Readers’ wildlife photos

Please send in your wildlife photos as this is the last batch I have!

Today we have bird photos from Jan Malik showing avian denizens in the “wilds” of New Jersey. Jan’s IDs and descriptions are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. Note the DUCKS at the beginning and in the penultimate photo.

I’d like to present my natural backyard, the Meadowlands in New Jersey. This is an expanse of tidal marshes and phragmites reeds, formerly used as city dumps. It was more or less that desolate swath of land where Pete Clemenza instructed his enforcer: “Leave the gun, take the cannoli.” Nowadays, this land is in the process of active reclamation and on its way to becoming aquatic parkland.

In spring and summer, DeKorte Park is teeming with ducks; here are a male and a female Green-winged Teal (Anas carolinensis):

There is a large flock of Ruddy Ducks (Oxyura jamaicensis) that stays each year in the same cove:

Every year, many Northern Shovelers (Spatula clypeata) visit the marshes. Their bills certainly look like spatulas:

American Black Ducks (Anas rubripes) also move through the area and possibly even breed in more secluded areas. They are close cousins of Mallards, and hybridization occurs fairly often (as evidenced by the green brow on this male); however, the species manage to stay separate due to their selection of nesting sites and preferred diets:

There are too many wading birds to list, but here is a Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus):

And a Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes):

Midges and mosquitoes can sometimes be a nuisance:

But we have an efficient pest control crew, like this Tree Swallow (Tachycineta bicolor):

Large wading birds are numerous; here is a Great Egret (Ardea alba).

A strong local colony of Ospreys (Pandion haliaetus) has a prominent presence here. As long as nesting platforms are available and polychlorinated hydrocarbons are absent, these birds will thrive:

Among songbirds, we have native sparrows, like this White-throated Sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis):

As well as introduced ones, like this male House Sparrow (Passer domesticus), which has taken up residence in an all-American nesting box:

We have too many songbirds to show them all, but as a final one, here is an American Goldfinch (Spinus tristis):

Every summer, we have our crop of youngsters, like these American Robin (Turdus migratorius) chicks:

Or these ducklings—I think they may be Black Ducks, not Mallards:

I’ve realized now that I have collected too many bird pictures from this region and have short-changed all our lovely mammals, insects, turtles, shellfish, and fish—the latter, sadly, largely inaccessible to a photographer. But I would be remiss if I didn’t include this view, which has been visible on this specific September day for the last 25 years. The World Trade Center site’s light beam tribute is visible across the Hudson, and its aesthetic quality must not cloud our understanding of what it means: that on one sunny September morning in 2001, we were deprived of Francis Fukuyama’s comfortable utopia of universalism and thrown into Samuel Huntington’s world, where others look at our treasured values with disdain and a desire to destroy them: