It began at 4:45 AM on Saturday, May 11 in the woods near Lake Tappan and didn’t end until 9:30 PM in those same woods as team members listened (unsuccessfully) for an Eastern screech owl to add to the list. But that was pretty much the only disappointment in a day that saw Team Hackensack Riverkeeper – Stan Blumenfeld, Kerul Kassel and me, team leader Hugh Carola post a team best of 110 bird species in the pre-dawn to post-dusk event. All our birds were recorded within the Hackensack River watershed from the New York border south to Kearny, just a mile up from Newark Bay. See below for the actual list!

As you probably know, the World Series of Birding (WSB) was begun nineteen years ago by the New Jersey Audubon Society as both a fundraiser and as an attempt at “extreme” birding. It was a success at both. Since 1984, many thousands of dollars in per-species pledges have been raised for conservation efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere by teams of birders that scour the state to list as many birds as they can. The extreme part of the day is in the style of birding; for 364 days of the year most birders take leisurely strolls through woods, fields and marshes but when the WSB comes around on the second Saturday in May, look out! To list a lot, you have to “hit and run”.

Although we moved quickly throughout the watershed, Team Hackensack Riverkeeper’s pace was a little slower than most WSBers. And in our case, that helped because by lingering at places we were able to list some pretty remarkable birds:

Red shouldered Hawk

A Black tern (VERY rare in NJ) feeding on Oradell Reservoir. Red-shouldered hawk (only about 30 nesting pairs in NJ) near Lake Tappan. Boat-tailed grackle (usually a Jersey shore-only bird) at DeKorte Park. Twenty-one warbler species including Yellow-breasted chat, Hooded warbler and BOTH waterthrushes (heard and seen across the watershed). A pair of Peregrine falcons in Kearny (from the deck of the “Robert H. Boyle”.)

As well as we did, we couldn’t have done it without help. So on behalf of my teammates, Capt. Bill and all of us at Hackensack Riverkeeper, I wish to thank United Water Resources for allowing us access to Lake Tappan and Oradell Reservoir. Ray Cywinski and Kevin Doell went to bat for us with their superiors and secured for us the permission we needed not only bird “inside the fences”, but to be successful. I’m certain we would have never reached 100 species had Ray and Kevin not been there for us.  Thanks guys!

So what does it all mean? Well, as of today (5-22-02) we have nearly $700 in pledges either listed or returned and we expect about another $200. We’d REALLY love to reach $1000. You can help us reach that goal and support the ongoing work of Hackensack Riverkeeper at the same time. Most folks pledged a quarter per bird and have sent us $27.50.  Would you consider doing the same? The team thanks you, Capt. Bill thanks you and the birds, whose habitats we work to protect, thank you.