2023 World Series of Birding Featured Team
The Lenape Park Nighthawks, NJ Audubon Ambassadors, funds raised in 2023 $1,302
The Lenape Park Nighthawks team has been participating in the WSB since 2002. In the beginning, they birded the Rahway River Greenway from Millburn to the Arthur Kill in Linden. After a few years, they decided to confine their activities to the 400-plus acre Lenape Park.
The park contains wooded wetlands, river bottom and open fields that support a wind variety of bird species. In 2018, the team recorded a record 102 species of birds. Its average is about 80 species over the past 20 years. In 2020, Frank Budney “retired” as the Team Captain and handed over the leadership to one of our longtime team member, Evelyn Morton. Frank said, “I am still a team member but confine my birding to a smaller section of the park. My old knees have limited me to flat areas that don’t require me to climb over tree stumps and wade across marsh areas.”
Team photo from 2022.
Back row left to right:
Krzys Wlodarski
Tony Gregorio
Natalie Gregorio
Liz Mershon
Debby Zboyan
Tom Parlapiano
Hank Burk
Frank Budney (WSB captain emeritus)
Betty Ann Kelly
Front row left to right:
Joe Uglialoro Sr.
Joe Uglialoro Jr.
Mike Malloy
Steve Jandoli
Evelyn Morton
Liz Stragis
2023 team members not pictured: Richard and Eileen Schrader and Janet Terchek.
Evelyn Morton added, “We are a ragtag group of birders, many of whom met each other birding in Lenape Park. We have different backgrounds, beliefs, and politics but the birding brings us together in friendship. We are proud of our two decades of fundraising contributions to NJ Audubon.”
Thank you from all of us at New Jersey Audubon!
