Migrating birds find rest — in downtown Newark, New Jersey

NEWARK, N.J. — The great egret — with its long neck, yellow beak, black feet and white plumage — perched gracefully atop an old cedar stump in the muddy water.

A half-dozen more egrets found nearby resting spots, as mallard ducks swam by and a belted kingfisher flew into a setting that includes the New Jersey Turnpike, industrial parks, a Wal-Mart store and the Empire State Building in the distance.

As birds migrate south for the winter, their path takes them through the Northeast to the vast preserves of New Jersey's Meadowlands, along with more traditionally known birding spots in New York like Central Park and Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

But urban birding is also popping up here in an unlikely place: downtown Newark, on a tree-filled spot on the campus of Rutgers University.

September and October are the peak migrations times to see birds passing through from their breeding to wintering grounds, said Gabriel Willow, a senior naturalist at the Prospect Park Audubon Center, the society's first urban birding center.

"We're right on the eastern flyway, which is a migratory route where birds pass north and south," he said. "These birds tend to hug the coasts to their wintering grounds to the tropics."

In his 2 1/2 years at the Newark campus of Rutgers, Professor of Biology Claus Holzapfel has noticed them too on early morning walks.

He's recorded 83 different species, many of which are using the campus for foraging and stopover sites on their migration to warmer places.

"It's one of the few places that looks fairly green to them," he said. "They can rest during the day and forage as well."

Holzapfel has been leading expeditions on a leafy two-acre spot of campus on Wednesdays at 7:30 a.m. this October, attracting a handful of birding enthusiasts.

On a recent tour, Holzapfel spied an American Kestrel falcon on the roof of a new dorm. He pointed, and the crowd of six whipped out their binoculars to gaze upward.

"He might hang out her for a while and leave when it gets cold," Holzapfel said, handing out green cards with lists of birds seen on the campus. "It's like a restaurant menu. You won't see all of them today. That's my disclaimer so no one is disappointed."

Jack Chapman, a lab technician at the school, said he was surprised to see migratory birds species in Newark.