Nature Done Wright

One of my favorite birding spots other than the Celery Farm is Hyper-Humus, officially called the Wallkill River Wildlife Management Area.

It's located in Lafayette, N.J., and it's 2,300 acres of marsh, woods and water — sort of like a giant Celery Farm Nature Preserve.

And guess what — the two biggest bodies of water at Hyper-Humus were created the same way Lake Appert was — peat mining.

I visited Hyper Humus with The Nature Conservancy last week, and saw a ton of birds, including a Marsh Hawk, three Bald Eagles, an Indigo Bunting, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and a nice variety of warblers.

As part of a follow-up, The Nature Conservancy shared an amazing article by ace botanist David Snyder about the rare plants once found there.

You can download it here:

Download NJNLTannualreport2012_PaulinsKillMeadows

You can read more about Hyper-Humus here:

https://www.audubon.org/important-bird-areas/hyper-humus-marshes

Inicidentally, you will see "Hyper-Humus" with and without a hyphen. The original peat-mining comapny used a hyphen, so I do as well.

Below is an aerial photo I took for tNC with the help of LightHawk.