Patricia Mazzone doesn’t know if she’s comfortable being known as “The Bird Lady of North Bergen,” but there is no bigger bird enthusiast in the township.
The long-time teacher in the district is constantly bird-watching, either from her classroom window at Kennedy School, or in her backyard, which becomes a bird menagerie during the spring and summer months.
“I’ve always received so much enjoyment from it,” said Mazzone, who has spent the last 27 years as a teacher, recently teaching the gifted and talented students in the fifth and sixth grades at Kennedy. “It was always a part of everything I did as a teacher. When I started, it was considered just science and being outdoorsy. I never thought of it as being environmental education. I just have such awe of it, and I’ve always wanted to share that with the students. Once you become aware of it, you have to have a love for it.”
Mazzone is so into her love for her feathered friends that she sets up five bird feeders in her North Bergen yard and then watches the birds migrate to her yard.
“We’re actually right between two great rivers, the Hudson River and the Hackensack River,” Mazzone said. “It’s part of the Atlantic flyway. So it’s the site for great bird migration. When birds migrate north, they pass this way. They know it’s a great place to stop and rest. It’s a special area. I definitely get a big thrill to see the different birds that come through the area.”
Mazzone doesn’t consider herself a bird expert, just someone who loves birds. But over the years, she’s received visits from black and white warblers, catbirds, red winged black birds, you name it.
“I had an Indigo Bunting that was all blue,” Mazzone said. “It was so beautiful.”
Mazzone then takes pictures of the birds and shows them to her students.
“It’s always a big thrill when I can pass on the information to the kids,” Mazzone said.
She was also able to spot a Cooper’s hawk in a tree in her yard. It’s safe to say that she’s had visits from a wide variety of different birds.
Outside the classroom
When Mazzone was teaching at Franklin School, she set up a bird feeder on a cyclone fence outside the classroom window.
“I then asked the children to identify the birds that came within three feet of the window,” Mazzone said. “We did that for about 20 years.”
During that time, Mazzone became active with the Alliance of New Jersey Environmental Education, founded by Pat Kane of the New Jersey Audubon Society.
“We had regular conferences and newsletters,” Mazzone said. “I was their vice-president for years.”
Recently, Mazzone received a special award from the organization for which she served for many years, getting the Pat R. Kane Lifetime Achievement Award.
Mazzone was also honored by North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco and the Board of Commissioners with a special proclamation before last Wednesday’s regularly scheduled meeting.
“It’s all a little overwhelming,” Mazzone said. “I’m usually a quiet person and I like to stay in the background. I don’t like the attention. But this was outstanding.”
Mazzone said that her friends and colleagues send her cards and brought in cakes and other gifts as congratulations for receiving the award.
“I really got all warm and fuzzy,” Mazzone said. “There was a lot of love around.”
Mazzone said that she was particularly grateful to be honored by the town as well, considering that she is North Bergen born and raised.
“I went to Robert Fulton School and graduated from North Bergen High School,” said the former Patricia Ferretti, whose father was a long-time firefighter in the township and drove a hook and ladder for the old North Bergen fire department.
Mazzone and her husband, Joseph, a postal worker who was on hand for the ceremony at Town Hall Wednesday, have one daughter, Janice.
The Mazzones have become bird watchers together over the years. So much so that they traveled to Arizona last April just to see the American Redstart.
“It was a great trip,” Mazzone said. “The hills and the scenery were beautiful and we got to see the Redstart.”
However, much to her surprise, Mazzone couldn’t believe what happened just three months later.
“I was working in the yard in June and all of a sudden, there was a American Redstart in my yard,” Mazzone said. “We went all the way to Arizona to see it and it eventually passed through North Bergen.”
As long as the dedicated teacher keeps replenishing the goodies in her feeders, chances are that many other birds will pass through her yard in the years to come, much to the delight of the students at Kennedy School.