The (New) Jersey Birder

A female Northern harrier perches on a small tree with green leaves up top and leaves turned red at the bottom. The bird is turning her head to the left.

Adventures in birding, radiating from central Jersey

This site is a compendium of observations on birds, birding and the flora and fauna inhabiting my world, with its axis in Area Code 609.

Latest Posts

Harriers and newly arriving sparrows usher in October

We flipped the calendar to October today, and the birding population in some ways is itself flipping. Take sparrows for example. The old standby house sparrows and song sparrows are still here while their migrant cousins begin to arrive. I spotted my first swamp sparrow of the season at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm on…

A delightfully busy day at the Pole Farm

Birding friend Nancy and I arrived at the Mercer Meadows Pole Farm nearly simultaneously this morning, and we had a feast-famine-feast kind of day. As we worked our way up from the Cold Soil Road parking lot, we spotted a few palm warblers chasing each other about. That was a great start, but our walk…

A one-bird day at Abbott Marshlands

The Nor’easter finally churned away from New Jersey, and the rain fizzled out early this afternoon as I was on my way to John A. Roebling Park at Abbott Marshlands. I’d seen recent reports on e-Bird of Northern shovelers and hoped I’d find one. No such luck. After better than 48 hours of rain, the…

Maya Lin installation draws attention to threats to birds, other wildlife

The Nor’easter storm churning along the Atlantic Coast is keeping this birder indoors this weekend. I’ve turned my attention to a new exhibit at Princeton University that elegantly draws attention to threats to nature and how to respond to them. The exhibition “What Is Missing? What If?” opened this week in the newly opened environmental…

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