Jun 29, 2016. Michelle Margilaj stands outside il Laghetto restaurant on the dock overlooking Lake Mahopac where she pulled an 8-year-old boy from the frigid waters after his kayak had capsized. Credits: Bob Dumas. MAHOPAC, N.Y. - It was a rainy, chilly Friday night in late April and things were quiet at il Laghetto. Jul 18, 2017. LAST WEEK'S DRAGON FLY: Roger Dreyling, a lifelong Jamesburg area outdoorsman and my cousin through marriage, identified the dragonfly I. Here is the story of the “panic broadcast,” http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/infamous-war-worlds-radio-broadcast-was-magnificent-fluke-180955180/.

May 1, 2017 The following are the headlines on our watch list: National Monuments Under Threat: On April 26 President Trump signed an, which could change National Monument designation (and the protections that that designation affords) for our National Monuments. Offshore Drilling EO: On April 28 President Trump signed an. The Order instructs the Interior to review ways to take down barriers to drilling, including in the Atlantic. Marches for Science and Climate: Throughout April tens of thousands of people took to the streets in over 600 communities to celebrate science and its critical role in both society and policy, and to bring attention to the science that underscores our understanding of climate change. April 27, 2017 Water Protectors in Standing Rock, North Dakota protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline brought attention to serious flaws in the federal environmental review and approval process for crude oil and natural gas pipeline projects. The Water Protectors argued that all infrastructure projects need to include a truly comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that evaluates impacts to our natural and cultural assets. While the federal oversights affecting Standing Rock were particularly egregious, the legacy of compromised Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) environmental review processes should be of concern to New Jersey residents as well.

Oil and gas pipelines already fragment our environment as they crisscross the state. Our Lower Raritan Watershed may be impacted further by the proposed. This project includes a 3.4-mile-long, 26-inch-diameter pipeline loop in Middlesex County, and a 23.4-mile-long, 26-inch-diameter pipeline loop (called the “Raritan Bay Loop”) beginning at the Middlesex County coast and crossing New Jersey and New York State marine waters. Because the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership has concerns that the pipeline would have irreversible impacts on our communities, watershed ecology and marine habitat, we joined dozens of other concerned citizens and environmental groups at the April 20 meeting of the Middlesex County Freeholders to encourage elected officials to take action on a project that would pose significant risks.. And on April 25, the LRWP applied for intervenor status to address the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on the Williams/Transcontinental Application for the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Pipeline Project (Docket Number CP17-101). Becoming an intervenor provides legal standing in the proceeding, and obligates FERC to address any comments we may submit. The LRWP included the following in our application for intervenor status: “The Transco Pipeline proposals pose significant risks to our Central New Jersey communities. These projects will solely benefit New York City markets, yet our New Jersey communities would bear significant public health and economic risks – including increased rates of leukemia, lymphomas, respiratory disorders and other diseases – while receiving little or no benefits.

We must not expose our local communities to a high-risk proposition with little to no reward. The Transco Pipeline proposals will harm our environment and the habitat of our Raritan Watershed and Raritan Bay.

The building of pipeline infrastructure and the transport of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale region to New York will fragment our natural habitat, and disrupt commercial and recreational marine activities for residents and visitors. Our communities are working hard to restore landscapes destroyed by decades of industrial dumping and toxic pollution, let’s not reverse this positive trend. The Transco Pipeline proposals are unnecessary. The Transco Pipeline would be a redundant expansion of industrial natural gas infrastructure through our Middlesex County, Somerset County and Bayshore communities.

The LRWP recognizes that aging rail, bridge and other infrastructure that currently accommodates fuel transport poses risks that could lead to devastating spills in our waterways. This serious concern that can be addressed by two-pronged strategy: significant investment in the repair and maintenance of our existing infrastructure, and shifting investments to safe, clean renewable energy. The Transco Pipeline proposals are not what our communities want.

The overwhelmingly negative feedback on the project during community meetings has made it clear that this project does not have the support of community residents!” April 25, 2017 Article and photos by Joe Sapia Author’s 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). Afield references are to the Pine Barrens around Helmetta, unless otherwise noted. The New Jersey state bird, an Eastern goldfinch. Here, a male adult, distinguished by its bright colors.

THE NEW JERSEY STATE BIRD: I saw an adult male Eastern goldfinch, “Spinus tristis,” in the yard and he was in his bright mating colors of yellow, black and white. Females and juveniles are duller in color. “SNOWBIRDS”: I may have seen the last of the dark-eyed juncos, “Junco hyemalis,” for the season about April 17. These “snowbirds” will head north, possibly as close as North Jersey or Pennsylvania, possibly as far as Canada, and not return until the fall. I normally see their return to my yard around Halloween.

OTHER BIRDS IN THE YARD: Robin, “Turdus migratorius,”; house finch, “Haemorhous mexicanus”; mourning dove, “Zenaida macroura”; cardinal, “Cardinalis cardinalis”; pigeon, probably “Columba livia”; tufted titmouse, “Baeolophus bicolor”; red-bellied woodpecker, “Melanerpes carolinus”; brown-headed cowbird, “Molothrus ater”; white-breasted nuthatch, “Sitta carolinensis”; and white-throated sparrow, “Zonotrichia albicollis.” The house finch and pigeon are non-native, but naturalized, species. White-throated sparrow. White-breasted nuthatch. WHITE ROBIN: Hearing a report of a “white” robin in Cranbury Station on the boundary of Monroe and Cranbury, Middlesex County. Jean Wojaczyk describes it as having a pale orange chest and, basically, the rest being white. BIRDBATHS: I got them filled at the normal backyard location and added another to the front yard. For years, I have used garbage can lids or shallow pans filled with water and placed directly on the ground.

HUMMINGBIRD FEEDER: Put it up April 16 to catch the “scout” hummingbirds, hoping to attract these early arrivals and, in turn, the others headed north. I have never been successful with hummingbirds, but I try again. GREAT EGRET: Was able to photograph a great egret, “Ardea alba,” flying past my house. Great egret flying by my house. PINE BARRENS AROUND HELMETTA: I walked the local Pines April 17 with Priscilla “Peppy” Bath, 85-years-old, of Hamilton Square, Mercer County. Peppy and I are longtime members of the Outdoor Club of South Jersey.

Peppy and I observed quite a bit in our approximately 3-mile walk, including blooming trailing arbutus, “Epigaea repens,” whose flowers produce aeguably the nicest scent in the local pines; cinnamon fern, “Osmunda cinnamomea,” in its fiddlehead stage”; beautiful green skunk cabbage, “Symplocarpus foetidus”; inkberry, “Ilex glabra,” in berry; and eastern tent caterpillars, “Malacosoma americanum,” on a wild cherry tree, “Prunus serotina.” Eastern tent caterpillars on a wild cherry tree. Cinnamon fern in its fiddlehead stage.

Skunk cabbage. Trailing arbutus, “Epigaea repens,” – or “May pinks,” as Ma called them. WANDERING BLACK BEARS: South Brunswick/Middlesex County, for example, had a sighting of a black bear, “Ursus americanus,” in recent days.

So, just a heads up for the spring-summer roaming of bears. These wandering bears are likely to be young males, 80 to 100 pounds, chased off by older, larger males from traditional New Jersey “bear country” in the northwestern part of the state. So, the young males fan out, looking for their own territory. CUTTING THE LAWN: I cut the lawn for the first time this season April 18 — and was aching that night. WILD ONIONS: As I began cutting the lawn, I smelled onions – the wild ones growing in the lawn and now being mowed.

I wish I liked onions more than I do, because there are plenty in my lawn. SEEDING THE LAWN: As I maintain a no-fuss lawn and yearn for less and less lawn with more and more garden and wildlife patches, others want the magazine-looking lawn. I see these folks talking about seeding. Now is not the right time of year.

Seed as early in September as possible and no later than mid-September is the advice I picked up a few years ago from the Rutgers University Cooperative Extension Service. HOUSE PLANTS: I have about 30 house plants: devil’s ivy, spider plant, wandering Jew.

On Easter Sunday, during my weekly-or-so watering, I was able to move some outside for watering, which is less messy, because it was so warm. NIGHT SKY: Catch a look at the constellation Orion — easily identified by its belt of three stars before it disappears from view until the fall. HUMAN-MADE OBJECTS IN SPACE: I always check out the night sky and, several days ago, I got a few-seconds view of a satellite or space junk. It was easy to pick out: moving across the sky, only a speck, not blinking. Not blinking because the light is the sun reflecting off it, rather than human lighting.

So, as our sun-reflected view diminishes, the satellite disappears. SUNRISE/SUNSET: For the week of April 23, Sunday, to April 29, Saturday, the sun will rise at about 6 a.m. And set at about 7:45 p.m. WEATHER: Go to the National Weather Service forecasting station for the area, A Virginia pine, “Pinus virginiana,” in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta Joe Sapia, 60, is a lifelong Monroe resident. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and an organic vegetable-fruit gardener.

He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Italian-American father, Joe Sr., and his Polish-immigrant, maternal grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. Both are inspirations for his food gardening. He draws inspiration on the local Pine Barrens from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in these Pines, and his Grandma Annie. April 20, 2017 Article and photos by Joe Mish Areas which flood each spring are called vernal pools and attract several species of frogs. Each species produces a distinctive call, all in an effort to attract a mate. The orchestral performance this spring night was provided by spring peepers, pickerel frogs, green frogs and American toads. This green frog wears the equivalent of a lamp shade on his head after a night of froggy frolic.

The moon would not be full until the next night, though the difference could not be told without a lunar calendar. As the moon rose above the horizon it was shrouded in low clouds and tinted orange by the earth’s atmosphere. The moon appeared as if hiding behind a shear white veil, drawing more attention and holding a glance until it became a stare.

From the highpoint above the river, the first full view of the moon rising thru the thin white haze was screened by a loose weave of fine treetop branches. The delicate stems stood out in sharp contrast against the brilliant orb and moonlit clouds. A tall cherry tree, growing out of a line of dark pines on a low ridge parallel to the river, perfectly balanced the moonlit scene with a staircase of blossoms turned luminous in the rising light. A landscape painter could ask for no better inspiration than presented on this spring evening. The overgrown path to the river was paved with fragments of white flowers from the blooming thornapple trees. The small round petals took on a glow in the rising moonlight to mark the trail, making it easier to follow.

A chipping sparrow, out later than it should have, hung onto a stem of tall amber broomsedge grass, as if it were a pole vaulter, caught in midair, hanging on to a pole at maximum flex. The slow moonrise was reversed, as the trail to the river descended and hid the moon below the horizon. Before the full moon reaches its zenith, visibility is lost in a temporary moment of deepening darkness, though a sense of night time vision may be provided by listening to the sounds of nature. The call of geese from the river vibrated through the darkness to dominate the night. Their conversation was even and constant as they settled in for the night. Their calls would pick up in response to late arriving flights validating a safe harbor below.

At night, geese dispense with circling and come right in with wings set and feet outstretched for touchdown. The sound of geese landing on water at night is a gentle extended, woosh, as their feet skim the water’s surface to slow the landing speed, followed by a barely perceptible splash. The wind whistling through the primary feathers on birds wings, makes an odd creaking sound to betray their otherwise invisible night time approach. Straggling flocks of common mergansers and wood ducks landed parallel to the shoreline, mid river, and then dispersed to spend the night on the water in some eddy or quiet water below a fallen tree. When the moon rose high enough to shed its gossamer haze to float above any earthbound obstruction, the moonlight intensified and now reflected on the river. Each ripple appearing as a silvery diamond. The ducks and geese became silhouettes as they drifted across a bejeweled stream of silvery light as viewed from opposite the light source.

Occasionally a call from an unidentified bird could be heard among the intermittent wood duck whistling and goose banter. The calls generated speculation, perhaps a black or yellow crowned night heron or just an irritated great blue heron. The steady drone of spring peepers went nearly unnoticed as white noise, as it was separated from the sounds along the river by a good quarter mile.

When attention was focused on the spring peepers which dominated the vernal pools, the solo calls of competing pickerel and green frogs could be heard. Focusing on sounds in the night, coming from opposite directions, was like simultaneously listening to two radio broadcasts; each source competing for attention. American toad carpenter frog, alias wood frog pickerel frog spring peeper/hyla crucifer 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.

April 19, 2017 Article and photos by Joe Sapia The Full Easter Moon rises over the Manalapan Brook floodplain in Monroe, Middlesex County, on the April 10-11, Monday-Tuesday, overnight. The white speck to the right of the moon is Jupiter. Author’s 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). FIRSTS OF THE SEASON: For the first time this season, I saw a bee, bat, and cabbage white butterfly – all on the same day, April 10.

The bee was in my side yard, the cabbage white in my garden, and the bats, both flying over my yard and near woods edge at Manalapan Brook. (Also, it was the first day I heard my attic fan kick in.) A cabbage white butterfly in my garden, near an oak leaf for a size comparison. MULCHING TREES: Oh, no, mulch “volcanoes”! Those are the volcano-shaped mulch structures around tree trunks.

Mulching is done for a variety of reasons, such as providing moisture and drainage, while serving as a buffer against yard equipment and giving the yard a neater look. But volcanoes are bad for the tree – they can lead to over-moisture and the introduction of disease. So, go for the “doughnut”: creating a doughnut-like circle around the tree, the inner circle having no contact with the tree or its roots, the outer circle 2 to 3 inches of mulch either to the end of the root ball or the tree’s drip line. MA’S FLOWERING QUINCE: My family is the original owner of my house, going back to 1953. I was born in 1956 and never recall a time without Ma’s flowering quince bush. So, I figure the bush was planted soon after the family bought the property in ’53. This year, the flowering is not looking good, probably because of the warm weather inducing budding, followed by cold weather killing the buds.

Ma’s flowering quince not looking too good this season, probably because the flowering was affected by the warm temperatures that prompting budding, followed by cold killing the buds. The flowering quince during a nicer bloom in spring, 2012.

FLOWERING AT “THE MASTERS” GOLF TOURNAMENT: The Masters Golf Tournament played annually in Augusta, Georgia, is known for its flowering beauty. This year, though, Augusta had a warm winter followed by cold spring days, prompting an early bloom followed by killing freezes. So, when the Masters was played April 6 to 9, the flowering was not that vibrant.

HELMETTA POND FISHING: Helmetta Pond is a typical Pine Barrens “tea water,” acidic body of water, here in the Spotswood Outlier of the Pines. Joey Slezak, my local go-to science person, fished the Pond April 12 and caught pickerel and largemouth bass.

BIRDS SINGING: Listen to the spring songs of birds, probably asserting territory or seeking mates. This week, I heard them as early as about 5:15 a.m., or more than an hour before sunrise. SNORTING DEER: On the overnight of the full moon, I walked across the street to Manalapan Brook, spooking some deer. At least one gave out a few loud snorts, probably alerting other deer of my presence and maybe trying to spook me. The snort is sort of spooky, but something I get a kick out of, wildlife communicating because of me. Then, the deer bolted.

MA’S FLOWERS: Ma died at 81-years-old in 1995, but, come spring, her front yard daffodils and crocuses continue blooming. Ma’s daffodils, still blooming in the front yard, 22 years after Ma died. MORE NATURE NEWS FROM THE JERSEY MIDLANDS: See the observations made by naturalist Bill Simmons, Bill is the retired environmental coordinator for the Monmouth County Health Department.

He also is at @BillSimmonsNJ on Twitter.com. SUNRISE/SUNSET: For the week of April 16, Sunday, to April 22, Saturday, the sun will rise at about 6:07 to 6:15 a.m. And set at about 7:38 to 7:44 p.m. WEATHER: Go to the National Weather Service forecasting station for the area, — Joseph Sapia 2017, April 15, Easter Saturday, Joe Sapia, 60, is a lifelong Monroe resident. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and an organic vegetable-fruit gardener. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Italian-American father, Joe Sr., and his Polish-immigrant, maternal grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda.

Both are inspirations for his food gardening. He draws inspiration on the local Pine Barrens from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in these Pines, and his Grandma Annie. April 18, 2017 Article and Photos by Joe Sapia Turning over the vegetable garden Author’s 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). MESSING UP PREPPING THE VEGETABLE GARDEN: To get a jump on the vegetable garden, I sowed inside early season plant seeds of lettuce, carrots, and peas.

That was a mistake. When I was transitioning them to plant outside, I killed them. I should have waited and planted them directly into the garden. So, I had to regroup. PLANTING THE EARLY SEASON GARDEN: I bought new seeds – “Salad Bowl Green Heirloom Lettuce,” “Rainbow Blend Carrots,” and “Sugar Daddy Snap Peas,” all Lake Valley Seeds brand – and planted the early spring garden April 8. NEXT UP AT THE GARDEN: I will plant the summer crops – sweet corn, tomatoes, cantaloupe, and cucumbers, along with zinnias for color and to attract pollinators – roughly May 20 (if the weather has been warm) to June 1 (if the weather has been cool). Unflowering trailing arbutus, or “May pink.” FLOWERING IN THE WOODS: Swamp maples have their red tinge of buds, along with the budding of “May pinks” (trailing arbutus).

I saw a report trailing arbutus has already flowered in the main Pine Barrens to the south, but have not seen any beyond budding in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta. BIRDS SINGING SPRING SONGS: I am hearing the birds beginning their daily singing about 6 a.m. To 6:15 a.m., or about 15 to 40 minutes before sunrise. The birds presumably are singing to assert territory and to attract mates. A beautiful, but invasive, mute swan at Helmetta Pond “POND PIGS” AT HELMETTA POND: While beautiful, mute swans are a non-native bird that have been naturalized in America – and are disrupting the natural world around them. They are aggressive to humans and animals and deplete food supplies. There were brought to this country from Europe in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

LAST SNOW OF THE SEASON: Since the winter of 1995-1996, it has snowed as late as April 16 (April 9-10 for accumulating snow). Judging from the upcoming weather forecast, we probably had our last snow of the season, which was March 15. OCCASIONAL LOUDNESS OF THE NEW JERSEY TURNPIKE: Wonder why the sound of the Turnpike is very loud at times, well beyond the quiet background noise? Probably because of warmer temperatures in the air compared with colder ones at the ground level.

GREEN WATERING OF THE GARDEN: Last year, I used a combination of drinking water from the house spigot and “gray” water (used bathing water). I got thinking about conserving house water – or even more conservation than I already do – and not putting soapy bath water into the garden. So, this year, 1. I am going to try using more accumulated rain water, making sure I keep the barrel covered when not in use so as not to promote mosquito breeding; 2. I am going to try to use available fresh water, perhaps from Manalapan Brook and a nearby swamp.; and 3., Conserve even more water at home. (In the 15 years since I have been taken over the family house, I have cut water usage by up to about 50 percent, the results of a bathroom renovation and conservation. SUNRISE/SUNSET for April 2 to 8: Roughly about 6:20 to 6:30 Eastern Daylight Time for sunrise and about 7:30 to 7:35 for sunset.

VIEWING THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: The ISS may be visible Tuesday, April 11, 8:16 p.m. To 8:21 p.m., from north northwest to east; Friday, April 14, 8:53 p.m.

To 8:56 p.m.; and Saturday, April 15, 8:02 p.m. The near-full moon over Manalapan Brook in Monroe NIGHT SKY: The Full Sprouting Grass Moon is on the Monday-Tueday, April 10-11, overnight.

Also, see DROUGHT: With the recent rains, drought concerns may be lifted in the coming days by the state Department of Environmental Protection. — Joseph Sapia 2017, April 9, Sunday, Joe Sapia, 60, is a lifelong Monroe resident. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and an organic vegetable-fruit gardener. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Italian-American father, Joe Sr., and his Polish-immigrant, maternal grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda.

Both are inspirations for his food gardening. He draws inspiration on the local Pine Barrens from his mother, Sophie Onda Sapia, who lived her whole life in the local Pines, and his grandmother. April 2, 2017 Article and photos by Joe Mish RAINFALL: It rained about 2.5 inches in the New Brunswick-Trenton area at the end of last week. So, it will be interesting to see what this week’s drought maps say. Garbage floating in a Monroe, Middlesex County, drainage ditch Garbage caught on a tree snag in Manalapan Brook, Monroe, Middlesex County NON-POINT SOURCE POLLUTION: During and after the week’s rains, the flow of non-point source pollution was obvious in our waterways. The cost-free way of dealing with it is, do not litter and do not leave stuff out in the yard, then it will not float into waterways. A spring peeper treefrog, found in the Manalapan Brook floodplain FROGS: I walked into the swamp hardwood forest of the Manalapan Brook floodplain between Helmetta and Jamesburg early in the week.

The sleigh bells-like sound of spring peeper treefrogs, “Pseudacris crucifer crucifer,” was obvious. I also heard monkey chattering-like sound of wood frogs, “Rana sylvatica.” RASPBERRIES: I planted five bare-root Burpee seed company Caroline raspberry plants. GARDEN ZONES: Depending on the source, the area is Garden Zone 6 (cooler) to Garden Zone 7 (warmer). That means our last frost generally is April 15 to 30; Our first frost is generally Oct.

Beyond that, I am playing it safe and sticking with Zone 6 for my Helmetta area, Middlesex County, home, although the area becoming a solid Zone 7 because of global warming is likely just around the corner. OUTDOOR PLANTING FOR SUMMER VEGETABLES AND FRUITS: My rule of thumb is May 20 if it is a warm to normal and, if it is cooler, wait to June 1. PREPARING PLANTS INDOOR: This year, though, I am trying something new, sowing plants indoors before the outside plant dates. So, I am experimenting with Kaleidoscope Blend Organic and Touchon carrots, Iceberg A lettuce, and Sugar Snap peas, all Burpee, which I began sowing about March 5.

I added Rutgers tomatoes about March 25. I plan on sowing more tomatoes – Brandywine Red and Red Cherry, both Lake Valley brand – indoors in the next day or so. HUMMINGBIRDS: Get the hummingbird feeders up by about April 15 to attract the early “scout” birds and they hopefully will lead later-arriving hummingbirds to the feeders. NIGHT SKY: SUNRISE/SUNSET: Approximate times are April 2, Sunday, 6:40 and 7:23 Eastern Daylight Time; April 3, Monday, 6:38 and 7:25; April 4, Tuesday, 6:36 and 7:26; April 5, Wednesday, 6:35 and 7:27; April 6, Thursday, 6:33 and 7:28[ April 7, Friday, 6:31 and 7:29; an April 8, Saturday, 6:30 and 7:30. WEATHER: Local weather forecasts are available at Carnegie Lake near the Kingston dam on the boundary of Mercer, Middlesex, and Somerset counties Joe Sapia, 60-years-old, grew up and lives in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta, where his family has resided for more than 100 years.

He can be reached at Snufftin@aol.com or at P.O. Box 275, Helmetta, 08828. March 30, 2017 The following are headlines to watch as the administration begins to cut protections to the environment: Rollbacks on Obama-era environmental Protections: A sweeping new passed on Tuesday March 28 includes rollbacks on emissions rules for power plants, limits on methane leaks, a moratorium on federal coal leasing, and the use of the social cost of carbon to guide government actions. EPA Budget Cuts: reports that the new administration seeks to cut the Environmental Protection Agency budget by up to 31%. Undoing the Clean Water Rule: On February 28, President Trump signed an.

The Clean Water Rule, currently blocked by an appeals court, protects smaller creeks and wetlands under the Clean Water Act of 1972. Here’s more on the. Rollbacks on Bans of Known Neurotoxins: National Public Radio reported that the new administration (), despite EPA’s own documentation of significant risks. Reports that chlorpyrifos is moderately persistent in soil and can take weeks to years to break down. The insecticide can also reach rivers, lakes and streams, where it concentrates in the fatty tissue of fish. According to the National Water Quality Assessment Program, chlorpyrifos contaminated surface water in urban and agricultural streams at levels potentially harmful to aquatic life.

March 30, 2017 Article by LRWP Board President Heather Fenyk Starting from a belief that enduring environmental values will help us withstand current shifts in political winds, the LRWP is initiating a series of short blog posts to reflect on the normative standards that structured the last several decades of environmental politics in New Jersey. Throughout this series we will draw attention to those actions that relate most directly to improving the the health of our Lower Raritan Watershed. We will also highlight other successful regional approaches that we can learn from to benefit our Lower Raritan River and local streams. Topics will include state-based policy making as well as alternative approaches including court actions, collaborative politics, and “private” pathways e.g. Land trusts, consumer purchasing power and business actions to achieve sustainability.

We also expect to explore mitigation banking, and proposals for stormwater utilities. In short, we want to identify a compendium of actions that might be brought to bear to further protect, enhance and restore our central New Jersey environmental landscape.

In this first entry we observe that while federal legislative changes may not currently be pro-environment (), alternative pathways to positive environmental outcomes can be as simple as holding our state Department of Environmental Protection accountable for specific promised actions to protect our rivers, streams and watersheds. For example, we can regularly check in with NJDEP to request updates on the following on-going initiatives: -Toxics reductions initiatives -Water Quality Standards -Maintaining the NJDEP water quality program -Non Point Source reduction planning -Communication of EPA/NJDEP TMDL prioritization work -Legislative updates -Permits updates -Innovations -Grants and loans, funding opportunities and state priorities review Institutionalization of all the above on-going project and program efforts at NJDEP speaks to a on-going commitment to environmental priorities for New Jersey’s future. As environmental non-profits and concerned citizens we must regularly articulate our expectations associated with these priorities and hold NJDEP accountable for meeting our expectations. March 22, 2017 Article by LRWP Board President Heather Fenyk Wikipedia tells us that civic science or citizen science (CS; also known as crowd science, crowd-sourced science, volunteer monitoring or networked science) is “scientific research conducted, in whole or in part, by amateur (or nonprofessional) scientists. Citizen science is sometimes described as public participation in scientific research, participatory monitoring and participatory action research.” The LRWP employs civic science to better understand the health of our watershed. Our volunteers engage in activities like water quality monitoring, soil sampling, pollinator counts and mapping of invasive and threatened/endangered species.

The data our volunteers generate is a key input to our analyses and restoration prioritization. While the LRWP’s mission centers on protecting, preserving and restoring habitat and biodiversity within our Lower Raritan Watershed, our civic science approach to data gathering speaks to another core purpose: by training community volunteers to monitor and report on the health of the environment we work to ensure that science, community engagement and environmental stewardship become a permanent part of the culture and identity of the Lower Raritan Watershed. Want to learn more about citizen/civic science?

Not only how it is used to characterize the health of our watersheds, track climate change and map oil spills, but also how it can improve emergency responses, help us understand how diseases spread, and keep our drinking water clean? Check out the new PBS mini-series sponsored by. For a month of Thursdays this April, series exploring citizen science, crowdsourcing, and mobile technology.

Below we summarize the episodes in the series: Even Big Data Starts Small The crowd, using mobile tech, and the cloud contribute to science that saves lives. In this episode, you’ll hear stories of everyday people contributing data used for emergency management, researching Alzheimers, mapping oils spills, and more. World Broadcast: April 6th at 9pm EST (replayed at 9pm PST) Citizens + Scientists Citizen scientists track air pollution in Wyoming, test for lead in Philadelphia’s drinking water, fish for data in coldwater trout streams and report environmental crimes in China, using the “Black & Smelly Rivers” app. Hear all these stories and more in Episode 2. World Broadcast: April 13th at 9pm EST (replayed at 9pm PST) Viral vs Virus Real-time data helps track environmental triggers for asthma sufferers and citizens confront air pollution and rising asthma rates by collecting real time data. In this episode, explore how maps and apps can combat globalized disease from asthma to Zika. World Broadcast: April 20th at 9pm EST (replayed at 9pm PST) Citizens4Earth This episode explores a Year in the Life of Citizen Science.

Counting birds with an app, surfers collecting ocean data while they ride the waves, volunteers surveying horseshoe crabs on the Delaware Bay, and butterflies wintering over in California. World Broadcast: April 27th at 9pm EST (replayed at 9pm PST).

December 12, 2017 Article and photos by Joe Sapia A 1935 photograph of the Italian-American Sportsmen (now the American Sportsmen), whose hunting club is in Whiting, Ocean County. Normally, the hunting cabins dotting the Pine Barrens are quiet for 51 weeks of the year. Then, Deer Week — this year, December 4, Monday, to December 9 — rolls around and the cabins jump.

So, this weekend, they were occupied for Deer Week. Today, friend and outdoorsman Frank Ulatowski of Englishtown-Manalapan and I, from Monroe in Middlesex County, Jeeped the Pine Barrens, visiting hunting club cabins from the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area in Ocean County in the north to the Mullica River at Burlington-Atlantic counties in the south. I would like to visit the cabins two times during Deer Week — one actually the day before and on Day 1 or Day 2. The former, so I can take the time and chat with the hunters, the latter to see how many deer are hanging — or not hanging. As with various dying traditions, the hunting club memberships are getting old and the exertion of walking the woods, along with living in primitive cabins, takes a toll — meaning if one visits the cabins too late in the week, the old boys — and this is still a predominantly male activity — may have fled for home.

(This year, because of work, today’s visit will probably be my only one of Deer Week.) During my 31 years as a reporter at the Asbury Park Press, I did a number of stories on the clubs, each year focusing on a different aspect: -Ozark in Cassville/Ocean County, how its members put out a spread of food, welcoming all, and how the club was unusual in that it was year-round. -Lakeside at Colliers Mills/Ocean County, the various colorful names of its hunts — for example, something like Dead Doug’s, after a club member.

-Italian-American Sportsmen in Whiting/Ocean County, how it was unusual in that it put out an open call for members, rather than the conventional limiting membership to a tight-knit group of multi-generations. Deer mounts at the American Sportsmen hunting club in Whiting, Ocean County. An anonymous gift left at the American Sportsmen hunting club.

Hightstown (now HIghtstown-Woodruff) at Colliers Mills/Ocean County, how it went even more unusual in its membership, welcoming females. Frank and I visited various clubs, chatting up hunters at Hightstown-Woodruff, American Sportsmen, Hook and Hoof in Whiting, and Crooked Barrel in Woodmansie/Burlington County. Two turkeys and a ham on the outside rotisserie at the Hook and Hoof hunting club in Whiting. We neither took up offers of booze nor smoked a cigar. But we talked up the woods around inside burning fireplaces and outside fires, probably leaving with the wonderful scent of wood smoke. More importantly, we took part in Jersey Midlands tradition, one that may not be around in a few decades.

— Joseph Sapia 2017, December 3, Sunday, In the Pine Barrens around Helmetta A North Trenton Sportsmen Club directional sign on Pasadena Road in Pasadena, Ocean County (Dedicated to John Abbondanza, an American Sportsmen hunting club member who died at 73-years-old in January. The club held a ceremony for him today and scattered his ashes in the woods.) December 8, 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. November 30, 2017 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. Farmers are harvesting field corn as fall turns into winter. Here, a cut-down cornfield in Monroe, Middlesex County. We have seen a wide fluctuation of temperatures this fall, from summer-like to winter-like, but look out for long days of cold, perhaps accompanied by snow. FARMING: Look for the traditional farming season to wrap up. Farmers are continuing to harvest field corn, for example.

Meanwhile, we are transitioning into the winter holidays season at Christmas tree farms. A farmer works a corn field outside Neshanic Station, Somerset County.

CHRISTMAS TREE FARMS: For those seeking trees from local farms, whether recent cuts or cut-your-own, here is the New Jersey Christmas Tree Growers Association website’s farm locater, Keep in mind, all Christmas tree farms may not be listed. (I heard an interesting radio news report regarding Christmas trees in America. The report said we are facing the effects of the recession 10 years ago – that is, with the recession, farmers planted less trees and with those trees now reaching cutting time, there are less trees. In turn, higher prices. The report said this will go on for years.) DEER RUT: While I have not noticed any bucks roaming lately — because, I suspect, the mating season, or rut, of deer, “Odocoileus virginianus,” is peaking and bucks and receptive does are holed up in the seclusion of woods — I did come across a dead buck on farmland in Monroe, Middlesex County. It was a fresh kill and near a busy road, so he probably was a victim of a motor vehicle accident.

Additionally, he was probably sex-crazed and less wary, crossed the road, and got hit. I noticed the dead buck because nature was taking its course and vultures were feasting upon him. Definitely turkey vulture, “Cathartes aura”; Maybe black vulture, “Coragyps atratus,” too.

I spooked these vultures when I stopped to photograph them on a deer carcass in Monroe, Middlesex County. Notice the dead buck on the middle-to-right bottom of the photograph.

The dead buck appeared to be a pretty good size. DEER HUNTING: Various deer-hunting seasons have been underway and will continue into 2018, with “Deer Week,” or the Six-Day Shotgun Season, being Monday, December 4, to Saturday, December 9. (If you are traveling through the Pine Barrens, take note of those primitive buildings that are quiet for 51 weeks of the year. During Deer Week, they will be hopping.) Anyway, be careful if heading into the woods during deer seasons. One, it might be advisable to stay out of the woods. Two, if you are in the woods, at least wear blaze orange.

Three, during Deer Week, just stay out of the woods unless you are hunting. A year or so ago, I walked underneath a bowhunter in a deer-stand, never seeing him until he spoke to me from above. Fortunately, I wore blaze orange and was obvious to him. This rattled me into thinking I am not as aware of my woods surroundings as I should be. This doe was killed in the Route 33 area of Manalapan, Monmouth County. FALL FOLIAGE: The Jersey Midlands are past the peak of the changing colors of fall, but there were some beautiful brown/Earth-tone views.

Fall foliage and a cloudy sky at Westminster Cemetery in Cranbury, Middlesex County. A sunny day upon the fall foliage along Manalapan Brook in Monroe, Middlesex County. “Englishtown Lake” (properly Lake Weamaconk) in Monmouth County. The lake is formed by the damming of Weamaconk Creek, part of the Raritan River-Bay watershed. Farmland below Sourland Mountain in Montgomery, Somerset County. SOURLAND MOUNTAIN: This week, I had to go to Hillsborough, Somerset County, to attend a funeral service. Because I was nearby, I took a ride to Sourland Mountain on the boundary of Somerset, Hunterdon, and Mercer counties.

Sourland Mountain, also known as Neshanic Mountain and Zion Mountain, sits on the Piedmont geological area. It runs about 10.5 miles by 4.5 miles and rises about 570 feet above sea level, with its surrounding lowlands as low as about 90 feet above sea level. Looking across farmland at Sourland Mountain at Montgomery, Somerset County. Fencing to hold back snow drifting on roads at Montgomery, Somerset County. RARITAN RIVER SOUTH BRANCH: The South Branch of the Raritan River is 51 miles long, draining 276 square miles in Somerset, Hunterdon, and Morris counties. It meets the North Branch north of Neshanic Station, forming the main stem of the Raritan River. An old railroad bridge and mill on the South Branch of the Raritan River at Neshanic Station.

The one-lane, 1896 iron bridge over the South Branch of the Raritan River, connecting Branchburg and Hillsborough at Neshanic Station, Somerset County. VOICES FROM AFIELD, EAGLES: Michael Franken checked in regarding bald eagles, “Haliaeetus leucocephalus.” He reported seeing them on the boundary of Cranbury and Plainsboro, Middlesex County, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. In New Jersey, the bald eagle is “endangered,” or in immediate peril, as a breeder and “threatened,” or if conditions continue or begin to deteriorate, they will advance to endangered, in general. The state Division of Fish and Wildlife bald eagle page is DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, BIRD OF PREY: I was driving through a farming area of South Brunswick, Middlesex County, and came across a bird of prey perched in a tree. I could not get a good look or a good photograph of the bird. Later, in looking at the photo on my computer, the bird’s head appeared to be somewhat, perhaps not that blatantly, lighter than the body.

A bald eagle, “Haliaeetus leucocephalus,” transitioning from juvenile to adult? A bald eagle, “Haliaeetus leucocephalus,” transitioning from juvenile to adult? 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.

Around 5 p.m. November 20, Monday, or a short time after sunset, there was a beautiful rainbow-shaped and -colored cloud in the western sky. The color was caused by the reddish sunlight from under the horizon hitting the cloud. And more toward the southwest was the crescent moon. (The photos, all shot from my yard, from where I have watched the night sky since the American-Soviet “Space Race”: the moon, stars, planets, meteorites, and the International Space Station.) DARK SKIES: As you probably can tell, I am a big fan of a dark sky, to be able to see the stars, planets, satellites clearly. When I remodeled my house over the summer, I insisted on shielded outside lighting, which directs my three outside lights downward, not horizontally or upward. (At night, a shielded light will emit a cone of light, while an unshielded light emits a blinding burst of light.

Also, red and green lights protect night vision.) On Saturday, November 25, I heard this story on NPR, about a proposal for part of Idaho to get recognized by the International Dark-Sky Association as a “dark sky reserve,” Go, Idaho! (I plan to be in Idaho for a wedding in August and hope to see that Idaho dark sky. Give people a wonderful view – turn off lights that project into the sky!) AROUND PEDDIE LAKE: There were some nice views at Peddie Lake at Hightstown, Mercer County. The lake is about 15 acres, created by the damming of Rocky Brook, part of the Raritan River-Bay watershed. The Peddie School, a preparatory school, sits along the lake.

A fisherman on Peddie Lake under a partly cloudy sky. The Peddie Lake cabin. PROTECTING THE JERSEY MIDLANDS: The Jersey Midlands are an incredible environmental resource: the Atlantic Ocean and other coastal waters, the Outer and Inner Coastal Plains, the Piedmont, the Pine Barrens, the Delaware River, valuable farmland. This alone is evidence of why we should protect the Midlands environment. But, more so, the area is under intense development pressure and stress because of its location at the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas. Despite the beauty here of the blue sky above the Manalapan Brook floodplain in Monroe, Middlesex County, notice the commercial jet in the sky, probably headed for Newark Airport. The Midlands are under intense stress because of they are part of both the New York City and Philadelphia metropolitan areas.

OCEAN TEMPERATURE: The Atlantic Ocean temperature at Sandy Hook was about 47 degrees over the November 25-26, Saturday-Sunday, weekend. SUNRISE/SUNSET: 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. 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.WEATHER: The National Weather Service forecasting station for the area is at CLOUDS: This week’s cloud photographs were captured at Monroe and Jamesburg, Middlesex County.

“Jamesburg Lake” (properly Lake Manalapan), looking from Monroe toward Jamesburg, Middlesex County. IN THE GARDEN AND YARD: I try to get the yardwork done by Thanksgiving weekend. So far, the lawn has been cut for the last time, shrubs have been spruced up in the front yard, the gutters and drainpipes have been cleaned in the front of the house, the crawlspace where a two-room addition was put on the house circa 1967 has been secured, and the garage door and front cellar window well has been cleaned. Still to go, sprucing the backyard shrubs, cleaning the rear gutters and drainpipes, raking leaves into the garden, and, perhaps, roto-tilling the garden.

I will not get the outside painting I had planned done. As the outside work ends, I have a ton of stuff to do inside over the winter. The garden in my backyard in August.

This week in the garden. UNEXPECTED WILDLIFE REFUGE: A little south of the Jersey Midlands, in Atlantic County, are our friends at the Unexpected Wildlife Refuge. Veronica Van Hof, the director, is seeking help in meeting a challenge. “As another way of supporting the Refuge, we have been accepted to be part of the Newman’s Own Foundation $500,000 Holiday Challenge, administered through CrowdRise,” Veronica said. “Every donation (‘voting’) through our page at CrowdRise increases the chance of our receiving additional funding through one of the Challenge prizes which range from $2,500 for 10th place up to $150,000 for first place.” The challenge runs to January 3. The challenge is at More about Unexpected is at UPCOMING: December 3, Sunday, 10 a.m.

– Green Brook Cleanup at the Green Brook Regional Center, 275 Greenbrook Road, Green Brook, Somerset County, with the Lower Raritan Watershed Partnership and the Central Jersey Stream Team. More information at hfenyk@lowerraritanwatershed.org. December 8, Friday, 2 p.m. To 3:30 p.m., Middletown, Monmouth County – “Forest Therapy” Walk, hosted by the Monmouth Conservation Foundation. “It is not intended to be a strenuous hike, but a time for mindful awareness in nature,” according to the foundation. More information, abrockwell@monmouthconservation.org. This turkey survived Thanksgiving.

(Compliments of the eclectic Joey Archives: A plastic turkey from my 1960s youth, pictured in the faux cabin section of my basement.) 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. November 28, 2017 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, 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 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, and 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, 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 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.

November 15, 2017 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. Texture Installer Cs Go. 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 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. 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. November 6, 2017 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. Nor’easter rain pelts the Delaware and Raritan Canal at Kingston, which overlaps the boundary of Franklin, Somerset County, and South Brunswick, Middlesex County.

This photograph was taken on the Somerset County side of Route 27. NOR’EASTER: The Sunday-Monday, October 29-30, nor’easter dropped large amounts of rain throughout the Jersey Midlands. The National Weather Service unofficial high totals from weather stations in the Jersey Midlands portion of seven counties: Hunterdon, up to 4.91 inches in High Bridge; Somerset, up to 4.5 inches in Bernards; Middlesex, up to 3.79 inches in northeast South Brunswick; Monmouth, up to 4.74 inches in West Long Branch; Ocean, up to 5.45 inches in Berkeley; Burlington, up to 4.62 inches in Roebling; and Mercer, up to 5.42 in west Princeton. The nor’easter also brought reported maximum wind gusts of: Hunterdon, 45 miles per hour at Frenchtown; Middlesex, 52 MPH in the Raritan River/Perth Amboy area; Monmouth, 49 MPH at north Long Branch; Ocean, 58 MPH in the Beach Haven area; Burlington, 47 MPH at Jobstown; and Mercer, 40 MPH at Mercer County Airport. Water pools on a roadway in Princeton, Mercer County, during the nor’easter Sunday, October 29. NOR’EASTER, BEFORE AND AFTER: Before the Sunday-Monday, October 29-30, nor’easter, all seven Midlands counties had a deficit of rainfall over the last three months. After the nor’easter, only Hunterdon and Mercer have deficits.

According to National Weather Service, three-month rainfalls as of Thursday, November 2, were: Hunterdon, 10.7 inches total over the last three months, minus 1.8 inches; Somerset, 12.4 inches, plus.2 inches; Middlesex, 12.0 inches, even; Monmouth, plus.2 inches; Ocean, 12.0 inches, plus.7 inches; Burlington, 11.8 inches, plus.2 inches; and Mercer, 10.2 inches, minus 1.8 inches. Farrington Lake – here, on the boundary of South Brunswick and East Brunswick looking to North Brunswick, all in Middlesex County – in the days before the Sunday-Monday, October 29-30, nor’easter. The same view of Farrington Lake in the days after the nor’easter. FALLEN LEAVES ON ROADWAYS: Motorists, be careful of braking with fallen leaves on the roadway, especially in wet conditions. Leaves cover a roadway in the Kingston section of Franklin, Somerset County, during the October 29-30 nor’easter.

FALL FOLIAGE: The fall colors have really brightened, although there is still much green out there and a lot that has already turned color. I am thinking we are in the midst of our (erratic) peak, so enjoy it while it lasts. The changing colors of the fall foliage in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, as seen through the window of the Rutgers University Plangere Writing Center. Shattering two myths: One, pine trees are evergreens, but they do shed needles. Here, a pitch pine, “Pinus rigida,” the most common pine of the New Jersey Pine Barrens.

This one is in my backyard in Monroe, Middlesex County, but transplanted from the wilds of the Pine Barrens of Monmouth County. Two, the Pine Barrens are not barren. Actually, the Pines are a great place to see the changing colors of the fall, contrasting with the greens of pitch pines and other evergreens. DEER RUT: As I have mentioned, I am seeing something I do not normally see – adult male deer, “Odocoileus virginianus.” But it is the mating season, or rut, so bucks are moving.

On the night of Wednesday, November 1, I saw a buck as I drove through an East Brunswick section of the Jamesburg Park Conservation Area. He trotted into the woods. We appear to still be in the first phase of the rut – bucks following female deer in search of receptive does. The second phase will be mating, the third phase being the rut winding down – the rut lasting until about mid-December.

With sex-crazed deer running around, be careful driving. VOICE FROM AFIELD, JOAN GETAZ ZUMOFF: I still not have seen any “snowbirds,” or juncos, “Junco hyemalis,” at my house in Monroe, Middlesex County. But I expect them any day down for the colder weather from probably as far north as Canada. Actually, they are likely around already and I just have not seen any yet, because Joan Getaz Zumoff checked in just below the Midlands — from Gloucester Township, Camden County, where she had a first sighting Oct.

My rule of thumb for snowbirds at my house is around Halloween, October 31. But this has been a wacky year with the weather. IS IT FALL YET?: Depending on the day, it could be frosty or summer-like. This week, I was shooting photographs at Farrington Lake in Middlesex County. At the part of the lake on the boundary where North Brunswick, East Brunswick, and South Brunswick meet, I am pretty sure I heard a spring peeper treefrog, “Pseudacris crucifer.” The normal time to begin hearing their calls is around early March – that harbinger of spring that sounds like sleigh bells coming from swamps – and, then, they are pretty much done as the spring warms up toward summer. I photographed this spring peeper treefrog in the Manalapan Brook floodplain in Monroe, Middlesex County, in March.

They are early spring callers. But I am pretty sure I heard the species calling this week at Farrington Lake on the boundary of North Brunswick, East Brunswick, and South Brunswick, all in Middlesex County – one of those aberrations of nature. BLOOMING FLOWERS: Garden flowers continued blooming. In Kingston, on the South Brunswick, Middlesex County, side, for example, I saw a beautiful planting of zinnias along Route 27 in front of the Eno Terra restaurant. Here in Kingston on the South Brunswick, Middlesex County, side of Route 27, grows an ornamental planting of zinnias with the fall foliage colors in the background. VOICE FROM AFIELD, CHRIS BEVINS: Chris Bevins checked in from Monroe, Middlesex County, where he works for the Utility Department: “I was working on a project this morning and the irrigation pond at the end of England Road on the field had a mated pair of freshwater otters eating fish and frolicking.” I hope to see them, because I have never seen an otter, “Lontra canadensis.” MY GARDEN: My vegetable garden – between Helmetta and Jamesburg in South Middlesex County — took a licking because of heavy rain over the summer. Other than the colorful and pollinating-attracting zinnias, it was a bad year – basically only a bit of sweet corn to show for the work.

But, then this week, I harvested some of my early spring plantings of Lake Valley “Rainbow Blend” carrots. Now, I will watch to see how my late-season planting of carrots does. Planted April 8 as part of my early crop, these Lake Valley “Rainbow Blend” heirloom carrots were harvested Sunday, October 29. VOICE FROM THE GARDEN, PAUL MIGUT: Paul Migut, now in his early 60s, who has been gardening since childhood, reported in from South River, Middlesex County: “November 2, a balmy 75f.

Garden cleaned out and tilled up. A few eggplants picked and one grape tomato plant still hanging in there. While no match for Pon’s garden from days of old” – a reference to his Uncle Stanley “Pon” Ceslowski and his garden in Monroe, Middlesex County – “my 20 feet by 20 feet section still manages to provide vegetables for the two of us” – Paul and his wife, Karen – “and then some.” The “last of the eggplants,” according to Paul Migut, from his South River, Middlesex County, garden. DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, VULTURES: During the nor’easter, I came across these vultures in the Monmouth Junction section of South Brunswick, Middlesex County. Vultures across the street from the Monmouth Junction Elementary School in South Brunswick, Middlesex County. DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, HAZY SKY: On Thursday, November 2, I awoke to weather reports warning of fog.

By the time I left the house around 8 a.m., though, there was no ground-level fog to speak of, but the sky had a haze. Sunshine fighting through that haze provided a beautiful view – one to photograph. The sun breaks through the haze over the Jamesburg Park Conservation Area on the boundary of South Brunswick and East Brunswick, both in Middlesex County. CLOUDS, NEW BRUNSWICK: Beautiful cloud views continue. This week, for example, at New Brunswick, Middlesex County – the Douglass-Cook campus of Rutgers University and along the Raritan River.

Clouds above the Douglass-Cook campus at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Middlesex County. Over the Raritan River from George Street in New Brunswick, Middlesex County. RUTGERS UNIVERSITY SQUIRRELS: As I walk through the Rutgers University College Avenue and Douglass-Cook campuses in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, Mondays through Fridays, I find the squirrels, “Sciurus carolinensis,” entertaining and numerous. If I were a squirrel in New Brunswick, I probably would pick the garden-y campus, rather than the urban sectors. This squirrel has quite a bit of red tint.

Acting as a squirrel with acorn in mouth. This squirrel was acting like a human, with some kind of bread in its mouth. OCEAN TEMPERATURES: Atlantic Ocean temperatures on the New Jersey coast were about 60 degrees to 62 degrees over the November 4-5 weekend. On the banks of the old Raritan River, looking downstream from New Brunswick, across the river to Highland Park, both in Middlesex County. CHANGE THE CLOCKS: We switch from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time November 5, Sunday, at 2 a.m., the clocks moving back to 1 a.m. SUNRISE/SUNSET: For November 5, Sunday, to November 11, Saturday, the sun will rise about 6:35 a.m. Set about 4:45 p.m.

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. WEATHER: The National Weather Service forecasting station for the area is at Pictured is the Full Frost Moon on the November 3-4 overnight. The next full moon is the Long Night Moon on the December 2-3 overnight. A PARTING NOTE, HAIKU: The Japanese poetry style of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, and, finally, 5 syllables: Look into the woods – The leaves are changing colors.

Yellow, orange, red. Leaves changing colors in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta, Middlesex 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’s work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page. October 30, 2017 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. The fall foliage colors on Lawrence Brook in the Deans section of South Brunswick, Middlesex County. FALL FOLIAGE: The peak of the colors is a little late this year, but this coming week should be very nice for viewing. The combination of fallen leaves and rain can make slippery driving conditions.

So, be careful driving. Northeastern United States fall foliage map. (Copyright 2017 by the Foliage Network.) DEER RUT: Speaking of being careful when driving, look out for deer, “Odocoileus virginianus,” because the rut, or mating season, is on – meaning sex-crazed deer are running around. Normally, bucks stay out of sight, while it is common to see does and their brood.

But over the last few weeks, I have noticed movement by bucks. During this week, I have seen a buck along the woods edge at Helmetta and in a driveway in a wooded area of East Brunswick, both in Middlesex County. If dividing the rut into three chapters of one, bucks challenging other bucks and chasing does, two, mating, and three, a wind-down, I would say we are in stage one on the cusp of stage two. The rut will extend to about mid-December. I shot this 7-point buck (with a camera) in 2015, October, just north of the Jersey Midlands near the Metropark railroad station area of Woodbridge, Middlesex County. WINTER IS COMING: I have been gazing at the constellation Orion, easily identified in the night sky by its belt of three stars.

When we can see Orion, it means we are in the colder weather part of the year. And cold weather means being on the lookout for snow. On 2008, October 28, it snowed in the Helmetta area of Middlesex County, but there was little, if any, accumulation. (The average snowfall in the New Brunswick, Middlesex County, area, for example, is 25.8 inches.) A sign of winter: fencing on farmland to prevent drifting snow. Here on a farm in Upper Freehold, Monmouth County, stakes for snowfencing are in place. A little bit of lingering warm weather, a little taste of future cold weather — that is this time of year. Here, flowers in bloom on Voorhees Mall at Rutgers University—New Brunswick, Middlesex County.

“SNOWBIRDS”: Has anyone seen the first “snowbird,” or junco, “Junco hyemalis,” of the cold-weather season? I have not noticed any yet, but likely will see one soon, because I normally see the first one of the season around Halloween. A “snowbird” in my yard in March of this year. They are a cold-weather bird in the Jersey Midlands.

Normally, I begin seeing them around Halloween. BIRD-FEEDING: For the first time in years, I did not feed birds this summer.

Although I love zoning out and watching birds at my backyard feeder, I decided to put the birds visiting my yard to work, that is, eating insects – and from my end, saving money on birdseed. But this week, with food gardening pretty much over for the year and cold weather scaring off insects, I resumed feeding.

It seemed to take a few days to attract birds to the feeder, but they are now there – blue jay, “Cyanocitta cristata”; chickadee, probably “Poecile carolinensis”; titmouse, “Baeolophus bicolor”; and nuthatch, “Sitta carolinensis.” And I await more species. A gray squirrel, “Sciurus carolinensis,” testing the squirrel guard on my backyard birdfeeder. I will have to keep an eye on it to see who wins, feeder or squirrel. DRY CONDITIONS: All of the Jersey Midlands’s seven counties are below average for rain over the last three months. Through October 27, Friday, Hunterdon received 8.5 inches, down 4.0 inches; Somerset, 9.6 inches, down 2.7 inches; Middlesex, 10.0 inches, down 2.1 inches; Mercer, 7.5 inches, down 4.5 inches; Monmouth, 8.2 inches, down 3.5 inches; Ocean, 9.0 inches, down 2.4 inches; and Burlington, 9.4 inches, down 2.4 inches. Middlesex County’s Farrington Lake is low. Here, looking from the South Brunswick-East Brunswick boundary across the lake to North Brunswick.

THE WIND: On the morning of Tuesday, October 24, I went to the Helmetta Post Office, where I am third generation with Box 275, to pick up my mail. There, I noticed American flags at the Fire Department and at the historic Avon Inn snapping in the wind. Judging by the flags, the wind was blowing up to 8 to 12 miles per hour. Wind speed can be judged by its impact on flags, trees, and smoke, for example. An American flag snaps to the wind at Helmetta’s historic Avon Inn, now a private residence. It dates back as a circa late 1800s-early 1900s inn positioned near a railroad station.

(Think of the hotel on the 1963-1970 television sitcom “Petticoat Junction.”) Another American flag in the wind at the Helmetta firehouse and old George W. Helme Snuff Mill pumphouse, which sits on the mill race leading from the former mill to Manalapan Brook. This is an easy-to-use wind chart from universetoday.com. (Graphic copyright 2017 by universetoday.com.) CLOUDS OVER NEW BRUNSWICK: During a break from my work in the Plangere Writing Center at Rutgers University’s Murray Hall in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, I looked out a window and noticed the clouds over the Johnson and Johnson pharmaceutical company headquarters along the Raritan River. Again, a beautiful display by Mother Nature: Clouds over Johnson and Johnson pharmaceuticals headquarters along the Raritan River in New Brunswick, Middlesex County. Photograph from Murray Hall on the Rutgers University downtown campus. Another photo of clouds over the J&J building in New Brunswick, Middlesex County.

LOST MAN IN THE PINE BARRENS AROUND HELMETTA: A 68-year-old was rescued after becoming lost and weakened during a walk in an East Brunswick, Middlesex County, section of the Jamesburg Park Conservation Area. The man apparently was not physically injured. But he had suffered a stroke about 10 years ago and has physical, cognitive, and speech limitations, according to family friends and officials. Rescuers first had to locate the man. Then, those rescuers were lost and had to be guided out of the woods. A State Police helicopter was called in to light up the woods and find the victim and his rescuers.

The helicopter, then, guided them out before it had to leave because it was low on fuel. The rescue took about four hours until about 9:30 p.m. Because of the swampy and woodsy terrain, the man had to be hand-carried out on a stretcher. The Jamesburg Conservation Area, which is owned by Middlesex County Parks and Recreation, is about 1,400 acres of woods, swamp, waterways, and bodies of water, including Helmetta Pond. HELMETTA POND, GOOD FOR THE SOUL: Ralph “Rusty” Richards, a mentor of mine in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta, Middlesex County, and I were talking at Helmetta Pond when this unfamiliar woman walked by and told us she was going to wet her feet in the Pond. It sure looked good for the soul.

Wading woman at Helmetta Pond. DRIVE-BY FARM SCENES: In my travels, I photographed various farm scenes in South Brunswick and Monroe, both in Middlesex County, and Upper Freehold, Monmouth County. A farm in South Brunswick, Middlesex County.

Lark Nurseries in Monroe, Middlesex County. A combine works a field in Upper Freehold, Monmouth County. Irrigation equipment on a sod farm in Upper Freehold, Monmouth County. OCEAN TEMPERATURES: Atlantic Ocean temperatures on the New Jersey coast were about 61 degrees to 64 degrees on the October 28-29 weekend. CHANGE THE CLOCKS: We switch from Daylight Savings Time to Standard Time November 5, Sunday, at 2 a.m., the clocks moving back to 1 a.m.

SUNRISE/SUNSET: For October 29, Sunday, to November 4, Saturday, the sun will rise about 7:25 to 7:30 a.m. And set about 5:55 p.m. For November 5, Sunday, to November 11, Saturday, the sun will rise about 6:35 a.m.

Set about 4:45 p.m. WEATHER: The National Weather Service forecasting station for the area is at THE NIGHT SKY: The next full moon is the Frost Moon on the Friday-Saturday, November 3-4, overnight.

“WAR OF THE WORLDS” BROADCAST: When you look into the night sky, something may be looking back On 1938, October 30, Mischief Night, the Jersey Midlands were invaded by Martians in Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre on the Air’s adaptation of H.G. Wells’s “The War of the Worlds.” The broadcast, UPCOMING: October 29, Sunday, 1:30 p.m., from Clean Ocean Action: “There will be a commemoration of lives, homes and businesses lost as a result of (2012’s) Superstorm Sandy.

There will be a rally followed by brief comments from various elected officials and the major candidates for Governor. Attendees will line the Asbury Park boardwalk from end to end demonstrating the urgent need to address climate change.

The call to action will be captured by aerial photography as attendees hold hands across the boardwalk. For more information or to get involved, contact Ed Potosnak, NJ League of Conservation Voters at ed.potosnak@njlcv.org. RSVP today at njlcvef.org/sandy.” A tree eats a traffic sign in South Brunswick, Middlesex County. Joe Sapia, 60, is a lifelong resident of Monroe in South Middlesex County. 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 Italian-American father, Joe Sr., and Grandma Annie.

Both are inspirations for his food gardening. Ma inspires his rose gardening. Joe’s work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page. October 25, 2017 Except as noted, 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. Morning on Farrington Lake, looking from East Brunswick to North Brunswick, both in Middlesex County, at the Hardenburg Lane bridge. Being on New Jersey’s Coastal Plain, where there are few, if any, natural bodies of water, Farrington Lake is created by the damming of Lawrence Brook between Davidson Mill Pond Park and Milltown. FIRETOWERS: New Jersey’s fall wildfire season coincides with leaves falling and normally runs until about Thanksgiving and that time of year’s colder temperatures.

But there could be a wildfire threat at any time if conditions are correct — and, now, we have had both falling leaves and dry conditions. So, the state Forest Fire Service is staffing its lookout towers.

Visitors are welcome to go up in the towers when they are staffed – but, remember, you not only have to walk up the tower stairs, but you have to walk down. These Forest Fire Service towers are in the Jersey Midlands: Jamesburg/Middlesex County, Lakewood/Ocean County, Cedar Bridge/Ocean County, Medford/Burlington County, Lebanon/Burlington County, Apple Pie Hill/Burlington County, Batsto/Burlington County, and Bass River/Burlington County. “Jamesburg Tower,” actually outside of Jamesburg in a Monroe Township section of Thompson Park, is about 65-feet-tall, sitting on high ground of about 150 feet above sea level over the Raritan River watershed. GREAT HORNED OWL: Late at night, as I was at my desk, I thought I heard one of my favorite night sounds, the resonating hoot, hoot, hoot of a great horned owl, “Bubo virginianus.” I went outside and heard what I thought was a faint call of one, then nothing. The great horned is an early breeder, so the calling, signally both territory and looking for mates, should increase. More information, including audio of its calls, is at Cornell University’s All About Birds website, BALD EAGLE, OCEAN COUNTY: Diane Larson, the home horticulturist and leader of the Master Gardeners program in Rutgers University’s Cooperative Extension Office/Monmouth County, sent in this photograph taken by her stepson, Danny Larson. It is a juvenile bald eagle, photographed on the afternoon of Thursday, October 5, on Beaver Dam Creek in Brick, Ocean County.

Diane was leaning toward bald eagle, “Haliaeetus leucocephalus,” but raised a question if it could be a golden eagle, “Aquila chrysaetos.” Two New Jersey Audubon Society naturalists, Pete Bacinski (retired) and Scott Barnes (active) made the identification via this photograph. “It is a juvenile bald eagle,” Pete said. “The bill is too large for (a) golden.” “Yes, definitely a juvenile bald eagle,” Scott said.

(Thank you, Danny, Diane, Pete, and Scott, for the team effort.) Danny Larson photographed this juvenile bald eagle on Beaver Dam Creek near his family’s house in Brick, Ocean County. (Photography copyright 2017 by Danny Larson.) DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, DOUBLE-CRESTED CORMORANT: As I drive through the Pigeon Swamp area of South Brunswick, Middlesex County, I pass a warehouse area. There, I often see a double-crested cormorant, “Phalacrocorax auritus,” at a retention pond. A double-crested cormorant in a retention pond in South Brunswick, Middlesex County. STEAMING FARRINGTON LAKE: When water temperature is much warmer than air temperature, bodies of water look like steaming soup. I caught this view of Farrington Lake on a cool morning. A few winters back, when we experienced real cold temperatures, this phenomenon was seen at the Atlantic Ocean – a really cool view.

A steamy Farrington Lake, looking from East Brunswick to North Brunswick. FALL ON THE FARMS: It is fall, so farms are displaying pumpkins and chrysanthemums. Field corn, or feed corn, awaits harvesting. Field corn awaits harvesting in South Brunswick, Middlesex County Acres of field corn await harvesting in South Brunswick Chrysanthemums at Davino’s Nursery in East Windsor, Mercer County. 1: One of the week’s beautiful clouds and sky view was from the East Windsor Community Garden in Mercer County. Beautiful clouds and sky view at East Windsor Community Garden in Mercer County. 2: Another view of beautiful sky with clouds was from my backyard in Monroe, Middlesex County.

A clouds-in-the-sky view from my backyard in Monroe, Middlesex County. Another clouds-in-the-sky view from my backyard. OCEAN TEMPERATURES: Atlantic Ocean temperatures on the New Jersey coast were about 69 degrees to 71 degrees during the weekend of October 7 and 8. SUNRISE/SUNSET: For October 8, Sunday, to October 14, Saturday, the sun will rise about 7:05 a.m.

And set about 6:25 p.m. For October 15, Sunday, to October 21, Saturday, the sun will rise from about 7:10 to 7:15 a.m. And set about 6:10 to 6:15 p.m. THE NIGHT SKY: The next full moon is the Frost Moon on the November 3-4 overnight. The moon over Manalapan Brook and its floodplain in Monroe, Middlesex County. This moon is waning after October 5’s Full Harvest Moon.

WEATHER: The National Weather Service forecasting station for the area is at A view from Jamesburg Tower, looking south toward Monroe Township High School, from the spring of 2014. Joe Sapia, 60, is a lifelong Monroe resident. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and an organic vegetable-fruit gardener. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Italian-American father, Joe Sr., and his Polish-immigrant, maternal grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. Both are inspirations for his food gardening.

Joe is active with the Rutgers University Master Gardeners/Middlesex County program. 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 Grandma Annie. Joe’s work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page. Copyright 2017 by Joseph Sapia October 18, 2017 Article and photos by Joe Mish The food chain is not a one way street, as a turtle whose kin may feed on baby ducks, gets picked on by a bald eagle It is unthinkable to imagine a restaurant where the diners are often listed as menu items. Though when seated at nature’s dinner table, the catch of the day takes on a whole new meaning as predators and prey freely alternate position. The dietary choices are also a surprise as the variety of delectable meals is often at odds with expectations.

Sorting through my library of photos, I was perplexed trying to categorize some images showing two species in close contact. Obviously notable was the reversal of who was eating who. The first image which prompted these thoughts was captured as I launched my canoe. Here was a very young painted water snake, brilliant colored markings, with a fish sticking out its mouth. Comparing the size of the snake to the fish, I wondered if the snake ‘bit off more than he could chew’, as they say. The fish was wider than the snake and it didn’t look like much progress was being made in the attempt to swallow it.

I couldn’t identify the species of fish but thought it a moment of karma as small mouth bass which inhabit the river are well known to forage on anything that swims or crawls in the waters of the south branch. A small snake would hardly be ignored by a hungry bass. Another image shows a larger painted water snake suspended on o vertical river bank holding onto the tail of a gold colored catfish. As the snake was in an awkward position and didn’t want to go into the water, it was a standoff with the advantage going to the snake. The fish would struggle and then lay still. Eventually the fish broke free.

I then remembered a series of images documenting another struggle where a snapping turtle grabbed a painted water snake by the tail. As I paddled along, I saw a water snake swimming across the river and as it neared the opposite bank it suddenly reared up and began to thrash about. Mystery solved as a snapping turtle soon surfaced holding on tight, as the snake now alternated struggling and lying still. As I drifted closer, the turtle was intimidated into releasing its grip and the snake swam off. A painted water snake has a catfish by the tail. The snake is barely holding on to the vertical bank, using a tuft of grass to secure its precarious position.

The catfish would struggle mighily and then rest. After several tries the catfish appeared dead and lay still for quite some time. Suddenly the catfish came to life and broke free. Again, the scene was captured from a canoe. A painted water snakes has the tables turned on it as a snapping turtle reached up to grab the snake swimming across the river. Turtles are not immune from the proverbial soup bowl as they are prey to many birds and animals that share the same habitat. Even large water snakes will easily swallow a turtle hatchling seeking cover in the water, as will great blue herons, mink, fox, skunk, raccoon and birds of prey.

In a twist of fate, the turtle that killed baby ducks in a farm pond yesterday could very well be on a larger bird’s menu today. Such was the case when I spotted a bald eagle standing on a log near shore, intently pulling and tearing away at what was probably a deer carcass or white sucker. The eagle would occasionally look up and certainly it saw me from two hundred yards away, apparently not at all intimidated. As I closed the distance, a bright yellow object was clearly visible and the focus of the eagle’s rapt attention. I began to take photos, drifting ever closer and as I started to pass the eagle, it flew off.

It was then I realized the eagle was dining on a painted turtle! Across the land where rivers flow, the lines between predator and prey begin to blur. Don’t be surprised when a squirrel is seen carry a baby crow or a muskrat is swimming underwater holding a baby blue jay or a blue jay is flying off with a dead vole. If you can’t imagine it, it is happening somewhere along our wild rivers. Muskrat with a bluejay swims into its den’s underwater entrance. Mystery for sure. 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. October 17, 2017 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.

A bit of a strange scene in my backyard: forsythia blooming among the fall foliage changing of colors. SPRING IN THE FALL: Years ago, I recall seeing sheep laurel, “Kalmia angustifolia,” a spring bloomer, flowering in the fall in the Pine Barrens around Helmetta. Twice this week, I noticed a bird or birds singing away, seemingly a springtime song; And a red-bellied woodpecker, “Melanerpes carolinus,” drummed against my house. Also, this week, I noticed another spring bloomer in flower – forsythia. It flowered in my backyard. I normally see forsythia blooming for the first time of the season in early March to mid-April.

What does it all mean? I just think the fall conditions are replicating spring conditions, especially the summerlike temperatures. The backyard forsythia in bloom. THE PINE BARRENS “FALL FOLIAGE” PEAK: The Pine Barrens’s name is a misnomer, neither a place of all pines nor barren lands. And it is a great place to see the changing colors of the fall foliage – the deciduous vegetation changes, with blueberry bushes turning flaming red, and contrasts with the greens of pines, cedars, and laurels. Normally, I look for the fall foliage color peak in the Pine Barrens on October 13 in the wetlands and October 20 in the uplands.

This year, that schedule is running behind. The woods around Helmetta are still quite green. (“Fall foliage” is a misnomer, too. In the Pine Barrens around Helmetta, one can observe the changing colors beginning in about mid- to late July.) The colors are changing at Helmetta Pond October 13, Friday, but not yet peaking An October 12, Thursday, map from the Fall Foliage Network. DRIVE-BY NATURALIST, PHEASANT: I just happened to be reading about ring-necked pheasants, “Phasianus colchicus,” the other day. Then, I saw one between the Applegarth and Wyckoff Mills section of Monroe, Middlesex County, the first time I recall seeing one afield in maybe 20 or 25 years. These are non-native – introduced to America from Asia in the 1880s, according to Cornell University’s All About Birds website, allaboutbirds.org.

Now, they are naturalized in the United States. This one could have been a naturalized bird or one released for hunting. This is a rather blurry photograph, because I came across this ring-necked pheasant unexpectedly while I was driving and had to quickly crank off a photograph before it fled. I am using this photo because it shows a full view of the bird. Also, I did not crop out the roadside litter, to illustrate how wildlife competes with human carelessness. Notice the white, forming the ring around its neck. CLOUDS: This week’s spectacular cloud scene was in Middlesex County, at North Brunswick, looking toward Milltown.

I stopped at the McDonald’s restaurant for breakfast, looked at the sky, and there they were. Clouds over North Brunswick, Middlesex County. VOICES FROM (FAR) AFIELD, JUDY AUER SHAW: Judy Auer Shaw, author of “The Raritan River, Our Landscape, Our Legacy,” checked in from Ohio, reminded by a suggestion in a previous “Garden and Afield” to wear blaze orange in the woods in hunting areas: “I have a story from my teaching years in Michigan. I organized a nature hike for my kids (7th graders) and we all wore browns, grays and greens. As we approached the hiking trail, we were behind a carload of guys wearing orange. It finally dawned on me that we were going out on the first day of hunting season — in complete camouflage.

Needless to say, we were fine, but I was one worried den mother that day!” Judy Auer Shaw’s 2014 book. The pumpkin patch at Giamarese Farm on Fresh Ponds Road, East Brunswick, Middlesex County YARD AND GARDEN: I planted five “false cypress,” or Crippsii,” I picked up at Krygier’s Nursery in South Brunswick, Middlesex County. The Knock Out roses and zinnias continue blooming – the zinnias being visited by such butterflies as the painted lady, “Vanessa virginiensis,” and cabbage white, “Pieris rapae.” Despite blooming, the zinnias are losing their luster, covered with powdery mildew, “Golovinomyces cichoracearum,” and a leaf spot disease. I also found my first raspberry on some bushes planted earlier this year. Five “false cypress,” or Crippsii, have been added to my yard. A raspberry fruiting in my backyard garden.

Download Carson Mccullers The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Epub Free. FARMING PERILS IN THE MIDLANDS: I was visiting Krygier’s Nursery, owned by husband and wife Jimmy Krygier, in South Brunswick, Middlesex County, and two perils were obvious – encroaching development and damage caused by browsing deer, “Odocoileus virginianus.” The nursery, a Krygier family business for three generations of about 100 years, is on Route 535, also known as Cranbury-South River Road, Cranbury Road, and South River Road. What was adjoining cornfield up to months ago is now a warehouse property, for example. And one only has to see how the deer have shaped the arbor vitae trees through their browsing. (Krygier’s Nursery is at the corner of Route 535 and Dunham’s Corner Road, South Brunswick, near the Middlesex County Fair Grounds). Development encroaches Krygier’s Nursery in South Brunswick, Middlesex County. Notice the odd shape to the arbor vitae.

It is caused by deer nibbling on the trees. DEER DOCUMENTARY: “The Deer Stand” is a documentary about deer over-population in the Jersey Midlands.

See the movie at In fall of 2016, Anna Luiten, an ecologist with the Monmouth County Park System, stands in a Thompson Park forest area over-browsed by deer. The fenced area contains a lush understory, because it is protected from deer.

SNOWBIRDS: Anybody seeing dark-eyed juncos, or “snowbirds,” yet? The birds, “Junco hyemalis,” come down to our area from as far away as Canada during the cold-weather months. I normally begin seeing them in my yard around Halloween. Their color pattern of slate gray on their backs and white on their fronts suggests, “Dark skies above, snow below.” A “snowbird” in the snow in my yard in early 2017. OCEAN TEMPERATURES: Atlantic Ocean temperatures on the New Jersey coast were about 67 degrees to 69 degrees during the October 14-15 weekend. SUNRISE/SUNSET: For October 15, Sunday, to October 21, Saturday, the sun will rise from about 7:10 to 7:15 a.m.

And set about 6:10 to 6:15 p.m. For October 22, Sunday, to October 28, Saturday, the sun will rise about 7:20 a.m. And set about 6 a.m. We switch to Daylight Savings Time November 5, Sunday, at 2 a.m., the clocks moving back to 1 a.m.

THE NIGHT SKY: The next full moon is the Frost Moon on the November 3-4 overnight. WEATHER: The National Weather Service forecasting station for the area is at UPCOMING: 2017, October 28, Saturday, 1 p.m. Book signing and 2 p.m. Lecture with Marta McDowell, author of “Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life,” at Jamesburg Presbyterian Church, 175 Gatzmer Ave, Jamesburg. $30 at the door.

More information is available from the Earth Center Conservancy (of Middlesex County), www.ecc-nj.com. Beatrix Potter, born in 1866 and died in 1943, was a children’s writer and illustrator. She wrote and illustrated “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” 1901. Author Marta McDowell will sign books and speak in Jamesburg, Middlesex County, October 28, Saturday. Gray squirrels, “Sciurus carolinensis,” appear to be active, burying acorns, preparing for winter.

This one was at Rutgers University’s College Avenue Campus in New Brunswick, Middlesex County. Joe Sapia, 60, is a lifelong Monroe resident. He is a Pine Barrens naturalist and an organic vegetable-fruit gardener. He gardens the same backyard plot as did his Italian-American father, Joe Sr., and his Polish-immigrant, maternal grandmother, Annie Poznanski Onda. Both are inspirations for his food gardening. 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 Grandma Annie. Joe’s work also is at @JosephSapia on Twitter.com, along with Facebook.com on the Jersey Midlands page.