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The Cicada Chronicles: Cicadas Suck - They Really Do
A side view of our amazing cicada that are singing everywhere now
The incessant buzzing sounds of cicadas are everywhere around town now and herald the hot steamy dog days of summer. Their buzzing continues from nearly dawn to dusk. In East Brunswick we have a few species of cicadas, each with its own distinct buzzing call. Only the males make noise, as a mating call to attract females. They make the sound with specialized membranes and the sound is then amplified by the body cavity. The buzzing can be as loud as 100 decibels.
Cicadas have an amazing life history. The cicadas we see flying around and hear buzzing are the adults that have recently emerged from a nymph that spent many years underground. Depending on the species, the underground portion of their life cycle can be from a few years to as much as 17 years.
Plan Smart NJ: Policy Briefing: Land Preservation and the Role of Regional Planning
Photo by Jim Amon
Experts on land preservation strategies and deals will discuss the regional planning considerations and priorities that inform planning for land preservation. D&R Greenway senior staff will present their Greenway Vision map, provide examples of successful land preservation deals and the role of community involvement, criteria for preserving parcels, and the role of GIS technology.
The Cicada Chronicles: The Cicadas Are Getting Close!
Cicada
Photo by Dave Moskowitz
I'm going a little bit crazy right now with the anticipation of the cicadas coming. Anyone that knows me can tell you that I can't really have a conversation right now without uttering the word cicada. A typical conversation with my wife goes something like this these past few days:
Her - How was your day?
Me - Not bad. Did you hear there were some reports of cicadas in New Jersey on CicadaTracker.
Her - What do you want to do for dinner?
Me - Maybe the diner, not that the short ribs taste anything like cicadas.
Her - Want to watch the Mentalist?
Me - Sure, they had an episode about a rare moth, I wonder if they will do one about cicadas?
Her - Good Night.
Me - Good night. I wonder if there will be a lot of new cicada sightings south of us tomorrow with the rain expected tonight?
The Record: Readers suggest new names for the yellow-bellied sapsucker
Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Photo courtesy of The Record
Last month's column on renaming the yellow-bellied sapsucker generated quite a few responses, including those of two readers who cited a classic "Honeymooners" episode.
Although few readers could match my indignation over the ill-conceived naming of this dynamic woodpecker, most — but not all — agreed that a name change was in order.
Perhaps because I am partial to input from younger readers, some of my favorite suggestions came from a class of Dumont second-graders (ages 7 and 8).
The Record: Cicadas are the latest buzz after 17 years
Brood II cicadas
Photo courtesy of AP
Sometime in the next week or so, you will be bugged.
Bugged by their noise, which can reach 120 decibels — as loud as a motorcycle.
Bugged by piles of their dead carcasses in your driveway and the exoskeletons attached to swing sets and just about everything else in your yard.
Bugged by their bodies splattered across your windshield.
Focus on the Meadowlands: Kingsland Overlook Monday Afternoon: Butterflies
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
Had this skipper (Zabulon?), an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and some Cabbage Whites on Monday afternoon on the Kingsland Overlook. Yikes — time to get out the butterfly field guides again.
Nature's Focus: The Willet
A pair of Willets
All photos courtesy of Thomas W. Gorman
The Record: Workers race nature to rebuild Shore habitats before mating, migration season
Photo by Larry Niles
Sand-filled dump trucks — up to 50 a day — rolled onto beaches along the Delaware Bay recently in a feverish attempt to restore shorelines that had been washed away by Superstorm Sandy.
Workers were in a rush to prepare for the tourist season — but not the human kind. These beaches in New Jersey were being readied for the hordes of migrating birds expected to drop in over the next few weeks.
Associated Press:4 falcon chicks living on George Washington Bridge are banded
Wildlife biologist Chris Nadareski, foreground, of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, assisted by Port Authority structural specialist Pete Mizialko, holds one of four peregrine falcon chicks for banding, at a nest at the east tower of the George Washington Bridge.
Photo courtesy of Associated Press
NEW YORK — Four peregrine falcon chicks roosting high above the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge were pronounced healthy Tuesday and fitted with tracking bands to help biologists keep tabs on them.
Their mother's squawks competed with the din of morning-rush bridge traffic as Chris Nadareski, a wildlife biologist with the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, gently lifted the fluffy chicks out of their nesting box and used pliers to fasten metal bands around their legs.
Raritan Waterhead Association: Tri-County Teams Help Keep Local Streams Clean
Volunteers showing off the litter they collected at the Landsdown Trail in Clinton Town, Hunterdon County. People pictured from Left to Right: Sarah Upwood, Jessica Roberts, Katie McComb, Tessa Wood
Photo courtesy of RWA
Community volunteers helped "green" the region by removing litter and sporting colorful “turtle tees” during the Raritan Headwaters Association’s 23rd Annual Stream Clean Up. Approximately four tons of trash were removed from stream banks at 28 different sites in Hunterdon, Morris and Somerset counties.
From the top of the 470-square-mile Raritan headwaters region in Mount Olive to the confluence of the north and south branches in Branchburg, students, members of Scout troops, churches, community clubs, environmental commissions and businesses joined together on a blustery, overcast Saturday morning. Participants included many concerned individuals, community groups, and businesses such as Viridian Energy, Verizon Green Team, the Mom’s Club of Annandale, Round Valley Trout Association, Church of Latter Day Saints, The Hill Runners of Hunterdon, Garden Club of Somerset Hills, NJ Chapter of Alliance of Hazardous Materials Professionals, Northern New Jersey Council for the Boy Scouts of America, Gill St. Bernards School, Raritan Valley Community College, and the Somerville High School National Honors Society.
Slate: What the State Birds Should Be
The hermit thrush
Courtesy of Seabamirum/Flickr
I drove over a bridge from Maryland into Virginia today and on the big “Welcome to Virginia” sign was an image of the state bird, the northern cardinal—with a yellow bill. I should have scoffed, but it hardly registered. Everyone knows that state birds are a big joke. There are a million cardinals, a scattering of robins, and just a general lack of thought put into the whole thing.
Don's Jersey Birding: Hackberry for your Habitat
Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis) is one of the most beneficial trees for wildlife.
Photo courtesy of AOL
By Don Torino
If you’re like me and your home landscape suffered due to Hurricane Sandy, or you are just looking to improve your backyard to benefit wildlife, then planting a Hackberry tree should be on the top of your things to plant list.
Common Hackberry (Celtis occidentalis ) is best identified by its bark. On young trees the bark is smooth and gray except where thick, warty bark patches develop. As the tree ages, these patches merge to form deep, wrinkly ridges. Hackberry is also very adaptable and often used in suburban areas because it stands up well to a wide range of light and moisture levels. Common Hackberry has 3-5-inch long ovate leaves with a pointed tip and serrated margins.
The Freiday Bird Blog: Fri-D: Dowitchers
Photos courtesy of The Freiday Bird Blog
Now I know that's an exageration, but only by a whisker, and yet there have been a high number of reports of Long-billed Dowitcher this spring. Having NEVER seen a Long-billed Dowitcher (LBDO) in May in NJ, I have to ask myself, is there something wrong with me? Do I have a disease preventing me from seeing LBDO, or worse, do I not know what a LBDO looks like or sounds like? One must consider one's failings, so I thought, who can I ask for help? How about Michael O'Brien, Richard Crossley and Kevin Karlson, authors of The Shorebird Guide, NJ residents, and friends of mine? If anyone knows what's up with LBDO in spring, it's them.
Rumson-Fair Haven Patch: Mating Season of the Horseshoe Crab: Prehistoric Spider in Sandy Hook Bay
Photo by Joe Reynolds
return of hundreds of the ancient horseshoe crabs to their familiar spawning sites in Sandy Hook Bay has begun.
It's a satisfying sight after the destruction to the shore last fall from Hurricane Sandy.
Who
knew what to expect? There was a certain amount of vagueness and
concern as to how many, if any, horseshoe crabs would show this year,
especially given that the loss of shoreline habitat from erosion or the
building of bulkheads, beach nourishment projects that can bury and
kill adult crabs.
Focus on the Meadowlands: Losen Slote: Warbler Capital!!
Here's a sample: Ovenbird, Worm-eating Warbler, Northern Waterthrush,
Black-and-white Warbler, Common Yellowthroat (photograph at right
taken at Losen Slote earlier this month), American Redstart, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Magnolia Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler and Canada Warbler.
NJ.com: Season openers for fluke, sea bass attract attention
Photo courtesy of Free Republic
While striped fishing remains good, and bluefish are building up inshore, the spotlight shifts to Saturday’s opening of the fluke season — followed by the sea bass opener on Sunday.
This year’s summer flounder regulations include the same 17½-inch minimum as last year with a bag limit of five through Sept. 16. The ASMFC has granted New Jersey another 11 days, and the Marine Fisheries Council will vote in July on whether to use those days in order to extend the end of the season.
Cold bottom waters are always a problem during the fluke opener, but conditions look favorable for a decent start this year. Bob Matthews, at Fisherman’s Den in Brielle Marina, says, "Shark River is paved with fluke" and his rental boats are ready for them. Northern boaters will have plenty of company drifting off the Sandy Hook Bug Light, an early hot spot — particularly if there’s a northeast wind.
NJ Today: Bug Invasion Looms
Photo courtesy of Animal Planet
STATE — One of nature’s weirdest — and loudest — mating rituals is about to strike the Garden State along with much of the Northeastern region.
When the soil eight inches below the surfaces reaches 64 degrees, sometime between now and early June, billions of extremely noisy insects that have been underground feeding off of tree roots for 17 years will suddenly appear.
Magicicada septendecim, sometimes called the Pharaoh cicada, appear in fantastic, large swarms every 17 years for a “frenzy of sex and death” that will last up to six weeks.
Warren County Wildlife: Northern Copperheads are one of N.J.'s two venomous snakes
Northern Copperheads
Photo courtesy of Todd Petty
One of two venomous snakes found in New Jersey, the Northern Copperhead emerges from its den each year around this time, said John Parke, stewardship project director of the north region of the New Jersey Audubon.
Unlike the Timber rattlesnakes, which are mostly restricted to the Kittatinny Mountains in Warren County, Copperheads are found throughout the county, Parke said.
Baristanet: Watch Your Pets: Coyote Attacks Dog In Glen Ridge
Coyote
Photo courtesy of NJDEP
Coyotes are not your friends. Coyote sightings have been reported in the Glen Ridge with at least one pet (a dog) has been attacked in its backyard. The town shares the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s precautions:
Never feed a coyote. Deliberately feeding coyotes puts pets and other residents in the neighborhood at risk.
Outdoor Life: Public Land Deer Hunting: How to Save America's Whitetail Woods
Photo courtesy of Outdoor Life
An hour before a November dawn, I’m at a dirt pull-off in New York’s Catskill Mountains. Around me are more than 280,000 acres of public forest. These are big woods, and getting bigger. By legislative decree, the oak, maples, and ash here can never be cut. They’ve been growing for a century now. Some hunters whose legs have become too old to climb these steep forested hills tell me there were once a lot of deer here. There were grouse and rabbits, too. And hunters came from a hundred miles away to chase them. These days, both the game and the hunters are mostly gone.
As I shoulder my rifle, a pickup stops. A man, his face dimly lit by dashboard lights, says, “Have you seen a deer yet?” “No.” “Why do we keep coming back?”