Meadowlands Laurel Hill Paddle
by Phil Brown
July 20, 2014
Finally had good weather for this trip! 16 people in kayaks met at Laurel Hill , Secaucus for a 2 and half hour paddle starting at 3:30. It was high tide , so we had almost no current problems and plenty of water to float everywhere and barely any wind.
There were not a lot of birds at first, but we saw a few blue herons, a turtle , a hawk being chased by some small bird up to the high tension tower, egrets and some green herons and some other small birds that weren't too happy we were there, and a lot of planes landing at Newark airport. I heard Marsh wrens ,but did not see them. There were quite a few cormorants. After the paddle near sunset we watched all the egrets fly over head towards NYC to their roosts . Apparently they don't spend the night in the meadowlands. There were some good views of Manhattan Skyline as well as a lot of bridges and of course the turnpike!
About half of the group stayed for snacks and drink afterwards. If you saw Rich Howland's pictures you can see how nice (finally) a sunset you can have in New Jersey.
Phil