon

My latest column for The Record answers a pressing question: In light of all the concerns over avian flu, should you take down your bird feeders?

You can read the column here:

I tuned in the Union County Courthouse falcon cam yesterday and was pleased to see a Peregrine perched (below). You can watch it live, above.

Nesting season is around the corner.

  
Juan Melli took this photo last year.

   What is it, and where did he take the photo?

John Pastore and I cleaned out the two remaining Wood Duck boxes on Lake Appert and filled them with wood chips today as the ice turned slushy.

A third box was in pieces. The box was of thin wood and not suited for a lake with skating. So it goes.

John and I cleaned up the broken Wood Duck box and removed the two hockey goalposts before they totally sank through the slush. Also retrieved a shovel let out on the ice.

Finally, we replenished the stick pile and tied it together with twine in hopes of stabilizing it.
Thanks, John!

(The photo above shows the inside of one of the Wood Duck Boxes. Yes, the ducklings climb up the little ladder.)