Saturday, May 9: Big Day with Montclair Bird Club at Garret Mountain Reservation

Scarlet Tanager. Photo by Ric Cohn.

Meet Fred Pfeifer at 8 a.m. at Great Meadow Picnic Grove Parking Lot by the Great Meadow bathroom.

Saturday, May 9^th is New Jersey Audubon’s Big Day, a day to raise money for environmental causes and to draw attention to bird conservation. Teams set out to see and hear as many different bird species as they can in a 24-hour period. We’re not planning on birding for 24 hours, but we are going to try to see and hear as many species as we can within the park boundaries.

Garret Mountain Reservation in Woodland Park, NJ is a well-known migrant trap in the middle of metropolitan northern New Jersey. It’s 310 acres of woodlands, fields, a pollinator garden, and pond, commonly host a wide variety of spring migrants including warblers, flycatchers, tanagers, and vireos as well as many resident birds.

We will bird for as long as we can, but you can feel free to leave at any time.  If you’d like to, you may also use this opportunity to raise money for your favorite environmental organization: see the websites for New Jersey Audubon and Friends of Garret Mountain and if you would like to donate to any of them.

For more information and to express your interest email mbcoutings@gmail.com.

Saturday, May 16: South Mountain Reservation, West Orange, NJ

Black and white warbler. Photo by Ric Cohn. 

Meet at 7:30AM in the main parking lot on Crest Drive (2nd on right; you'll see a wooden sign that says "Bramhall Terrace, entrance to Summit Field).

South Mountain Reservation is a 2,100-acre nature reserve in southern Essex county. Nestled between the first and second ridges of the Watchung Mountains and overlooking the urban sprawl of the greater Newark area, it can often serve as a tremendous migrant trap in the heat of spring migration. We will walk several trails throughout the reservation and hope to see good numbers of thrushes, warblers, sparrows and others taking advantage of the feeding opportunities in the reservation's varied habitats as they pass through our area. Many of the trails are paved, but it is recommended to wear sturdy hiking boots for some trails can be a little rocky and uneven. 

Usually, there are porto-san bathrooms at this location and at later stops throughout this walk. 

For more information, email mbcoutings@gmail.com.

Directions from Montclair area: From I-280, take exit 7, Pleasant Valley Way south for 3.5 miles, then turn left onto South Orange Avenue. Take this road for 1 mile and turn right onto Crest Drive, marked with a sign for the dog park (you will encounter Crest Drive just after you've reached the crest of the hill you've been ascending). Stay straight on Crest Drive and within a half mile there will be a very long parking lot on the right in an open space with a vista to your left. We will meet at the far end of this parking lot.

Sunday, May 17, 2026: A Piece of the Great Piece

White-eyed vireo. Photo by Fred Pfeifer.

Lincoln Park, New Jersey

Meet at 8 a.m. at Centennial Park on Pine Brook Road. 

Although it is in many ways a typical suburban town, much of Lincoln Park is wetland that cannot be developed. Thus, a large portion of the town’s square mileage is green space, offering many excellent birding opportunities. The town is home to Great Piece Meadows, a remnant wetland of Glacial Lake Passaic, which attracts numerous migrants. We will begin at Centennial Park, a small “pocket” park at the edge of Great Piece Meadows, which probably has more recorded bird species per square foot (including Morris County’s first Ash-throated Flycatcher) than any other location in the area. We will also visit another section of Great Piece known as Two Bridges, at the confluence of the Passaic and Pompton Rivers. We hope to see a variety of migrating songbirds and raptors as well as resident birds such as the wood duck, great crested flycatcher, yellow-throated vireo, wood thrush, and rose-breasted grosbeak.

Please bring binoculars, a sunhat, insect repellant, water and a snack. There is a port-o-john in Centennial Park. If you plan on joining us, contact Ivan Kossak at ivankossak@gmail.com to RSVP or to get more information.