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Thunderstorms and/or rain predicted for much of New Jersey today, tomorrow, and Friday. As of now, Friday's rain looks to deliver an inch. Maybe 1.5 inches by the end of the week, if we are fortunate. I'm hoping that this happens, we sure need it...

Heard them booming on Friday evening up here in Mercer County.

This was a great article, thank you!

Same here. We definitely are getting warmer, at least the past few years have shown that trend. Overall though, I'm referring to absolute number of tick encounters throughout the year, not earlier or later. I think if temperature affected the tick numbers that much, then Florida and much of...

Thank you for all the replies so far! Great info, and now my last question: why the heck are there so many more ticks in the pine forests than in other areas of NJ with typically deciduous forests? I once believed that there are the same number of ticks in the pines but that I'm encountering...

Hi BCHiker, My initial impressions of the track: first, it is not a cat print of any kind, as there is evidence of claws (cats have retractable claws and they don't typically show up in the track). Second, I am hesitant to say bear, because what I see of the claws is that they are consistent...

Hi Bob, I was careful in stating that coyotes can be beneficial to the health of an ecosystem, not necessarily crucial. What are your thoughts on the ticks?

Hi Bob, I meant ecological niche. I believe that coyote are overall beneficial to the health of their ecosystem, as they fill the role of a top predator and keep small to medium-sized mammal populations in check, reducing disease (such as rabies and Lyme), reducing other competition pressures...

Thanks everyone for the info so far! I'm switching gears a little bit here from a tick density question to a Lyme disease density question, but I've been doing some of my own research and I learned something interesting: small mammals are the primary host (called a reservoir host) of Lyme...

Over the course of the years I have found myself more and more stumped and fascinated (as well as revolted) by the sheer number of tick encounters that I've had in the Pine Barrens. I long assumed that the concentration of ticks was not greater in the Pines, but that they were questing...

Excellent!

Looks like a terrific hike! Rednek, I've heard people pronounce it "Morris" as well.

Sad to see

Yes that's a timber for sure. Looks like the person actually holding the hook is standing off to the (left) side and the subject is standing behind. I always feel the sadness and sense of loss when I see a memorial like this one. I'm looking forward to learning more from Nark's research as well.

Outstanding Jon!

It was explained to me several years ago that the preserved land area and the protected land area are not the same. I think that this summarizes why the different boundaries but does not clearly differentiate the preserved vs. protected labels. http://www.nj.gov/pinelands/landuse/perm/

Looks like another half to 3/4 inches expected Tuesday night into Wednesday, with some mixed precip expected early next week. I'll take anything that we can get.

How beautiful, and a great shot of it!

Great to see the little guys (and girls!) out in the woods. My boys are 5 and 8 right now, they're almost always out there with me and I know that I'm going to miss the hell out of it when they grow up. Now you get to do it all over again! Very cool, enjoy Grandpa!

I thought the folks here might like to read this: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/long-forgotten-research-unearths-new-mystery-about-lyme-disease/