Pete Dunne Archives | New Jersey Audubon

Martins. Here, Now.

August 25, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

Any evening in August I look into the evening skies over Mauricetown and see sheets of Purple Martins heading to roost in the Phragmites stands along the Maurice River. Nearly a million birds have been counted, not including the thousands of Tree Swallows and Barn Swallows that likewise roost in…...

Professional Birds

July 31, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

It was noon. I was standing on the elevated platform at Thompson’s Beach, above the greenhead fly belt, It was over 90 F, so I was astonished to see one hundred or so Barn Swallows perched on the road, in the sun. Surely, I presumed, the birds would be cooler…...

Shorebirds South

June 26, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

The Solstice is behind us. The earth has started the annual tilt on its axis that will end six months from now in winter. As you read these words, the first of Antum’s southbound migrants are crossing over Canada, en route to refueling stations here in coastal New Jersey. Dowitchers…...

36th World Series of Birding

May 9, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

This weekend marks the 36th World Series of Birding–a 24 hour Easter Egg Hunt for mature eggs of a feathered kind. Hosted by New Jersey Audubon, played out in New Jersey’s Green Arena. Over 250 species will be tallied by all participants, a princely sum. As the event’s founder I…...

Remembering the Great Bacinski – by Pete Dunne

April 12, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

Having just learned about the passing of my long time friend and birding companion, Pete Bacinski. I feel compelled to express my thoughts regarding the passing of this natural history legend. I first met “The Great Bacinski,” in May, 1977. Cape May Bird Observatory’s founding director, Bill Clark and I…...

Mink by deduction

April 7, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

We were approaching the end of my Monday Morning Medadows walk, when a patron announced that there was a perched hawk up ahead. The bird, seated eye-level and thirty yards away proved to be an immature Red-tailed and it was feeding on prey. A muskrat, some deduced, noting the dark…...

Osprey Run On Fish

March 22, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

Outside my window is an empty Osprey nest. Occupied for three years. The nest’s tenants are at this very moment winging their way north, after five months in the Amazon Basin. I’m speculating, here, neither bird is fitted with a transmitter, but many birds from this region spend the northern…...

Raccoon Ridge

March 1, 2019 Chris Neff NJ Audubon, Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

March 1, marked the anniversary of the beginning of my Spring Hawk Count on Raccoon Ridge in 1976. I still have the letter from then NJAS Research Director, Rich Kane, welcoming me to the post. I recall it was an inauspicious start, we were in a cold weather pattern and migrating…...

Eagles Are Back

February 15, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

We were on Rt 47 southbound to attend an 11:00 am meeting in Cape May. The car consisted of wife Linda and myself. “Bald Eagle,” she announced. Following the line of her sight, I immediately saw the adult perched on the tree-line. Two hours later on our return trip we spotted two more, both…...

Try Ducks

January 2, 2019 Chris Neff Pete Dunne, Pete's Corner

I know, I know, I know, Wait. You are suffering from post migration depression. There’s a cure. Ducks. Yes ducks, waterfowl. Winter means ducks, Hardy cold impervious birds that get you out, gratify you with their colors and tantalize you with possibility. Every flock of geese you scan holds the…...

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