Category: Features

Notes from Garden & Afield, Week of December 24, 2017

Article and photos by Joe Sapia

Soft morning sunlight contrasts with threatening skies at the high ground of Thompson Park in Monroe, Middlesex County.

A popular winter activity for generations at Thompson Park is sledding from the high ground toward the low ground around “Jamesburg Lake” (properly Lake Manalapan). The 30-acre lake is formed by the damming of Manalapan Brook at Jamesburg. Remember, there are few, if any, natural bodies of water on the Coastal Plain.

Sledding at Thompson Park in Monroe, Middlesex County, via my 2001 folk art Christmas card.

SNOWFALL: The Saturday, December 30, snowfall of 1.0 inch at my house in the part of Monroe between Helmetta and Jamesburg, Middlesex County, brought the season’s total to 9.0 inches. The seasonal average for New Brunswick, Middlesex County, about 7 miles away, is 25.8 inches. Elsewhere in the Midlands, according to the National Weather Service, with these readings based on what had been reported by reliable spotters at the end of the snowfall and perhaps not comprehensive: Burlington County: a high of 2.5 inches at Florence to a low of 1.5 inches at Moorestown; Hunterdon County: 1.0 inch in Lebanon to .8 inches at Whitehouse Station; Mercer County: 3.2 inches in Hamilton to 2.5 inches in Ewing; Monmouth County: 2.8 inches in the Howell area to .9 inches in Shrewsbury; Somerset County: 1.0 inch in Basking Ridge to .8 inches in Bridgewater; Ocean County: 3.3 in Jackson to 1.5 inches in Toms River.

Main Street in Cranbury, Middlesex County, in the Saturday, December 30, snowfall.

Iced-over and snow-covered Devil’s Brook on the boundary of Plainsboro and South Brunswick, Middlesex County.

Cranbury Brook as it drains Brainerd Lake (“Cranbury Lake’) in Middlesex County.

SAFE ICE: This time of year, and especially in the hard freeze the Jersey Midlands is in the midst of, we may be tempted to walk out on ice or go skating on it. Be careful! My rule of thumb is the ice must be at least 4-inches-thick. But various factors could come into play, such as warming temperatures, honey-combing, and running water. So, additionally, I look for crystal clear ice or blue-white ice. I am careful of melting ice, snow insulating ice, channels that may run through bodies of water, and fragile ice where water meets land or vegetation.

Anglers on an iced-over Helmetta Pond.

ICE SAFETY: If ice is breaking underneath, displace your weight by lying flat. For would-be rescuers, follow this order: throw (a line or flotation device), row (a boat to the person), go (yourself only as a last resort). Probably the soundest advice is to immediately seek help from expert rescuers.

Prospertown Lake in Jackson, Ocean County. The lake is at the northern extreme of the main Pine Barrens.

SWAMP-WALKING: With the sub-freezing high temperatures for an extended period, this is what I look for — a good freeze of the swamps, allowing access to otherwise difficult places to get to. I love swamps!

An iced-over wet area in the Manalapan Brook floodplain in Monroe, Middlesex County.

SWAMP-WALKING, No. 2: I started off into the woods across the street from my house – in the Pine Barrens of Monroe, Middlesex County – to do some swamp-walking in the Manalapan Brook floodplain. I did do some, but I got sidetracked when I noticed the abundance of winterberry, genus “Ilex.” I did not get around to making a Christmas wreath or swag, which I decorate with winterberry, but I wound up gathering winterberry to display on its own. I came home with a nice bundle. (To conserve, I broke only one branch from each selected bush.)

Winterberry from the swamp hardwood forest of the Manalapan Brook floodplain on display on my antique kitchen table.

SNOW GEESE: I finally saw some snow geese, “Chen caerulescens,” down from the Arctic as I was driving along the Mercer County-Middlesex County boundary on the border of East Windsor, Cranbury, and Monroe. They were easy to identify by their white bodies and black-tipped wings. There were only a few, rather than a flock. I took a few minutes to see if they were joining a flock on some farmland, but I was going to work and had limited time, finding nothing in my quick search.

Canada geese, “Branta Canadensis,” is a snow-covered field in South Brunswick, Middlesex County.

ATLANTIC OCEAN TEMPERATURES: The Atlantic Ocean temperature at Sandy Hook on December 30-31 weekend ranged from about 30 to 35 degrees.

A quiet December Atlantic Ocean beach, looking from Avon-by-the-Sea to Asbury Park, Monmouth County.

MOON: The next full moon, the Full Moon After Yule, is January 1, New Year’s Day.

The near-full moon over the swamp hardwood forest of the Manalapan Brook floodplain in Monroe, Middlesex County.

SUNRISE/SUNSET: For Sunday, December 31, to Saturday, January 6, the sun will rise about 7:20 a.m. and set about 4:35 to 4:40 p.m. For Sunday, January 7, to Saturday, January 13, the sun will rise about 7:20 a.m. and set about 4:45 to 4:50 p.m.

Soft sunlight on Manalapan Brook in Monroe, Middlesex County, as it flows toward Helmetta and Spotswood, also in Middlesex County.

Joe Sapia, 61, is a lifelong resident of Monroe — in South Middlesex County, where his maternal family settled more than 100 years ago. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and a gardener of organic vegetables and fruit, along with zinnias and roses. He draws inspiration on the Pine Barrens around Helmetta from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in these Pines, and his Polish-immigrant grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Grandma Annie and Italian-American father, Joe Sr. Both are inspirations for his food gardening. Ma inspires his rose gardening. Joe is a semi-retired print journalist of almost 40 years. His work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page.

Copyright 2017 by Joseph Sapia

Notes from Garden & Afield, Week of December 17

Article and photos by Joe Sapia

Soft, end-of-the-day sunlight bathes this tree and field on the Pennington-Hopewell Township border, Mercer County. Notice the thick vine – poison ivy, “Toxicodendron radicans” – climbing the tree.

DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, GREAT BLUE HERON: As I was passing Carnegie Lake, which is in the area of Princeton, Mercer County, and Kingston, Somerset-Middlesex counties, I figured I would shoot a photograph of the winter-quiet lake. Quiet? Wrong! As I arrived, a great blue heron, “Ardea herodias,” flew from left to right, landing at the lake. I heard a squawk or squawks, with this heron and another confronting each other, perhaps because these solitary hunters of fish and other aquatic life did not want to share a territory. One flew off, while the other stayed put, providing a subject for my photographs.

As I arrived at Carnegie Lake on the Princeton, Mercer County-Kingston, Middlesex-Somerset counties border, a great blue heron flew in.

Then, there was a confrontation between two great blues, with one flying off.

Remaining was one blue heron, who cooperated nicely for photographs.

As for the winter calm of Carnegie Lake, it, otherwise, was there.

STONY BROOK: Stony Brook meanders for about 22 miles from the Ringoes area of Hunterdon County to the Princeton area of Mercer County, where it empties into the Millstone River. The brook drains approximately 65 square miles.

Punks, or cat-tails, genus “Typha,” with their fluffing-out seed heads, in the Stony Brook floodplain in the Pennington-Hopewell Township area, Mercer County.

IF YOU CANNOT GET TO THE ECOSYSTEM, BRING THE ECOSYSTEM TO YOU: Two geological provinces comprise the Jersey Midlands, the rolling hills and rocky Piedmont to the west and the flat, either gravelly or sandy, Coastal Plain to the east. Drive along the flat farmland on the Cranbury-Plainsboro border in Middlesex County and look west to the Princeton area hills in Mercer County, for example, and one would be looking from the Coastal Plain to the Piedmont. So, I was driving through the Pine Barrens around Helmetta and noticed a red shale pile of dirt, dumped on the side of the road in the Jamesburg Park Conservation Area, operated by the Middlesex County Parks and Recreation. Dumping! But this one takes the cake, the apparent dumping of Piedmont fill dirt in a sandy soil area of the Coastal Plain. Back up a truck alongside a road and dump fill dirt that you do not need! I take this as a personal affront because this is my home woods, which my maternal family has walked for more than 100 years, and in Jamesburg Park, where I am a volunteer of several years. The progress of dumping: litter to household debris to a different ecosystem!

An illegally dumped pile of fill dirt, apparently Piedmont soil dumped in the Coastal Plain of the Pine Barrens around Helmetta, Middlesex County.

A Jamesburg Park Conservation Area trail of native white, sandy Pine Barrens soil near the dumped load of fill.

SNOW GEESE: I have not noticed any snow geese, “Chen caerulescens,” down from the Arctic. Bob Eriksen, a retired state Division of Fish and Wildlife biologist, checked in from just outside the Midlands in Warren County, saying, “Snow geese arrived, here, later than usual. Huge flocks came in overnight last Wednesday into Thursday morning December 13-14.”

Canada geese, “Branta Canadensis,” on Helmetta Pond, Middlesex County.

CANADA GEESE: I still stop to look at honking Canada geese, “Branta Canadensis,” in flight. And I get a bigger kick, perhaps, watching them land. While at Helmetta Pond, I noticed geese coming into the lake from the west, then swinging wide to the north and circling in for their landing. What a sight!

WINTER SOLSTICE: With the passing of the Winter Solstice on Thursday, December 21, daylight is increasing.

SNOWFALL TO DATE: To date, 8.0 inches at the Jamesburg-Helmetta area of Middlesex County. In this area, specifically New Brunswick, Middlesex County, the average seasonal total is 25.8 inches.

WEATHER: National Weather Service forecasting, along with other information, for the Jersey Midlands is at http://www.weather.gov/phi/.

Merry Christmas from Helmetta. Here, the old Clemons house, one of the mansions associated in the 20th Century with the George W. Helme Snuff Mill — in this case, belonging to one of the mill’s upper level managers. According to house owner Carol Bohinski, “The Clemons mansion was built in 1890 by Arthur Clemons, brother-in-law to George W. Helme. Helme’s grandson, Arthur Helme Clemons, was a Helme Company President.”

Joe Sapia, 61, is a lifelong resident of Monroe — in South Middlesex County, where his maternal family settled more than 100 years ago. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and a gardener of organic vegetables and fruit, along with zinnias and roses. He draws inspiration on the Pine Barrens around Helmetta from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in these Pines, and his Polish-immigrant grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Grandma Annie and Italian-American father, Joe Sr. Both are inspirations for his food gardening. Ma inspires his rose gardening. Joe is a semi-retired print journalist of almost 40 years. His work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page.

Copyright 2017 by Joseph Sapia

Listen to your neighbor, listen to the land

In November the New Brunswick Community Arts Council invited the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership to participate in the inaugural “Windows of Understanding: We see through Hate” project. Windows of Understanding seeks to:

• Counteract the negativity and hate perpetuated in the headlines – by installing community art interventions that illustrate the compassion and love being exercised around us.

• Promote awareness about the vast array of social justice issues being addressed in New
Brunswick, connecting organizations with the wider community and each-other.

• Transform our “Main Street” spaces into literal windows of understanding.

The LRWP was paired with Kim’s Bike Shop (111 French St, New Brunswick, NJ 08901). Working with Kim’s and our coLAB Arts National Endowment for the Arts resident artist Jamie Bruno, the LRWP has developed “Listen to your neighbor, listen to the land” – which will be installed at Kim’s from January 15-February 28. “Listen to your neighbor, listen to the land” reflects the way the LRWP sees through hate as well as the way we hope to connect to our communities. The installation incorporates shoes filled with soil and plants. The shoes represent people, travel, and change. The soil represents our origins in the land.

From Jamie Bruno’s artist statement:

Across religion, race and culture we all spring from the earth and its water and soil. The plants give hope for survival and sustenance: hope to grow new roots and make new connections. The title asks the viewer to listen to their neighbors over the din of every day life. Our neighbors are people who live near us. People who live on the land we live on, yet whose stories we often do not know. In urban environments it can be difficult to know land too, yet she is everywhere: Under the pavement, in the water we drink, in the air we breathe.

• The shoes represent the human element, the “neighbor” through travel, labor and economic change in addition to empathetic connection across class, race and culture; an admonition to “walk in another’s shoes.”

• The soil represents land: absorption, filtration, and contamination. Soil health effects human health though the quality of our fruits and vegetables as their roots gather nutrients and the quality of the water in our watersheds as water either filters slowly through healthy soil becoming clean or flows quickly above compacted soil carrying waste.

• The plants represent the hope to grow new roots in new places and to make new connections. Plants store and slow water as it moves through the landscape, further cleaning it, thereby increasing the landscapes inherent value to local wildlife and to neighbors, whether they pass through or decide to stick around and plant their own seeds.

The LRWP and Kim’s invite you to join us from 2-4 PM on Monday January 15, 2018 for the “unveiling” of “Listen to your neighbor, listen to the land” and for refreshments. We will be outside in front of the store planting milkweed for participants to take home, and handing out seed packets for summer gardens.

For more information contact Jamie Bruno: jamie@colab-arts.org

Notes from Garden and Afield, Week of December 10 2017

Article and photos by Joe Sapia

Fall meets winter with rolls of hay awaiting harvest on snow-covered farmland on the Princeton Ridge in Hopewell Township, Mercer County. The Princeton Ridge is one of three well-known pieces of hilly ground just north of downtown Princeton, the other two being Sourland Mountain and the Kingston Ridge.

SEASON’S FIRST SNOWFALL: My house in Monroe, Middlesex County, got its first snowfall of the season, this week – actually three snowfalls! The individual totals were December 9-10, Saturday-Sunday, 5.0 inches; December 13-14, Wednesday-Thursday, 1.5 inches; and December 15, Friday, 1.5 inches. All told, 8.0 inches. In my area, specifically New Brunswick, the average seasonal total is 25.8 inches.

Snow falls along Manalapan Brook in Monroe, Middlesex County, during the season’s first snowfall, December 9-10, Saturday-Sunday. This locale is only a few hundred feet from my front door and I remember walking to this part of “The Brook” with my father when I was about 4-years-old, or more than 55 years ago.

A stream cuts its way through the Manalapan Brook floodplain in Monroe, Middlesex County, during the first snowfall, December 9-10, Saturday-Sunday. This locale, at the bottom of my street, is what I have always known as “The Swamp.”

SNOWFENCING: As we travel through the Jersey Midlands, we may see snow-fencing in place to prevent drifting across roadways. The idea is to get the fencing up before it snows and hope it does not snow after farmers need to get in their fields for spring plowing or, that is, before it ends snowing for the season.

In Hopewell Township, Mercer County, this snow-fence was not up in time for the December 9-10, Saturday-Sunday, snowfall. Stakes in place, yes. Actual fencing, no.

GEMINID METEOR SHOWER: The Geminid Meteor Shower on the Wednesday-Thursday, December 13-14, overnight was a washout for me because of cloudy skies. More disappointing, because during that overnight, I was driving home from Baltimore and was hoping to be entertained for 2-1/2 to 3 hours. But that was a snowy night, so the viewing was not to be. Did anybody get lucky and see meterors?

‘SNOWBIRDS’ IN THE GARAGE: As I work in the yard or go between my house and my Jeep, I often leave the garage doors open. Occasionally over the years, I find a bird in the garage – seemingly always a “snowbird,” or dark-eyed junco, “Junco hyemalis,” birds that travel from as far away as Canada to stay from fall to spring. Most recently, I found one in the garage this week. Why seemingly always a snowbird in the garage? I do not know. Any thoughts?

A snowbird sits on top of my backyard birdfeeder while snow falls Friday, December 15, in Monroe, Middlesex County. American holly, “Ilex opaca,” is in the foreground.

AROUND THE BACKYARD: I sitting at my desk, in a corner room with windows facing north from the side of the house and facing west into the backyard, when I heard a wheezing call. A hawk? I looked into the backyard and saw no birds around the feeder or elsewhere in the backyard. However, I did notice a squirrel, “Sciurus carolinensis,” on the pole holding the feeder. The squirrel was frozen in place, facing downward, or in fleeing position. Yes, I thought, that probably was a hawk I heard. When the predator is around, the lucky prey flees.

The annual ConRail Santa Train rumbled through Monroe, Middlesex County, this time while it is snowing December 9, Saturday. The Santa Train is especially fulfilling to me because it is a tradition of about 35 years; passes on railroad tracks my family has lived along for more than 100 years, as close as bordering the property and as far as my house, a quarter-mile; and, I have loved the freights on this line since my childhood days of the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad. It passes on the former line of the Camden-Amboy Railroad, the first railroad in the country, in the early 1830s, to replace equine power with mechanical power.

VOICES FROM AFIELD, CHRISTINE DENNELER: Christine Denneler, one of my Pine Barrens mentors over the last 35 years, checked in, regarding hunting: “Since most of my husband’s family is gone, hunting is not talked about at the holiday table as it was in the old days. (Late husband) Bill was not an avid hunter as was his grandpop, but he and his father liked the camaraderie.” (Chris has been a backbone of hiking in the Outdoor Club of South Jersey, www.ocsj.org, for decades. To go on a Chris Denneler hike is to learn the Pine Barrens.)

TONY’S FARM AND GARDEN CENTER: I was driving home from South Jersey and took advantage of passing Tony’s Farm and Garden Center — started and run by the Ciaccio family in Robbinsville, Mercer County, since 1946 — by stopping in. I have been patronizing Tony’s – in my case, for houseplants, vegetable plants, and garden supplies – for decades. It is one of my favorite places in the Jersey Midlands. Not only was it holding on to the 2017 gardening season, but it was decked out for Christmas. So, I bought a Christmas cactus – my first shot at one, so let us see if I can keep it alive – and two devil’s ivy houseplants – which even I have a hard time killing. (A shout-out to Ciaccio family members, especially young Tony, for their quality products and service and friendliness. Tony’s is one of my main sources for gardening information.)

Wreaths at Tony’s Farm and Garden Center in Robbinsville, Mercer County.

Poinsettias at Tony’s Farm and Garden Center

Christmas cactuses at Tony’s Farm and Garden Center.

VOICES FROM AFIELD, PRISCILLA “PEPPY” BATH: Outdoorswoman Priscilla “Peppy” Bath checked in on hiking Jake’s Branch County Park in the Ocean County Pine Barrens: “I have never before been to the park and it is beautiful with many well-marked trails. We hiked the Blue (Trail) 4-mile hike. Alongside of the trail were many patches of trailing arbutus (“Epigaea repens”) and also turkey beard (“Xerophyllum asphodeloides”). Neither was in bloom, but I will go back in the spring and see the beautiful flowers.” More information on Jake’s Branch Park is available at http://www.oceancountyparks.org/ContentPage.aspx?ID=0694b294-986f-46e6-a679-d03ac775c176.

‘SNOW GEESE’: This time of year, we can expect to see snow geese, “Chen caerulescens,” down from the Arctic tundra – perhaps flying by, noticeable by their white color and black-tipped wings, or in farm fields. So far, I have not seen any, but hope to. (The species also has a dark version, or the “blue goose.”)

I took this photo of snow geese a few years ago on farmland along the Cranbury-Plainsboro boundary in Middlesex County. Here, their white bodies and black wingtips, which provide easy identification, are easily seen.

Another photograph of snow geese from a few years ago. Here, both in flight and in a cornfield.

TUNDRA SWANS: Tundra swans, “Cygnus buccinators” – New Jersey’s only native swan — are in the area. They, too, are cold-weather visitors from the Arctic tundra. My favorite place to see them is Whitesbog, in the main Pine Barrens and part of Brendan T. Byrne State Forest. Here is a story about Tundra Swan No. 207, spotted this season at Whitesbog, http://birdquiz.net/t207-2017/.

THE QUIET OF WINTER: In the winter, with many people staying inside in the warmth, the outdoors has a quiet solitude in many spots. Two places I visited during the week come to mind, the Delaware and Raritan Canal, where I visited the canal in Franklin Township, Somerset County, and the confluence of Crosswicks Creek and the Delaware River at Bordentown City, Burlington County.

The Delaware and Raritan Canal at Griggstown in Franklin, Somerset County.

Crosswicks Creek at Bordentown City, Burlington County.

ATLANTIC OCEAN TEMPERATURES: The Atlantic Ocean temperature at Sandy Hook on December 17, Sunday, ranged from about 36 to 40 degrees.

Mallard ducks, “Anas platyrhynchos,” on Cranbury Brook in Cranbury, Middlesex County.

A familiar sound is the honking, then sighting, of Canada geese, “Branta Canadensis,” I captured this photograph from my backyard in Monroe, Middlesex County.

SUNRISE/SUNSET: For Sunday, December 17, to Saturday, December 23, the sun will rise about 7:15 to 7:20 a.m. and set about 4:25 p.m. For Sunday, December 24, to Saturday, December 30, the sun will rise about 7:20 a.m. and set about 4:35 to 4:40 p.m.

WINTER SOLSTICE: The Winter Solstice, or the day with the least amount of daylight, is December 21, Thursday. The sun rises about 7:17 a.m. and sets about 4:35 p.m. After, the amount of daylight grows until June 21, the “longest day” of the year.

A view of Sourland Mountain, which is on the boundary of Somerset, Mercer, and Hunterdon counties, in the background across the farmland. This is as seen from the Princeton Ridge, Mercer County.

WEATHER: National Weather Service forecasting, along with other information, for the Jersey Midlands is at http://www.weather.gov/phi/.

UNEXPECTED WILDLIFE REFUGE SEEKS VOLUNTEERS: Our friends at the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, just south of the Jersey Midlands in Gloucester County, seek volunteers to patrol the property to keep hunters off until at least the end of January. If interested, contact the refuge, http://unexpectedwildliferefuge.org/.

Snow clings to an American holly, “Ilex opaca,” in my backyard in Monroe, Middlesex County, from the December 9-10, Saturday-Sunday. This was the first snowfall of the season at my house.

Joe Sapia, 61, is a lifelong resident of Monroe — in South Middlesex County, where his maternal family settled more than 100 years ago. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and a gardener of organic vegetables and fruit, along with zinnias and roses. He draws inspiration on the Pine Barrens around Helmetta from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in these Pines, and his Polish-immigrant grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Grandma Annie and Italian-American father, Joe Sr. Both are inspirations for his food gardening. Ma inspires his rose gardening. Joe is a semi-retired print journalist of almost 40 years. His work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page.

Copyright 2017 by Joseph Sapia

January Arrives Ahead of Schedule

Article and photos by Joe Mish

A Red fox fills out a page in its daily diary, handwritten in the fresh snow along the South Branch.

The thirty-one days allotted to January on the calendar is only a suggestion, as far as that month is concerned.

January arrived ahead of schedule this December in a fit of impatience at the slow start of winter. The dull cold and dark days that prefaced winter’s birth seemed to stall the arrival of January and the blistering pace of expanding daylength and razor sharp cold.

As December reflected on the satisfaction of delivering twins, in the form of winter and light, the cold, wind and snow remained idling in the dark, awaiting a new leader. January came to the rescue as it honed the sharpness of the cold to a razor’s edge with forceful arctic wind, in whose draft, daylight was pulled along at an accelerated pace.

The whirlwind that is January never rests as it constantly delivers snow and light wrapped in cold and often spiced with biting wind.

Despite being scheduled for 31 days, January makes the time fly along with everlasting snow and does its best to co-author February weather.

In an attempt to freeze time so it can linger longer than scheduled, January’s frigid breath turns the river’s surface into a crystal lattice of solid ice. Impressive, but not miraculous and arguably unintended.

It is actually possible to watch January at work as it arranges hydrogen and oxygen atoms into a three-dimensional arrangement as it forms ice. A fast-moving cold front dropped the temperature below freezing. The river water was already cooled to 38 degrees and colder in the shallow eddies along the shore. As I fumbled with my camera I noticed ice forming along the edges of one pool. Crystals began to grow from a branch, mid pool, as well as the edges. When I looked again a few minutes later, the ice had expanded several inches. It was like watching a time lapsed movie where time is condensed from hours to seconds. However, this was happening in real time. I was amazed how quickly ice was forming. Crystals grew especially fast from three different areas. Two looked amazingly like feathers, one mimicked a large bird feather while the second looked so much like the cut feather used to fletch an arrow. The third crystal was an exact image of a starburst, where five pointed spikes began to outgrow the shorter but expanding tines. I stared in amazement as the ice images grew before my eyes as if watching an artist at work. The arrow feather magically turned into the body of what I imagined to be a grouse. The other feather grew into the body of some other large bird, the intricacies of each quill carefully detailed. Ice grew from the edges until the sheltered water had been completely sealed with a plate of fine transparent etchings. Though the artist was invisible, evidence of his existence was apparent.

January may seem harsh at times but all life has evolved to cope with its overly enthusiastic nature. As a concession, January snow provides a comment section for life along the river to tell their stories. Even the wind has the opportunity to take a single blade of grass and delicately etch its thoughts into the blank white slate.

A gray fox reveals its path and daily activity, as if written in an open diary, from the moment it left its sheltered nook to the strategy used to capture a tasty vole and the heart of a January love interest.

Fox tracks in the new snow with strands of straw colored grass bathed in the contrast of subtle light changes would make a fine Christmas card from the fox. The tracks convey a signed message that translates even to those who aren’t conversant in the language of ‘fox’.

A page purloined from the fox’s diary reveals its thoughts and activity written in the January snow. The fox stopped here atop a snowdrift to scan the area ahead for a meal or a mate, whichever came first.

Loathe to depart, January wills its wintry legacy to February who politely accepts it to bolster the enthusiasm of the fading winter.

December is as far as the year will take us, though fear not, January awaits holding the door to a new year wide open with a welcoming ice cold wind to ensure we enter fully awake and energized.

A red fox is a magical creature but even a fox cannot walk on water unless January turns it into a crystal lattice. This fox crosses the river, lured by the siren call of a potential mate.

Author Joe Mish has been running wild in New Jersey since childhood when he found ways to escape his mother’s watchful eyes. He continues to trek the swamps, rivers and thickets seeking to share, with the residents and visitors, all of the state’s natural beauty hidden within full view. To read more of his writing and view more of his gorgeous photographs visit Winter Bear Rising, his wordpress blog. Joe’s series “Nature on the Raritan, Hidden in Plain View” runs monthly as part of the LRWP “Voices of the Watershed” series. Writing and photos used with permission from the author.

coLAB’s Comic-in-a-Day wrestles with themes of environmental restoration

This fall the LRWP joined Jad Kaado and coLAB Arts for conversations about the role of artists, illustrators and authors in advancing environmental restoration. Then at the annual Comic-in-a-Day art making competition at the end of November, coLAB celebrated the artists and authors who incorporated themes of environmental restoration in their work. Three teams of illustrators and writers worked together to create a standard American size comic book of 24 pages, all within the span of 24 hours.

Check out the comics they produced!

Paperless by Christian Angeles and Ryan Smith

Reclaiming Sanctuary by Sam Romero and Allison Baldwin

Runoff by Marlon Dunn and Joe Cascia

Notes from Garden & Afield: Week of November 26

Article and photos by Joe Sapia

Note: The yard references are to my house in the section of Monroe between Helmetta and Jamesburg in South Middlesex County. My yard is in a Pine Barrens outlier on the Inner Coastal Plain, the soil is loamy, and my neighborhood is on the boundary of Gardening Zones 6b (cooler) and 7a (warmer). Notes and photographs are by the author and for the period covered, unless otherwise noted.

The foliage change of colors may be past its peak, but the colors continue to dazzle. Here, morning sunlight shines on a cove in a section of Farrington Lake on the East Brunswick-North Brunswick boundary in Middlesex County.

VOICES FROM AFIELD, DIANE LARSON, EAGLES: Diane Larson, who lives along Beaver Dam Creek in Brick, Ocean County, checked in: “Just wanted to share what happened (Sunday, November 26) morning. We noticed the seagulls abruptly flying, like they were spooked, then saw these two guys flying right above our house, and landed on the house across the lagoon from us!” Bald eagles, “Haliaeetus leucocephalus.” In New Jersey, the species is “endangered” as a breeder, or in immediate peril, and “threatened” otherwise, meaning if conditions continue, it could become “endangered.” “They flew in the area all morning, it was awesome to watch,” Diane said.

Two bald eagles in the Beaver Dam Creek area of Brick, Ocean County. (Photograph copyright 2017 by Diane Larson)

MORE EAGLES: Michael Franken has been reporting bald eagles from the boundary of Cranbury and Plainsboro in Middlesex County.

Bald eagles on a deer carcass along the Cranbury-Plainsboro boundary in Middlesex County. (Photo copyright 2017 by Michael Franken Photography)

VOICES FROM AFIELD, DIANE LARSON, NO. 2, JUNCOS: Diane Larson, who is the home horticulturist for the Monmouth County office of the Rutgers University Cooperative Extension, said, “I just went out to the back to check on the gardens behind our office. I heard unfamiliar bird sounds and followed them to see dozens of juncos (“Junco hyemalis,” or snowbird) on a tree back there. I then saw why they were there. They were all around the sweetgum tree (“Liquidambar styraciflua”) eating the seeds from the sweetgum balls.”

SNOWY OWLS: Reports are coming in of snowy owls, “Bubo scandiacus,” down from the Arctic. In recent years, I have heard two theories on the uptick of snowy owls in our area, both related to their food of choice, lemmings, “Dicrostonyx torquatus.” One is that there could be a shortage of lemmings, so the owls migrate farther than normal to find food. The other theory is there was an abundance of lemmings and because of this, owls prospered, having more offspring. A snowy owl story from nj.com: http://www.nj.com/ocean/index.ssf/2017/11/snowy_owl_explosion_expected_in_new_jersey_this_ye.html.

DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, STARLINGS: As I was walking through the Rutgers University campus in downtown New Brunswick, Middlesex County, I encountered a flock of starlings, flying and perching in trees. “For much of the year, they wheel through the sky and mob lawns in big, noisy flocks,” according to Cornell University’s All About Birds website. Starlings, “Sturnus vulgaris,” are non-native. “First brought to North America by (playwright William) Shakespeare enthusiasts in the 19th Century, European Starlings are now among the continent’s most numerous songbirds,” according to All About Birds.

A flock of starlings at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Middlesex County.

Perched starlings at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Middlesex County.

DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, SUNSET: As I was headed to the Rocky Hill area of Somerset County, I came across a beautiful sunset on the Monroe-South Brunswick boundary in Middlesex County. It was a wonderful orange sky, with the farmland I was photographing across providing “big sky” views.

Sunset on the boundary of Monroe and South Brunswick, Middlesex County.

EARTHQUAKE: On Thursday, November 30, the rumble you may have felt was a 4.1 earthquake centered near Dover, Delaware. The Did-You-Feel-It response to the United States Geological Survey, https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us1000bjkn#dyfi.

HURRICANE SEASON: The Atlantic Ocean hurricane season ended Thursday, November 30. During the season, which began June 1, there were 17 named storms of which 6 were major hurricanes, according to Channel 6 television in Philadelphia. “Three Category 4 hurricanes” – those with winds of 130 to 156 miles per hour — “made US landfall,” according to Channel 6. A primer on hurricanes from the National Hurricane Center, http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutsshws.php.

‘LIVING SHORELINES’ PROPOSAL: Congressman Frank Pallone, who lives in Long Branch, is to introduce legislation creating the Living Shorelines Act, which would provide federal grant money for building up shorelines with plants and other natural materials. The idea is to prevent flooding and erosion, along with providing habitat, in a natural way. See Pallone’s op-ed in the Wednesday, November 29, Asbury Park Press, http://www.app.com/story/opinion/columnists/2017/11/29/living-shorelines-act-frank-pallone/108143866/.

In this 2016 photograph, an Atlantic Ocean natural beach at Sandy Hook, Monmouth County, with the New York City area in the background.

CHRISTMAS TREES, SLIM PICKINGS AND HIGHER PRICES: We were just talking about how fewer trees were planted because of the Great Recession about 10 years ago. And, 10 years later, those trees are ready – in smaller numbers and, in turn, higher prices. Here is a New York Times story on the matter, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/business/christmas-tree-shortage-recession.html.

DEER RUT: A 63-year-old Franklin, Somerset County, died from injuries suffered in a motor-vehicle accident in his hometown that happened during the ongoing mating season, or rut, of deer, “Odocoileus virginianus.” Be careful while driving, especially during the rut, which will likely extend into about mid-December.

FULL MOON: The upcoming full moon — the Full Long Night Moon on the December 3-4, Sunday-Monday overnight — will be 2017’s only full “super moon,” that is, when the full moon comes close to the Earth, or 222,443 miles away. The closest will be at 4 a.m. Monday, December 4, when the moon will appear “about 7 percent larger and 16 percent brighter than usual,” according to the National Geographic.

The near-full moon around 4 a.m. from my backyard in Monroe, Middlesex County.

OCEAN TEMPERATURE: The Atlantic Ocean temperature at Sandy Hook was about 48 degrees over the Dec. 2-3 weekend.

SUNRISE/SUNSET: For Sunday, December 3, to Saturday, December 9, the sun will rise about 7:05 to 7:10 a.m. and set about 4:30 p.m. For Sunday, December 10, to Saturday, December 16, the sun will rise about 7:10 to 7:15 a.m. and set about 4:30 to 4:35 p.m.

WEATHER: The National Weather Service forecasting station for the area is at http://www.weather.gov/phi/.

Sunrise at Manalapan Brook in Monroe, Middlesex County.

Joe Sapia, 61, is a lifelong resident of Monroe — in South Middlesex County, where his maternal family settled more than 100 years ago. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and a gardener of organic vegetables and fruit, along with zinnias and roses.  He draws inspiration on the Pine Barrens around Helmetta from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in these Pines, and his Polish-immigrant grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Grandma Annie and Italian-American father, Joe Sr. Both are inspirations for his food gardening. Ma inspires his rose gardening. Joe is a semi-retired print journalist of almost 40 years. His work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page.

Copyright 2017 by Joseph Sapia

December’s White Shadow: Along the South Branch, December 2017

Article and photos by Joe Mish

Portrait of a sycamore branch with a fox in the background. Female fox was so intent on her early morning hunt, I was able to get within 30 paces before she noticed me.

Snow follows December like a lazy white shadow that lingers in the bright light of day. A shadow of some substance that accumulates to measurable depth, can be blown about by the wind and reveal hidden secrets of elusive wildlife.

The stillness of a cold overcast day can foretell the coming of December’s white shadow, soon to arrive. The first flakes drift slowly to earth as the shadow begins to appear. A single snow flake landed intact on my wool mitten, suspended on an errant fiber. The intricate artistry nature expressed in this one crystal represented the beauty of uncountable trillions more. The hidden beauty, however, is often lost as the shadow deepens.

Falling snow covered me and my canoe as I sought safe harbor in a narrow slush filled stream bordered by high banks. The canoe was stabilized in the slush and I felt comfortable adjusting my gear to warm my hands. As I sat hunched over the snow began to build, essentially hiding me within its shadow. Suddenly a large male mink came loping through the deep snow, intent on crossing the small stream. My snow-covered boat must have been a welcome bridge to avoid the icy water. Just as the mink, now four feet away, was about to jump into my boat, he suddenly caught my scent and retreated into a nearby groundhog den. This was a unique situation, where I saw what happened and then in hindsight, was able to read the story the tracks left in the snow. It was like being at the scene of an unfolding drama and later watching it in a news report.

Mink trail in the snow and tracks in the mud.

I followed fresh fox tracks one morning not realizing how fresh they were. With the wind in my favor and dressed in white coveralls, I walked along observing where the fox stopped to sit, waiting for sound or scent to betray the location of a mouse under the snow. Apparently, nothing materialized, as the fox continued on its original straight-line path, stopping again to listen for a scurrying mouse hiding deep within in December’s white shadow. Here at last were telltale signs the fox made an attempt to catch the elusive rodent.

From a sitting position, it shuffled its hind feet and leaped several feet ahead, going air born before landing and stomping around and stabbing its face into the deep snow. The absence of blood or fur suggested the effort was futile as the fox continued on, heading toward a large pile of tree branches deposited along the riverbank by a previous flood. I looked up from the tracks in the snow to see the fox a moment before it saw me. I had only a split second to react and get the camera focused. We were only thirty steps apart as I digitized the suspicious fox staring back at me. Neither of us moved for a long moment until the fox slowly turned, began to walk away and then stopped to pee. Perhaps she was expressing her displeasure at having her hunt disturbed and left her scent to reaffirm ownership of her home territory.

Fox tracks in the new snow with strands of straw colored grass bathed in the contrast of subtle light changes would make a fine Christmas card from the fox. The tracks convey a signed message that translates even to those who aren’t conversant in the language of ‘fox’.

December’s telltale shadow is an open book even the wind uses as a message board. Capable of producing destructive storms of biblical proportion, the wind shows its gentler side, using a single blade of grass to whimsically etch it thoughts in the snow.

December owns the darkest days of the year and when the moment of darkness is greatest, at the instant of the winter solstice, it gives birth to light as day length begins to increase. Light or dark, December’s shadow is not far behind, casting a trace of white.

Author Joe Mish has been running wild in New Jersey since childhood when he found ways to escape his mother’s watchful eyes. He continues to trek the swamps, rivers and thickets seeking to share, with the residents and visitors, all of the state’s natural beauty hidden within full view. To read more of his writing and view more of his gorgeous photographs visit Winter Bear Rising, his wordpress blog. Joe’s series “Nature on the Raritan, Hidden in Plain View” runs monthly as part of the LRWP “Voices of the Watershed” series. Writing and photos used with permission from the author.

Notes from Garden & Afield: Week of November 12

Article and photos by Joe Sapia

Note: The yard references are to my house in the section of Monroe between Helmetta and Jamesburg in South Middlesex County. My yard is in a Pine Barrens outlier on the Inner Coastal Plain, the soil is loamy, and my neighborhood is on the boundary of Gardening Zones 6b (cooler) and 7a (warmer). Notes and photographs are for the period covered, unless otherwise noted.

Looking upstream on the Delaware River at dusk from the historic iron bridge connecting Stockton, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, to Centre Bridge, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The photograph was taken from the New Jersey side, looking toward Pennsylvania. The bridge was built in 1926 and refurbished in 2007. This section of the Delaware River is part of the National and Wild Scenic River System.

DELAWARE RIVER: After the Pine Barrens, the Delaware River is my favorite local ecosystem. I especially love the part of the river north of Trenton. There, an approximately 150-mile stretch of the river, from Washington Crossing at Mercer County, New Jersey, and Bucks County, Pennsylvania, north to Hancock, New York, is part of the National and Wild Scenic River System. Aside from what the System name suggests, eligibility for the System requires the river have protection in place and be free-flowing. At 330 miles, the Delaware River is the longest free-flowing river, meaning it is uninterrupted by a dam, east of the Mississippi River. Next summer, consider tubing the Delaware. Meanwhile, these two books can keep you company, “Natural Lives, Modern Times – People and Places of the Delaware River” by Bruce Stutz and “The Illustrated Delaware River – the History of a Great American River” by Hal Taylor.

Looking downstream on the Delaware River from the Centre Bridge-Stocton bridge. New Jersey is to the left, Pennsylvania to the right. This section is part of the National and Wild Scenic River System.

HOUSE SPARROWS: I watch many a bird perched in the shrubs outside my living room window at Monroe, Middlesex County. This week, I noticed a small bird of chestnut, black, and gray – a house sparrow, “Passer domesticus.” Beautiful! Alas, it is non-native, a species from Eurasia and North Africa introduced to North America in New York in 1851, according to the National Audubon Society. “Many people regard house sparrows as undesirables in their yards, since they aren’t native and can be a menace to native species,” according to Cornell University’s All About Birds website. “House Sparrows are so closely entwined with people’s lives that you probably will find them around your home even without feeding them.” (A shout out to two New Jersey Audubon Society naturalists for heading me in the proper direction in identifying this bird: Pete Bacinski, retired, and Scott Barnes, active. I am a pretty bad birder, so I appreciate the help.)

A house sparrow in the front yard of my house in Monroe, Middlesex County.

CANADA GEESE: Speaking of beautiful but pain-in-neck birds, I observed Canada geese in different locales during the week. I have a funny relationship with Canada geese, “Branta canadensis,” finding them to be admirable parents and elegant when personally connecting with them, while in a standoffish way viewing them as pooping, polluting pests. This week, I leaned in a positive direction. (If you get a chance, observe Canada geese as a couple. “They mate for life with very low ‘divorce rates,’ and pairs remain together throughout the year,” according to Cornell University’s All About Birds website. Also, they care for their young as very protective parents. Perhaps a lesson for humans, “Homo sapiens.”)

Canada geese landing at a retention pond near Route 33 in Monroe, Middlesex County.

Canada geese dot ETRA Lake in East Windsor, Mercer County.

VOICES FROM AFIELD, No. 1, WILL SIGLE: Fellow Monroe, Middlesex County, resident Will Sigle, a retired science teacher, checked in with some thoughts on farming and wildlife. One of the things Will mentioned was about his yard, “Last year, I had a red-tail (hawk, ‘Buteo jamaicensis’) dining on a daily basis. Amazing how quiet the yard was when he was around.” Ah, yes, when a raptor is around, smaller birds know to beware.

BIRDING NOTES: While in my house in Monroe, Middlesex County, one night this week, I heard a great horned owl, “Bubo virginianus,” hooting. This species is an early breeder, so I am figuring it was either a territorial call or a call for a mate. I went outside to get a better idea where it was calling from, but it had stopped by the time I got outside. Keep your ears open for this resonating baritone. Years ago, one must have landed in a tree near my bedroom in the Monroe farmhouse I was living in at the time and started calling – Man, did I come alive in surprise when I first heard it.

A pumpkin patch at the Fresh Ponds section of South Brunswick, Middlesex County.

DEER RUT: One night, this week, I heard a familiar rustle in the fallen leaves of my neighborhood. I waited and, yes, a doe and her two young walked through a neighbor’s yard and onto my street. Hiding in bushes in my front yard, I watched them for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, only 125 feet or less away. They were jumpy, but they never fled. Finally, I lost sight of them up the street. This week, I saw no bucks, as I had been seeing in recent weeks. So, I suspect the mating season, or rut, of deer, “Odocoileus virginianus,” is at its peak – with bucks and receptive does holed up in secluded spots in the woods.

THE ENIVIROMENTALISM OF DEER HUNTING: “U.S.1” newspaper recently had an interesting article on how deer-hunting is now environmentally in vogue, at least in some circles such as in the Hopewell Valley area on the boundary of Mercer, Somerset, and Hunterdon counties. When this was mentioned here recently, it generated quite a bit of pro-hunting chatter. The recent “U.S.1” article, http://princetoninfo.com/index.php/component/us1more/?Itemid=6&key=11-8cover.

Sheep at a farm in Monroe, Middlesex County.

FIRE IN THE PINES: The state Pinelands Commission is considering fire-break permits in the Pine Barrens area it covers – basically from the Route 528/Cassville section of Jackson, Ocean County, and south. The Pine Barrens are susceptible to wildfire because of their well-drained, sandy soil with dry, dense, and highly flammable vegetation. Fire-breaks can stop fires or at least hopefully slow their threat.

Helmetta’s Joey Slezak took this photograph of a state Forest Fire Service control-burn a few years ago in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta. The Pine Barrens around Helmetta are not part of the state-regulated “Pinelands.” (Photo copyrighted by Joey Slezak).

VOICES FROM AFIELD, NO. 2, VERONICA VAN HOF: Veronica Van Hof, director of the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge a bit south of the Midlands in Buena Vista, Atlantic County, checked in, regarding how spring peeper treefrogs, “Pseudacris crucifer,” normally early spring callers, have been heard in recent weeks: “We heard peepers recently, too! I was surprised but they’re so unmistakable.” Veronica also noted the arrival of winter visitors, bufflehead ducks, “Bucephala albeola,” down from Canada, “Just got our first buffleheads today” — Sunday, November 12 – “a pair lazily dabbling around the pond.”

DAIRY FARMS: In recent years, there has been a resurgence in dairying (at a scaled-down level) and home delivery of dairy products. But in my youth in the 1960s, local commercial dairy farms, along with home delivery, were a way of life – in my case, Forsgate Farms of Monroe, Middlesex County, at my Monroe home and Decker’s Dairy of Hightstown-East Windsor, Mercer County, at my elementary school, St. Mary School in South River, Middlesex County. The Hightstown-East Windsor area also had Conover’s Dairy. Conover’s Dairy, for example, closed in 1972, according to the East Windsor township website. (See https://www.east-windsor.nj.us/conovers-dairy.)

A Conover’s Dairy and Decker’s Dairy display at the Hightstown Diner in Mercer County.

PERRINEVILLE LAKE PARK: New Jersey’s Coastal Plain, as its name suggests, is generally flat. But at Perrineville Lake Park in Millstone and Roosevelt, both in Monmouth County, the land is hilly, thanks to the cuesta geological formation. This hilly formation generally runs from Sandy Hook in Monmouth County to the Philadelphia area, dividing the sandy soil Outer Coastal Plain and the generally dark soil Inner Coastal Plain. The park is about 1,200 acres and includes the lake, formed by the damming of Rocky Brook, woods, and field. More on the park, http://monmouthcountyparks.com/documents/130/PerrinevilleForWeb.pdf and https://www.monmouthcountyparks.com/page.aspx?Id=2550.

Perrineville Lake in Millstone, Monmouth County.

DELAWARE AND RARITAN CANAL: The Delaware and Raritan Canal’s main shipping channel ran about 30 miles between the areas of New Brunswick, Middlesex County, and Trenton, Mercer County. Another canal, the feeder canal, replenished the main canal with water from the Delaware River. The feeder canal also ran about 30 miles between the areas of Frenchtown, Hunterdon County, and Trenton. The feeder canal later was used for shipping, too. The canal operated for about 100 years from the 1830s to the 1930s. Today, the canal provides easy hiking, bicycling, boating, and fishing along both main and feeder canals. More information, http://www.dandrcanal.com.

Looking south on the Delaware and Raritan Canal’s feeder at Stockton, Hunterdon County.

The Delaware and Raritan Canal, here the feeder canal, towpath at Stockton, Hunterdon County.

OCEAN TEMPERATURES: The Atlantic Ocean temperature at Sandy Hook was about 49 degrees over Friday-Saturday, November 17-18.
SUNRISE/SUNSET: For November 19, Sunday, to November 25, Saturday, the sun will rise about 6:50 to 6:55 a.m. and set about 4:35 p.m. For November 26, Sunday, to December 2, Saturday, the sun will rise about 6:55 to 7:05 a.m. and set about 4:30 to 4:35 p.m.
WEATHER: The National Weather Service forecasting station for the area is at http://www.weather.gov/phi/.

Happy Turkey Day – Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 23. In the photograph, wild turkeys, “Meleagris gallopavo,” cross a road in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta in 2015.

Joe Sapia, 60, is a lifelong resident of Monroe — in South Middlesex County, where his maternal family settled more than 100 years ago. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and a gardener of organic vegetables and fruit, along with zinnias and roses. He draws inspiration on the Pine Barrens around Helmetta from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in these Pines, and his Polish-immigrant grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Grandma Annie and Italian-American father, Joe Sr. Both are inspirations for his food gardening. Ma inspires his rose gardening. Joe is a semi-retired print journalist of almost 40 years. His work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page.

Notes from Garden & Afield: Week of November 5

 

Article and photos by Joe Sapia

Note: The yard references are to my house in the section of Monroe between Helmetta and Jamesburg in South Middlesex County. My yard is in a Pine Barrens outlier on the Inner Coastal Plain, the soil is loamy, and my neighborhood is on the boundary of Gardening Zones 6b (cooler) and 7a (warmer). Notes and photographs are for the period covered, unless otherwise noted.

Pumpkins and fall foliage, both taking a last stand for the season, at the Red Wagon Farm Market on Route 33 and Smithburg Road/Route 527-A in Manalapan, Monmouth County.

SNOWBIRDS: I saw the first “snowbirds,” or dark-eyed juncos, “Junco hyemalis,” of the season on Tuesday, November 7, Election Day, around sunrise at St. James Cemetery in Monroe, Middlesex County. The birds are easy to identify by their gray tops and white undersides – “gray skies above, snow below” – and the white edges of their splayed tails as they take off. My rule of thumb is to look for these birds around Halloween, October 31, arriving for the cold weather from as close as the high ground of North Jersey or Pennsylvania and as far away as Canada. Around my yard, I look for these small birds on the ground under the bird-feeder or in bushes. I will see them around my yard to about mid- to late April.

I saw the first “snowbirds,” or dark-eyed juncos, of the season Tuesday, November 7, Election Day, at St. James Cemetery in Monroe, Middlesex County. These birds arrive from the north for the cold-weather season.

VOICES FROM AFIELD, MORE WINTER BIRDS: Diane Larson, a long-time gardening mentor, checked in on the afield side, regarding Beaver Dam Creek in Brick, Ocean County. “Another bird sign of winter – the buffleheads (“Bucephala albeola’’) and mergansers (genus “Mergus”) arrived in Beaver Dam Creek right on schedule – saw them Saturday (November 4) for the first time. We also have otters (“Lutra Canadensis”). They are very elusive, but we’ve seen them and heard them splashing in the water around 8:00 p.m. one night (during) the last week of October. We went outside and tried to see them, but they swam away. All we saw was their wake and heard their grunts.”

Canada geese, “Branta canadensis,” on the Skeba Farm in the Applegarth section of Monroe, Middlesex County.

BIRDS IN MY YARD: As I was doing yardwork, birds were feasting on corn hearts at my backyard bird-feeder: dark-eyed junco, “Junco hyemalis”; mourning dove, “Zenaida macroura”; tufted titmouse, “Baeolophus bicolor”; and Carolina chickadee, “Poecile carolinensis.”

A Mourning Dove at my Backyard Bird-feeder

A Tufted Titmouse at my Backyard Bird-Feeder

A Chickadee at my Backyard Feeder

GARDEN AND YARD: As I cut the lawn, hopefully for the last time of the year, I smelled wild onions I had mowed down. A bittersweet scent – one pointing back at the year’s peak of vegetable growing, one pointing to a gardening season that lingers. The Jamesburg-to-New Brunswick area of Middlesex County got down to about 20 degrees on the Friday-Saturday, November 10-11, overnight, pretty much bringing an end to the warm weather gardening season. However, I did find a few cherry tomatoes in my garden. (I have a cool weather crop of carrots planted. So, I am hoping for some kind of harvest.) So, this week, I cut the lawn, dumped my last barrel of gardening water, and mowed down the garden, except for the carrots. As for the yard work, I try to get that all done by Thanksgiving.

I found these cherry tomatoes in my garden. The top one was in good condition and I popped it into my mouth right in the yard and ate it.

VOICES FROM AFIELD, NO. 2, LINGERING SPRING: Last week, I mentioned I thought I heard the call of a spring peeper treefrog, “Pseudacris crucifer,” at Farrington Lake on the boundary of South Brunswick, East Brunswick, and North Brunswick in Middlesex County. They are normally early spring callers. Jean Montgomerie, an environmental scientist who lives in Freehold and works in the Pine Barrens, said, “Those were spring peepers; I heard them last week too.” Spring, in the form of fall, is playing itself out again, this year.

NIGHT SKY: With the cold spell at the end of the week, I stood in my yard between about 10:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. and looked at the night sky. With the temperature at about 23 degrees and very little moisture in the air (with a dewpoint of about 8 degrees), it was one of the clearest night skies I recall, with great views of Auriga (overhead/east); Pleiades, or Seven Sisters (overhead); Orion (southeast); the Great Square of Pegasus (southwest); Cassiopeia (northwest); and the North Star. Take advantage of cold, dry fall and winter overnights. Get a revolving star chart, turn off the outside lights, go outside and acclimate your eyesight to the darkness, and look into the night sky.

THE MOON: The moon is waning from the Full Frost Moon of the November 3-4 overnight. The next full moon is the Long Night Moon on the December 2-3 overnight.

The morning moon, with the changing colors of the fall foliage underneath, at St. James Cemetery in Monroe, Middlesex County. The moon is waning from the Full Frost Moon of the November 3-4 overnight. The next full moon is the Long Night Moon on the December 2-3 overnight.

FALL FOLIAGE: The changing colors of fall foliage are all over the place – some past full color, some peaking, some yet to come. I take the colors as they come, rather than concentrating on a peak.

The changing colors of the fall foliage along Interstate 195 in Jackson, Ocean County.

The rising sun’s light hits the top of the trees, lighting up the fall colors, at St. James Cemetery in Monroe, Middlesex County.

The changing colors between Davidson Mill Park and Pigeon Swamp in South Brunswick, Middlesex County.

DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, RED-TAILED HAWK: As I was returning home from my normal Sunday routine of lunch at the Hightstown Diner in Mercer County, I crossed the Millstone River on the boundary of Cranbury, Middlesex County, and East Windsor, Mercer County. On the Cranbury side, a large bird flew out of the trees, then low along the roadway – a red-tailed hawk, “Buteo jamaicensis.” I cranked off a shot on my camera. Not a good shot, but that is photojournalism – you take what you get, because the news does not necessarily stop for the journalist. The photo, at least, puts in perspective how low the bird was.

A red-tailed hawk flies low along a roadway on the boundary of Cranbury, Middlesex County, and East Windsor, Mercer County.

The Millstone River on the boundary of Cranbury, Middlesex County, and East Windsor, Mercer County.

VOICES FROM AFIELD, NO. 3, DEER RUT: I continue seeing normally hidden male deer, “Odocoileus virginianus,” because it is the mating season, or rut. This week, I saw one in southern Monroe, Middlesex County, at night. Then, as I was driving to work one morning in daylight, a deer bolted across a paved road in the Jamesburg Park Conservation Area in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta, Middlesex County. I did not get a good look at the deer, but, based on the way it bolted across the street and because I saw no others, my guess is it was a buck. Paul Migut checked in from South River, Middlesex County: “Spotted buck behind my firehouse. He’s been chasing two does around here.” Again, be careful driving during the rut, which should last until about mid-December.

CLOUDS: This week’s cloud shots are from St. James Cemetery in Monroe, Middlesex County. My family has had a plot there for more than 100 years, since my maternal grandfather, Michael Onda, died in 1917, October.

Clouds over St. James Cemetery in Monroe, Middlesex County.

More clouds from St. James Cemetery in Monroe, Middlesex County.

And more clouds from St. James Cemetery in Monroe, Middlesex County.

VOICES FROM AFIELD, N0. 4, SWIMMING RIVER: Rik van Hemmen, sailor and advocate for the Navesink River watershed, Monmouth County, checked in: “Two weeks ago, just before I hauled my Sea Bright skiff for the winter, we had a perfect tide going up the Swimming River with friends who had never done it before. As is common, it blew their minds to see all this natural beauty.”

Fall on the Swimming River in Monmouth County. (Photograph copyright 2017 by Rik van Hemmen.)
OCEAN TEMPERATURES: Atlantic Ocean temperatures on the New Jersey coast were about 50 degrees to 53 degrees over the November 11-12 weekend.

SUNRISE/SUNSET: For November 12, Sunday, to November 18, Saturday, the sun will rise about 6:40 to 6:45 a.m. and set about 4:35 to 4:40 p.m. For November 19, Sunday, to November 25, Saturday, the sun will rise about 6:50 to 6:55 a.m. and set about 4:35 p.m.

WEATHER: The National Weather Service forecasting station for the area is at http://www.weather.gov/phi/.

IN THE BACKYARD: As I was wrapping up this week’s “Notes from Garden and Afield,” I took a soda break. While in the kitchen, I grabbed four gourds I had on display on the table, opened the back door, stood on the back porch, and threw the gourds across the lawn into the garden. I threw one into a pitch pine, “Pinus rigida,” bordering lawn and garden. A bird must have been in the tree, because a large bird flew out and past me eye-high. Wow! On that note….

Say, good night, Pumpkin Person. (A pumpkin person at the Red Wagon Farm Market on Route 33, Manalapan, Monmouth County.)

Joe Sapia, 60, is a lifelong resident of Monroe — in South Middlesex County, where his maternal family settled more than 100 years ago. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and a gardener of organic vegetables and fruit, along with zinnias and roses. He draws inspiration on the Pine Barrens around Helmetta from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in these Pines, and his Polish-immigrant grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Grandma Annie and Italian-American father, Joe Sr. Both are inspirations for his food gardening. Ma inspires his rose gardening. Joe is a semi-retired print journalist of almost 40 years. His work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page.

 

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