View from Wawayanda State Park.
Photo courtesy of David Wheeler

By David Wheeler

The gold and crimson palettes of oaks and maples. The refreshing chill to the air after so many months of heat and humidity. That timeless first night of wood smoke from fireplaces down the street. And the crunch of freshly fallen leaves underfoot. Fall outdoors in New Jersey is special for so many well-known reasons, but dig a little deeper and you'll find that we humans aren't the only ones appreciating autumn in all its glory.

The great fall migrations in the birding world are well underway, but will go strong until late November. New Jersey is hard to beat for bird spotting during these times. Large raptors like hawks, falcons, and eagles fly south in hard-to-believe numbers on their way to winter warmth. Millions of songbirds add color to the New Jersey skyscape each fall, with neotropical songbirds like Baltimore orioles and scarlet tanagers flying as far south as South America. And along our coasts, great blue herons, egrets, and waterfowl ascend from our waterways en masse to reach more temperate nesting grounds.